The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-08
No Negroes Reside Within
 Its Borders.
Popuiation Made Up of Emigrants from Germany--Intensive Far ming and the Results
 Obtained.
By VIII II. sheehan.

By VIII n. Sheehan. Culiman, Nov. 7.---(staff Correspond ence )-The city of Cullman is an ex- hibit and citation in all Alabama ar guments on migration. Its founding,
 history pears on ths thst s nnSs o
 unique and illustrative.
 | It is e town of emigrants. It was founded by emigrants. 1t was built up
 by emfgrants. It has grown steadily, steadiness and emigrants have shaped the destiny of the town, those who came with John G. Cullman in 1873 and
 those who came in the steady if small stream of emigration that poured into the town and county from that good year until the present time.
 The town demands study from the thoughtful. Its history, It's conditions bear not only upon the question of im- migration, but upon two other great problems that are confronting the peo- pie of the State. the race question first. and the, best methods of farming to get the best results second. There are no negroes in Cullman. That solves the race question so far | as Cullman is concerned. The German emigrants who settled Cullman have no They have never suffered his presence. | They will not labor with him, nor will they give him an opportunity of labor | ing near them.
 ! Ne8EOc8 NOG T'0AGE&teus
 | Negroes have never been lynched in Cullman. They have not been tortured | nor maltreated when they have ap- peared in the town, but they have been
 made to understand that they would touring the country does not pass through Cuilman when he Is on foot.
 He may be walking the tracks of the
 Louisville and Nashville Railroad. but | as he hears Cullman he makes a wide
 detour and passes the town from afar
 to make connections with the railroad tracks on the other side. Some ne- groes through ignorance have come in- | to the town, but they did not remain | long. They were not hurt, but they
 found 1t expedient to move on to some other town.
 There is one negro boy in town. the | servant of a merchant. He Is tolerated
 in good natured way and made the
 subject of good natured jokes and | rough play. but he seems to rather | like than resent 1t, and he is suffered
 to remain. In the whole county there l is only one negro voter. FN Several negro families were taken | into the county three years ago at | Stout's Mountain, when that section of Blount County was made part of
 lature. Up to that time the literature | sent out inviting more German settlers l to come to SCullman County always | bore in black letters the statement that |
 in the South that had no negroes. Hundreds of the citizens of Cullman l County are German born and thous- | ands of them are American born by l German parents. In their attitude to- | wards the negro they have consistently
 followed the course of the German, the | English and the Dutch farmers of
 ether countries and other continents. whichever you choose to call 1t. Is in
 them especially pronounced. They can not tolerate the careless, the irre-
 sponsibility of the negro to say noth- | ing of his more serious defects.
 Wrongs In Other Nations. It was only @ few days ago that the | negro residents of South Africa peti
 tioned President Roosevelt to use his l condition in the Dutch and English
 towns of South Africa. In those towns | they were not even allowed to walk
 upon the sidewalk. but were forced by
 regularly enacted laws to walk in the | All of these facts add force and
 weight to the contention that the
 Southern-born and Southern-re reared 1 infancy, is the negros best friend, tke l friend who understands his infirmltles | of character, but who appreciateS his
 loyalty his industrial docility and his
 A new light was thrown on the race | question and the immigration problem
 by a Cullman County man of German
 descent when I asked why there had
 never been settled in the cotton belt
 of the State a colony of Germans who
 devoted themselves. to raising, cotton.
 neyer rst se 6,s.o of nscs sS sas tSs wiI
 German farmer to go among the ne- i groes. They have never gone in num-
 hers to the southern portion of the | State, to the cotton-growing section
 for one reason, because of tho negro. ] They will not work with, compete with l or have anything to do with the negro.
 Their thrift. frugality and industry Is | at variance with the characteristics of
 the negro. and their prejudice against | them Is apparently irremovable. | The German colonist, however. does
 not take kindly to cotton growing. IL l There are some German farmers who
 raise cotton about Cullman, but few If
 any of them devote the greater part of
 their farming operations to cotton growing. They naturally and instinc-
 lively turn to fruit and vegetable rais- 1 ing. No race can approach them in
 man they raise enormous crops of | strawberries, raspberrtes, fruits, pota-
 toes of all kinds and the best of Vegc-
 tables. They get more money for these
 crops than they would if they devoted | all their time to cotton growing in Nhe
 Southern section of the State"
 Intensive Farming.
 Intensive farming. perhaps, reaches | llS uIBHeSI O6NelOpmenI nere m Cull-
 man County. There are no large farms,
 no big plantations. The farmer, if he
 desired to farm in his way, could get
 no labor. Cramped for labor, he does
 not spread his farming operations over | any large area. He cultivates a few
 acres. but he cultivates them well. The
 German farmers fields are like a gar
 den. He puts his experiences and the | experiences of his father, in small | farms. well fertilized, and Thoroughly | cultivated. Theso farms are worked by the family of the farmer. He lays out | his farm and plans his operations with I understanding that the labor is to come | from members of his family He may
 be able to secure hired mau Or some
 extra help in rush time but from years | end to years end he depends upon the | labor of his household.
 l His farm. highly cultivated and care | fully worked. brings him large returns
 in strawberries, vegetables, corn, and, | If he is so minded, some cotton and some additional fruits There Is hardly
 farm about Cullman but which illus | trates the value of intensive farming. l As Cullman, the city proper, is a so- | biological study, being a Southern town without negroes. so is the farms of the
 county an agricultural study, pointing
 out in a way the advantages of inten-
 sive farming and one solution of the I eternal labor problem.
 The Labor Question.
 The Cullman County solution of the 1 labor problem is quite simple. It is Require but little labor. but make that | as intelligent, as efficient and as indus | trious as possible"