The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-02-22
Southern Emigration and ImmiSra'
ton.

Southern Emigration and ImmiSra-
NJ. V. Richards, Land and Industrial
agent of the Southern Railway, has a
strong editorial review in the January
Southern Field of the agricultural con-
ditions and possibilities ofthe territory
traversed by that line. MI. Richards
states facts concerning the abundant
inducements offered by the South to
homeseekers from the outside which
should impress the Southern farmer
and citizen who ia ambitious to get on
in the world as forcibly as they are CAL
culated to impress the outsider. And
yet, in yesterdays Constitution ap.
. peared q most significant interview
with q high local railroad official, in
which it was shown that the exodus to
the West from Georgia is a serious
menace to the future development
and prosperity. of this State.
1t is human nature, perhaps, to chase
rainbows, aud assuredly the Georgians
who leave Georgia, or the Southerners
who leave the south, to emigrate be-
You'd the Mississippi in quest of for
tunes golden fleece, or even a modest
life competency, are taking long
chances on lettering their present COLI
dition. Most emphatically they are
not lettering their present opportu-
mites, for no part of the United States
! to-day presents more than a small
fraction of the opportunities for home
making and fortune-building to men
of small means, but plenty of energy
and pluck, than are presented in the
old Southern States. -
Mr.. Richards we'll says, in his excel
lent article: 81.
In one very important particular the
great territory comprised in these
eight States occupies an anomalous po-
sition. Although scanty settled, COM
paratively it has greater inherent po-
%tentialities and sustain an economic
relationship, based upon products of
the farm and plantation solely, with
more inhabitants of the earth than any
other land area approximating it in
size. In other words, the three hun
dred and sixty-eight thousand square
miles embraced in the section under
notice, representing only II per cent.
of the area of the United States-eX-
Guiding Alaska and the island posses
sions-and containing approximately
only fifteen million inhabitants, con-
tribute more largely Of agricultural
products to meet the needs and semi.
civilized inhabitants of the earth than
any other similar area on the planet.
1t is quite within reasonable bounds
to say that the billion of people on the
globe who approximate standards of
civilization requiring cotton ~faorics,
bear tributary relations to the soil of
the territory under review to the eX-
tent of quite 40 per cent. of the total
supply! . '.:..
The eight Southern States traversed
by the Southern Railway System COM
prise q section which has the proper
tions of an empire, and the ''object
lessons' must necessarily be numerous
to influence the total agricultural pro-
'duction. This territory is larger by
more than one hundred and fifty thou
sand square miles than the German
Empire in Europe, and if Inhabited
with the same density its population
would equal one-half that Of the
United States. If it were populated
proportionately with Belgium it would
contain approximately, n hundred
and ninety million people,. If the ca
pacity of a country or section to pros
perously support population is to be
measured by its ability to contribute
to the worlds store of staples entering
most largely into the worlds activities,
the south possesses by far the greatest
potentialities of any area of country of
equal size in the world and this APP
I plies not only to those agricultural
products which are distinctive-which
are only casually referred to in this
connection-but to those great farm
staples which have formed the base of
the great wealth which has been crea-
ted in the North and West-corn,
wheat, swine, cattle, sheep, hay, etc.,
to which extended allusion is made in
other divisions of this article.
All that the lands of the South need
to insure great diversity and abund-
ance of production is intelligent hus-
bandry-intensive, scientific cultiva-.
ton. The land is only sworn out''.
for those who are barren of resources
and have not awakened to the fact
that farming is one Of the most pro-
gressive of sciences, almost unlimited
IN us possibilities.
The Old South will one day be the
garden spot Of America, agriculturally,
as it is now little el-e than its cotton
patch. What the South may lack in
deep original soil and level cultivable
areas as in the West, it more than
gains in proximity to the great market
cehters, in abundant rainfall, the ab-
sence of meteorological perils, an
equable climate, the purest water in
the world and agreeable and comfort
able conditions of life.
The West has long been overrated
and in many sections it has become
'overpopulated, for its DEMONSTRATING
resources are very limited, owing to
unfavorable natural conditions. OF
course, many of our Southern emil
grants will have to learn the truth
about the West in the hard school of
experience, as the majority of those
who go West do. The same push and
labor that will enable a man to exc
out a merely respectable subsistence
in the average Western community,
will make him a comfortable fortune
in the South, if intelligently applied.
The Constitution would most earn
estly advise our people to stay at home
and help to bring the South to the
wonderful degree of agricultural and
Industrial development that it is de-
stined to enjoy. Ell Dorado is not
somewhere beyond the horizon it is
under our very feet.
And in this connection it might be
we'll to inquire if the time has not
come for the Southern railroads to
meet the Western railroads at their