Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-25

cent and during the census year. according
to the official returns ,240,OO0 acres In the
YaZoo valley yielded farm products valued
at S21, T6S, S70-an average of S1I.5i an acre;
which. am told. is the highest average for
any part of the United States. The average
crop value for Illinois was S1.S1 per acre;
Indiana, SS.23 per acre, and Iowa. $3.50 per
acre. Notwithstanding this remarkable
yield farms can be rented for So per acre
and purchased for $40 to $50 acre, &C
coroing to location and improvements. The
fertility of the land is even; it does not vary
much anywhere within the limits of the
delta, and will produce anything. The
crops of cotton and corn are enormous.
A great deal of the land is owned by
northern lumber companies, which have
cleared off the timber and are now selling
the land for $40 to s25 an acre. according
to location. About one-haf of the Guilt
waited area Is worked on shares, the owner
furnishing erything-seed, implements.
mules and provisions-and charging Them
to the tenants share of the crop Another
method Is for the tenant to pay 100 pounds
of cotton per acre for the use of the land
and furnish everything himself. More than
half the land. however Is worked by col
ored tenants ON shares.
The mud Is frightful This Is probably
the muddiest country in the world. 1t Is
impossible to make roads. The good roads
people have been down here and the soil
has laughed at them. They graded up
roadway and covered It with cracked Stone
and gravel a foot thick one spring. The
next year the surfacng had vanished and
the sticky mud was hub deep where it was
formerly as hard as asphaltum The gravel
the stone simply sank into the mud ana
were swallowed up. l am told that planks
often disappear in the most mysterious
manner, while people who made corduroy
roads have to lash the Skids to stumps and
trees to keep them from being buried In
the mire.
Formerly the Yazoo valley was syno-
nym for malaria-chills and fever-but now
adays there is comparatively little OF that
disease. The doctors discovered that it was
due to drinking surface water, and OF late
years artesian wells have been driven in
every hamlet and on every plantation.
There is an artesian basin underneath the
entire valley, which yields an abundance
of pure cold water by driving a well from
500 to 1,500 feet.
Largest Plantations in the World.
Here are some of the largest plantations
in the world The largest belongs to Mr..
Charles Scott Of Rosedale, who has 10000
acres in twenty different tracts. 1900
acres under cultivation. Mr.. Scott has
about half of his land leased to colored
tenants on shares. He furnishes every
thing and advances money for food and
other supplies to Them and when the cot
ton is picked and sold the proceeds are d.
vided.
Mr.. John NJ Parker has about 1000 acres
leased in the same way. Mr.. John w. Ed
ridge of Memphis has 1850 acres near
HillhouSe station, with 1850 acres in culti-
walton. Mr.. Eldridge has had great deal
of difficulty in securing labor, and est1-
mates that at least 800 bales of cotton still
remain unplcked in his fields because he
could not get people to pick 1t at any
wages. He bought carloads of colored
people from New Orleans and Memphis; he
imported MeXicanS from the Rio Grande
country, and has finally succeeded in maxi
ing contracts with white men from the
mountains of east Tennessee, who will cul-
he ofar norf f,f nd
season.
Mr. Crawford has about $1,000 acres in
Sunflower county, near 1ndianola. The
Worthingtons, an old and well-known fam
lily, have about the same area in Washing
ton county, south of Greenville Mr.. B. F.
Bremner of Chicago has $4,000 acres. The
Dahomey plantation. formerly owned by
James s. Richardson, known as The Cot
the King of Louisiana, comprising about
1900 acres, was recently purchased by
Allen Gray, of Evansville, Ind, for $500,
About 1000 acres are now under cultiva-
ton. The rest of the land is timber and
Mr.. Gray has recently set up a sawmill to
cut it.
Mrs Bruce, widow of United States Sem
ator B. X. Bruce, has fine plantation at
Josephine, near Rosedale, which she Is man.
aging herself with great success.
The Sunnyside plantation. on the Arkan-
sas bank of the river, which formerly be-
longed to Austin Corbin of New York, has
about 5000 acres in cotton and employs
ltal1an LABOR exclusively.
italian Labor Praised.
Mr.. Percy, the manager. says that he has
about one hundred families on the place.
and that they are ideal tenants They clear
S70O or $500 year net profit over and above
all expenses and put 1t in the bank. This
is on the profit-sharing plan. When they
have accumulated $4,000 or 5000 in cash
they usually return to Italy with their saw
he hafa thn1r Joor
a family of strangers appears on the place,
fresh from Italy, who work under fnstruc-
ton for one season and then take the va
Gated place. This method, Mr.. Percy says.
is perfectly satisfactory. The Italians are
trustworthy, they take better care of the
land than negroes and get at least one-third
more out of it. They work six days in the
week, while the negro will only work five
days, and two hours longer each day. When
picking time comes the whole family goes
into the field and the cotton they pick is
great deal cleaner than that picked by the
negroes.
Some Italians remain in this country.
Charles Sessions at Friar'S Point tells OF
an Italian who worked for him on shares
for six years, and in the meantime made
enough to buy tract of newly cut timber
land near Lulu station. He planted cotton
among the stumps and spent his spare time
between crops in gradually clearing the
stumps away. Last spring he sold the farm
for S37 900 and removed to Memphis, where
he has gone into the commission business.
The state of Mississippi has a convict
farm of 1000 acres near this place, which
has turned out to be a very profitable in
veStment and is quite source of revenue
to the state. Most of the GonyictS are coll
ored and it is much better for them to work
in the fields, even under the gum" as they
say, than to confine them in a prison. They
are well treated and cared for and the man.
ayers of the plantations have very little
trouble with them.