The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-26
J. CRAIG SMITHS FARM, A TRUE BLACK BELT PLANTATION Place Belonging to State Treasurer, Twenty three Miles West of Selma, Municipality
 Within Itself--Some Things
 Concerning It.

But the details of the stock raising fn- dustry will appear later in this commu nlcatlon In their own proper place.
 Midway between the farm house on the hill and the splendid modern barn stands stanch and stout little frame building of one room whose out sr, un- painted front is studded with countless nails. There is no place nor need for this little building on any but a cotton plantation of the South. On a North srn or Western plantation the little house would be useless and out of place, of interest only as d curiosity.
 The Settlement House.
 For this little building is the Set ttement House, an object of awe Lo the negroes even as the Endowment House IS an object of awe to the Mormons. It the uses of the Settlement House. for this letter might fall under the eye of Northern reader who might, like some son % Of his %neighbors, jump quickly to House is the place on the big planta- ton where the negroes are beaten for transgressions and overawed into Which would be like some opinions and some conclusions upon the negro Tn the south from Northern sources, totally ana radically wrong.
 The Settlement House has no such purpose. Its use is entirely different. II IS the outward and visible sigA of the advaneing system which is so gem erally used on cotton plantations, It mas one week of beehive activity in the fall when the crops are gathered. When the cotton has been sold and the accounts have been closed the negroes gather about the Settlement House for Lhe flnal wind up of their business with the owner of the plantation' The owner has furnished the negro tenant his mule, his land and the pro- visions for bimself and his family throughout the year. From the crop owned In common the aegro tenant pays Tor the advances made him by
 To settle with his 300 negroes 1t takes Mr. Smith and his white assis- tant on the plantation an entire week ol unremittlng activity in the little oae room building. In the meanwhile fences about are covered with laugh ing. good natured negroes The ne- groes somehow have an idea that the represents more money than the Treas ury of the State of Alabama.
 The smith place. known too, as the Waller place, is the boast of the sur only in the fertility of the soil but in the fact that in but few instances even in Middle Alabama are so many fertile acres of the black lands held in
 From the house on the high hill near the center of the plantation a beautiful view is had 10 every point of the compass. A thing that has height
 
 that 1t lies we'll" There are no big hills and but few elevations.
 Plantation Views.
 It Is in these latter days of May a veritable sea of verdure. From the central elevation it rolls in gentle but huge pillows, -greener than the Sea and as pretty. Here and there are cool and inviting clumps of trees, for the herds in the pastures must he con sidered and the pastures in which they luxuriate are no less verdant than the vivid green cotton fields or the way Ing fields of majestic corn. To the tation which marks the course of Bear Creek. On every hand are the level or gently sloping fields of cotton, corn. oats, alfalfa or Bermuda grass, for the richest of dark green to the land scape, a green that contrasts agree ably with the vivid white of the hum dred cabins that are scattered about on the place.
 The original purchase, the nucleus of this fine plantation. which stands upon the edge, but we'll within the limits of the canebrake, was made by Hon. Fred Smith, father of J. Craig Smith. A great part of the place was acquired slowly and without haste by the son, it's present owner. Ten years ago agriculture in Alabama was un- der a cloud. Cotton was near the low water mark, for it was selling for less than it cost to make it. Land owners were alarmed. SOIne were SelllnB lnelT lands because they had to sell them and others were throwing them upon the market, to get what they could for them and to move from the cQun- try, where apparently there was no hope of making living on the farm or the plantation.
 Mir Smith was among those who be- lieved that the agricultural depression was only temporary and who had firm conviction that agricultural lands would continue to be as they had been in the mast, the basis of the wealth of Middle Alabama. So in those days of depression he was in the mark for all the lands whose price and whose qual- ity suited him.
 It therefore come to pass that his places which adjoined the Waller place and which taken collectively form a single tract of 5000 acres. Mir. Smith is one of the largest land owners in Dallas County, county Of big lana owners. The immense plantation here written of is the smaller part of his holdings. Within the limits. of Dallas of Black Belt land. The old smith home is at Orrville some miles away from the big plantation.
 Two railroads cross each other on the big plantation, the line of the Southern from Selma to Mobile and the Myrtle wood divist9n of the Louisville and Nashville. The railroad station of the niace is on the Louisville and Nash Vile and Is called Craig, from the given maine of the owner of the planta-
 Mr. Smith is represented on the place by MT. William Adams, formerly a