The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-27
SOUTHERN PROGRESS
COMMENTS OF THE MANUFnC-
 TURERS' RECORD.
General Activity in Every Line of Industry and Signs of Increas- ing Diversity in Agricul- ture and Manufacture
 Are Visible.

Baltimore. June 26-(Special. )-Through' out the South there is general activity
 in every line of industry and in ever, | direction are seen signs of increasing di versfty in manufactures and also in az riculture. In covering the progress o that section The Manufacturers Record
 this week reports the rapid development Of large bodies of farming land in Lou
 isiana, in connection with the remarkabl,
 advance in rice growing in that State
 and also in Texas.
 In a district which fifteen years aRt
 produced scarcely pound of freight, ant which was so unfavorably regarded by the Southern Pacific Railroad that its officers refused to build a station, be. lieving that the settlement of that sec. ton vas impossible. there are now 200
 to 25,ooo Western people located, in addi.
 ton to great many Southerners who
 nave been drawn to the same region by
 the remarkable development of the rice
 industry, based on vast irrigation plans
 which assure an abundant supply of wa ter at all seasons. In that district 6,0OC McCormick reapers were used last year in cutting rice, which Is harvested like wheat in the West and out of that same
 territory, too poor fifteen years ago to
 justify even small depot, the Southern
 Pacific last season hauled 13,O00 carloads
 or rice. This great development taken
 in connection with the remarkable ad-
 vance of the oil interests of Southwest
 Louisiana and Southeast Texas, is illus
 trated in the statement made by an off, cer of the Southern Pacific Road, that the railroad passenger receipts at Beau mont now average s40,000 a month, against $7OO month three years ago, and also by the fact that number of companies have recently been organized, one with a n nYit al utr0 af cc nno nnn
 capital stock of $9,O 900, for the purchase of immense bodies of land aggregating in the latter case 3OO0oO acres. which will be developed with great irrigating canals and utilized for the growing of rice and other agricultural products.
 So active Is the development in that section that immigration offices are to be developed in Holland and Japan. In another section of Texas the peach and trucking industry is assuming large pro- portions, and one orchard of 200OU acres is now being developed. with many small CT ones in the same territory. At the other extreme of tho South the Norfolk Virginia trucking district is burdening the railroads and steamship lines with an enormous crop or potatoes, which are re- ported as bringing prices higher than for the last eight or ten years. Between these two points, Virginia and Texas. tiCtS arc every WneTc seen SlRnS or an increasing diversity of agricultural inter- ests. even If the development has not yet been quite so pronounced as at these two points,
 Turning from agricultural to manufac- turing interests, progress in every direc- ton is even more pronounced. Charlotte. N. C., people, in connection with outside capital, have organized a $5O0,000 cotton mill company to build plant with 25, 600 Gnf fnr oolr
 The Gainesville, Ga, cotton mills, recent ly demolished by tornado, has let con- tract for rebuilding, and will have 25, 900 spindles. while the Clifton Company of Spartanburg has also let contract for the reconstruction of it's mills Nos. 1 and 2, recently destroyed by the flood. These mills will have an equipment about the same as the former mills, aggreEating about 43,000 spindles. At Livingston, Ala. a $50,0O0 cotton mill will he built; at La fayette. Ga. a $l00.000 mill company has been organized, and at Roanoke, Va. a $2e.q00 knitting mill will be built. In West Virginia and Kentucky the activ- ity in the development of coal mining, and in oil, Is greater than ever before. West Virginia will thls year produce nearly 3O.0OO.OOQ tons of coal, or about three-fourths as much as the total bit luminous coal output of the United States in 1SS0
 F. E. Saward of New York, recognized as coal authority, in a comprehensive letter in The Manufacturers Record set ting forth the strength of the coal situa- tion Of Alabama. points out the remark able development of this industry in that State. and shows how the growth of the industrial interests of the South Is rapid- ly Increasing the home market for Ala bama coal, while the Improvement of the Warrier river now underway by the na- tioral government will enable Alabama to control the coal tradeIof the New Or leans district. now largely supplied by Pittsburg and also the coal trade of the West Indies and Mexico. with a practi- cally unlimited future for Alabama coal when once the active construction of the isthmian canal has been commenced MT SaWard says; The active competition