The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-18
NAVAL STORES LAND
THE j. p. WILLIAMS COMPANY
WILL DEVELOP ITS PURCHASE.
100000 ACRES IN FLORIDA.
WILL TAKE THE PLACE OF THE
COMPANY'S DEPLETED LANDS.

Mr.. Williams Returned Yesterday
From His Trip to LOuisviIIe-Ob-
served the Crops While His
TraveIs-Thinks Cotton Crop Is
spotted" and That Corn, in Many
Sections, Is Complete Failure.
1O,3OO,OOO Bales About What Mr..
williams Thinks the Cotton Crop
Will Be-Peach Growing One
Branch of the Company's Business.
Great stretches of pine lands in Flor
ida are to be submitted to the indus
try of naval stores operators. Their
rich store of turpentine and rosin will
be tapped this fall when operations
will be commenced by the j. P. Will
liams Company.
Mr.. j. P. Williams, president of the
company, accompanied by Mrs. Will
liams, returned yesterday morning
from Louisville, KY. where the deal
that resulted in the transfer of 900
acres of virginia. pine lands from for
mer owners to the J. P. Williams Com
pany was consummated. Mr.. Williams
talked to a representative of the
Morning News about the deal, saying
to develop the land.
I'VE wanted the land to replace
other tracts whereupon the naval
stores have been depleted. The land
we have bought is in Western Florida,
some east and some west of the Chat
hOnrhpa river 4 wall wooded
but I do not consider that Florida pine
lands are just what these of Georgia
are-or were'
Mr., Williams was asked about the
price paid for such extensive tracts,
but this was a feature of the deal he
was not disposed to make public. He
did not care, either, to say from just
whom the purchase had been made by
his company
Observed The Crops.
While en- route Mr. Williams sur
Veyed the crops of the sections through
which he passed, and he gained further
ideas regarding them from those whom
he met and with whom he discussed
cotton and corn.
Il notice that the cotton crop is
it is very fine, while in others it is
poor. The same thing is true to a
greater extent of corn. There are sec
lions in which the corn crop is a to-
tai failure. One such is in Tennessee
and Kentucky, where a gentleman as
sured me that, throughout a region of
10 by 300 miles, there has been abso-
lutely no rain to help vegetation since
Nav.
Il cannot say what the cotton crop
is likely to be. l think there is some
little disappointment over the way it
is being marketed. 1t is not coming
in very rapidly. l do not look for any
10000, OG0-bale crop. I take no stock in
that sort of talk. 1t strikes me that
a crop of 10000, 900 bales will be doing
very we'll"
Besides railroads, naval stores, lands
and cotton, Mr.. Williams has other in
terests. one of the enterprises of the
j. F. Williams Company is a peach
orchard. This is at Chester Ga, on
the Lille of the Oconee and Western
Railroad.
Yes, we have $4,000 trees there"
said Mr.. Williams, land the returns
from them have been very satisfac-
tory. We have netted about. $115
crate this year. We will set out about
1000 more trees this fall 1t is our
lHteLlloH " dave an OrcndrQ OF $1,000
trees, at which point we will stop.
How did we chance to get in the
peach growing business? Well. it was
like this. We had fine farm of about
300 acres at Chester The young man
in charge was raising splendid crops Of
corn and cotton, but he wasn't making
any money. Once when 1 was up there
ne remarked that he thought the land
was well adapted to peaches. | asked
why ne thought so, and he said that
he would show me. Then he took Inc
to an orchard of 100 trees he had set
out, and they were full of beautiful
fruit ] told him to clear 80 or 100
acres of land and start a peach farm.
The orchards we have are the result
OF this start. l have never visited
Them