The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-17
Acre Sells For Twenty
 Dollars.
How Colonization Companies Brisg Prosperous Westerners to Wilds of Alabama and Make Them
 sstisaed With Situation.
By Will T. sheehan.

 Magnolia Springs, Dec. 16.-(Stan lCorrespondence) )-They sell land here in Baldwin County for SEQ and $2A an acre. l The sort of land they sell for $20 and l s25 an acre astonishes a man from Northern or Middle Alabama. The in- l trinsic merit of the land Is all right, but there Is nothing wonderful about its fertility But the idea of selling crude lands thirty miles from rail- road. in the heart of the woods, cov- cred with trees and fallen logs. is some- thing new to man accustomed to the slower business methods of the South, The land business here is practically a Northern business. The men who form the big land companies with their im- mense holdings. are Northern men. and the men who buy the land and come to Baldwin County to live upon 1t are Northern men. The buying methods, the selling methods are the methods of the North, and the farming method upon the newly bought lands are the farming methods, of Illinois and Wis consin.
 But the abilities of these land conn panies to sell raw lands in a wilder ness at $20 and $25 an acre Is a. thing to marvel at. and another thing to marvel at is the ability of the land companies to put the buyers down upon the land and start them to farm ing in a satisfied frame of mind, and to have them farm successfully. The county Is, of course. not the wilderness | 1t was five years ago. Changed condi- tions have been wrought The new | conner has neighbors now who give him advice and companionship. The worst of the immigration movement Is over. l The start is the bad part It IS human nature not to want to live in the woods | five miles from a neighbor.
 But now all land companies have | more or less populous communities. The | immigrant who Is brought to Baldwin County in 1905 is sure of living in touch with his fellow humans. And | being a Northern man, he Is assured of having neighbors of his own section and of his own training.
 But this was not so when the land l companies started to doing business. Ten years ago land was the cheapest thing in Baldwin County. It was | cheaper than lumber and far less In demand. The lumber rights on an acre of land were worth more than the land itself after tha timber had been cut | away.
 | Baldwin County was land poor. The man who owned large tracts of land could do nothing with 1t except pay | taxes on 1t and let sheep and cattle graze at large upon it. And most of the land owners had no sheep and no | cattle.
 Tales are told of the ridiculous figure at which land was offered for sale in Baldwin County in those days. It went begging at 50 cents an acre with a life time to pay the money.
 The turpentine and lumber men first came. The J. D. Hand Lumber Com pany, Lyons & Swift. and the Locksley Lumber Company got the lumber rights l on thousands and thousands and thous- | ands of acres of Baldwin County land. The Union Naval Stores Company and other turpentine firms and corporations | bought for little the turpentine rights | in the pine forests miles and miles in | length.
 The turpentine men and the lumber men do not leave any permanent pros- perity. To civilization they bear the same relation as the sappers and en- gineers bear to the advance of the fighting army. They blaze the way. and safest line of advance. This is the most important work they render to a State and county.
 Once this is accomplished, their use-
 fulness is over. They take away,
 rather than pile up riches. They car ry away the prosperity of their indus
 trial activity. The money that Is made.
 the fortunes that are accumulated.
 move on to other woods and other .tor- ests when the big saw mills are taken up and carried to other forests And
 the saw mills are moved when the tim Der Is all cut down and sawed into lumber
 The work of the lumber man is
 finished when he has exhausted the | lumber of the woods. The work of the turpentine man is finished when
 the pine trees cease to bear their crop | of turpentine.
 Turpentine men and lumber men
 move on to new fields and leave no per
 manent prosperity in their wake. The | machinery is taken down and put on | freight cars. The miles and miles of log railroads through the wood are
 pulled up and the word is given to | move on. No new settlers have been brought in and no permanent wealth has been left to the county and State.
 This is written in the expansive woods of Baldwin County. The pine
 woods have been scared by the turpen- tine men and partially levelled by the
 timber men. The timber men never
 make clean sweep as they go over. On every acre several trees are left standing. and the stumps of all are | in the ground. while the tops and heavy 1 limbs are left to cucumber the ground | for years to come. The iron rails and the cross ties of the log roads are taken up and hauled off to new woods. but the huge scar left by the logging road remains In the woods.
 So far as saving trouble for the | farmer and immigrant who comes along, after him the lumberman might as we'll not have touched the forest. It is just as much trouble to clear up for cultivation the acre left | by the lumberman as 1t Is to turn an | acre of virgin timber into small farm. There are yet to be seen thou