The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-16

VI nA8NAHtG tnot h&SG SStAAs into Baldwin County and of the im- portance of the change that has been wrought by the immigrants.
 The land companies all operate in the southern portion of Baldwin coun- ty, in that section of the county be- meath a straight line drawn across the county from Mobile Bay to the Flor Ida line a few miles above Daphne.
 The Fairhope Single Tax colony. the largest settlement in the county, being an experiment in government and po- litical ecoomy. is to be considered sep arstely and in a future letter.
 As for the other colonies. 1t is well for Alabamians to know something of them, for unless all signs fail. the State is to hear more of them in the future. They are growing communities now and their importance Is constantly widening
 Some of the Companies.
 By far tho biggest corporation doing land and colonization business in Baldwin County is the Southern Plan tation and Development Company. This corporation had originally the enorm- ous total of 92,o0o acres of land in Baldwin County. Much of this land had already been sold. but the hold ings of the company now are immense. The land of the company runs out westward from Marlow and Fish River over beyond Summerdaie. A great deal of 1t is along the line of the Bay Minette and Fort Morgan Railroad The company owns the site of the town of summerda1e which at present has not been built, but which in the future its owners hope will be the county seat of the expected new county.
 Hf thA total hHzdiun 0f the Southern Plantation and Development Company s0,o00 acres are now being improved. This company, it is said. have already brought some five or six hundred peo- pie to Baldwin County. The day we visited the community at Sonora built upson this companys land, an excursion of 100 homeseekers from Chicago were looked for. as the local agent had re- ceived a message telling him they had left Chicago the day previous.
 The most valuable land of the South ern Plantation and Development Com pany Is located thirty-two miles south of Bay Minette. The officers of the company are M. W. Browne. president; C. N Souther. vice-president; T. F. Hamm. treasurer and F. l.. Sanford. secretary.
 The Svea Coloney Company Is an organization of Swedish business men of Chicago It has fine little town and a promising one at Silverhin. The town is filled with Swedes from Chica- 70 and Minnesota. They are good workers and the colony has started of auspiciously This company is i'm proving 1000, or 5000 acres of land twenty-seven miles south of Bay Minette. Oscar Johnson. a weli-to-do Swede who lives in two-story house rlvA af flower yard in front in silverhill is the manager of the company.
 The company has located some twen- ty-five or thirty families on it's lands. The Swedes are pleased and hopeful of the future.
 The Magnolia Springs Land Company owned 55.000 acres of land when it went into the colonization business. The company Is in fact one man, pr. J. B. Foley. familiar to all newspaper readers throughout the United States. through his advertisements as the maker of a we'll known patent medi- cine composed of honey and tar. He Is a Chicago doctor and business man who became interested in the pine woods of Baldwin County and who went into the land business on a large scale convinced as he was of its great financial possibilities.
 pr. Foleys lands lie a little south nf the land of the Southern Plantation Development Company. They run from the northeast of Magnolia Springs to the new town of Foley which is to be built on the line of the Bay Minette and Fort Morgan Railroad. The finest farming land of the company Is prob ably located around Foley's Model Farm, three and a half miles from Magnolia Springs which was estab- lished to show the emigrants the pos sibility of the Baldwin County soil and climate.
 The property of the Baldwin County Colonization Company Is further east on the slope that leads to Perdido river and Perdido Bay. The largest settle. ment of this company is about Eiberts which is forty-five miles south of Bay aGinette. A thriving. fiourishing colo ny has been established here. Tht people are mainly Germans from Chi cago. They are given largely to thu raising of peaches. strawberries anC vegetables. The company started ou with S2.000 acres of land.
 This company in one respect employ: a unique method. It does not brinl its immigrants to Alabama and turr them loose in the woods. The othel companies have followed the custom oi putting the immigrants down upon un' cleaned lands in the woods.
 The Baldwin County Colonization Company follows the practice of clear ing up Ave acres of each twenty acres sold. This gives the immigrantthe op portunity of starting right in% raising vegetables without having to devote three and four months to the clearing up of the land upon his farm.
 The land of the south Alabama LanS and Development Company is located near Bennetts. The company ha /, several thousand acres of land twent. l miles south of Bay Minette, The com