The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-23
BY WILL T. SIBERIAN.

spondence. )-"The time is coming. in fact, the time has come, when our peo- pie must eliminate the negro as iac- tor in the farming industry of the State. The lanor question - IS the most ,se seraoos neos pie or our section in number oi years. Today 1t Is more acute than IL mas ever been. The turning point has come"
 The farms and plantations of West Alabama are almost deserted by the ne- groes. The mines In North Alabama, the saw mills in South Alabama and upon our West Alabama farms. The condition that exists was not brought about by the white farmers. It was not of their seeking and in the change are undergoing more or less finAncial loss. The negro has simply leIt the farm to become wages hand in other business. In time the tenant and share system will pass out even as 1t is pass ing out"
 T do not know what sort of farming what sort of farming methods will come in. But we will have to do something for as l have said, we will have to elim- mate the negro"
 Christian of Hale County. Judge Chris tian is himself a large landowner. No man, perhaps, Is better qualified to speak on conditions ,i that exist si,b bamhons hon given the more thoughtful farmers serious concern.
 Near Havana. in this. county. during May planters paid as high as SIPS a day for women to work as hoe hands. It was an unheard-of figure. The wages were about three times as much as were paid to women who werk & in the neid 1d not alone in paying the great price Tor held hands. In other portions of Hale County in many other sections of the lAIV 1a xxydn nal f.aW n n q and a dollar and quarter a day were paid.
 stin Scarce at High Prices.
 Even then 20 farming community was able to get all the hands It needed gomery, almost within the suburbs of the city, 75 cents and $1 a. day were paid for field workers and the demand was never met.
 The wages price for field hands is but an indication of the existing condition: The tenant farmer. and the member or the regular wages squad" have both labor, and their demands for pay and consideration have increased accord ingly. It Is startling to find that there are farmers in Alabama, perhaps many this year they will farm no more. La Dor Is too scarce and even when round, 1t is too annoying and exacting. These farmers, rather than bear and struggle with the ills which beset them during the grassy and troubulous spring, will either Tent. sell or abandon their plan
 Tho stretches of rich prairie land that are Tying out" that Is, which are not under cultivation. but are given up to grass and neglect are numerous enough
 "On the Cedarville road, on the Mon roevtlle and on some other thorough fares of Hale County, could name, at least one-half of the land Is Wing out, It. this year. The most of this land now has only a fine crop of Johnson grass on 1t, which will never be made into has no doubt in some instances doomed the old ,otton lands to idleness and had its own effect up1n the negros deser ticn, of. the farms for the saw mills ana the mines. The average negro tenant Is easily dissuaded from any industrial effort and he is poor hand at hghting
 Some Poverty seen.,
 In this western portion of Hale County the paucity of white farmers IS Iamantable. There are white men In that section who have no nelghbors nearer than five miles away. it IS 4i of the Black Belt in all portions Of the State, say five or ten miles from an im- portant town, the white people nave schools and churches. but hardly in any section of Alabama has the abandon ment of the farms ana plantations Deeh as complete as that of the rich and Ter tile acres of southwest Hale County.
 Heretofore as In other portions of the Black Belt the white owners have lived in the little towns of culture and lntel- ligence that SC characterize that sec tion of Alabama, while the negro titled the soil after his own fashion, and made good crops in spite of his industrial in- firmities. Now that the negro Is leav- ing, now that his exodus from the Iarln l., the situation here and elsewhere is becoming acute.
 The results of the efforts of the pio- neers who are engaged in stock rals- ing on a large scale Is therefore being watched by the farmers of this section with keen interest. There are a num- Der of prominent planters Of this sec tioa who are beginning to raise stock on large scale to sell In the city mar kets The largest of these. by far. is '"rhe Ranch of w. M. Murphy, who made a large fortune Tn ranching m Montana and Wyoming and who came back to the home he left In Greensport as a young man to introduce the cattle business as 1t Is known in the West.
 over 800 Head of Cattle.
 He has 1000 acres In Greene County and 1000 acres in Hale, ten miles iron Greensboro, on which he has over 6O( head of cattle, some of them the besl and finest of registered Herefords arc Shorthorns. Messrs. Jones and smith CT deeply Into cattle raising near by There are, too, number of other points fin the county in which the cattle ous' mess has been given the right or way over cotton raising.
 This Is called the finest grass country in the world. Wm. Murphy, the west ern cattleman, whe knows thoroughly the grazing possibilities of Texas, Mon tana, Wyoming and other Westerr states says positively that the sectior in which Hala County is located IS th' finest grass country he ever saw. II Entfls farms which have been mentioned her' the grass, both mellow lotus and John sen grass, grows higher than the back
 The problem of the stock raiser 1T the Black Lands has heretofore, beer the difficulty of securing sufhclen amount of water. But In these daX' a well can be bored so cheaply and { that the problem Is no longer a serious one. The problem that these pioneeri in the extensive cattle business ar' with Importance for the entire section It may be possible that in time thi! business which requires so little of la bor day by day will assume the higl station that cotton raising has had II the Black Belt for nearly century The more thoughtful of the Hale Coun ty citizens are watching its working cut with keen interest.
 The advance in land here in consid eration of the labor difficulties whicl have been alluded to. is nothing shor ot astonishing.
 Productive, Nevertheless. It iy to be always remembered, how ever. that in spite of the sloppy cul tiVation of the average tenant, il spite of the constant wear of peren nial cotton crops, in spite of the con tinued absence of guano or any effort | to build up the land, the acres abou here have continued to be fruitful ant productive. The land Is not only l world -beater in the raising of grass but 1t produces cotton and corn al nnnst In the anmA manner