The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-03
GROWTH OF THE WIREGRASS
 IS AN ALABAMA WONDER
From Being Described as the Cow Country, It Has
 Won the Title of the States Richest Agricultural Section.

! itself. Practically nothing was brought to 1t. The settlers came in. unhitched their teams. staked out their farms and knocked together some sort of shack that they could occupy for g. time. The inviting. comfortable homes. the fertile fields, the bank account the seven or eight bales patiently waiting for cotton to rise. are the surplus which thrift and energy has wrested from the soil of the wiregrass. | This thought was impressed upon me | by Q. O. Johnson. a leading merchant | of Geneva.
 "AlI that our farmers have" be said. l twas raised and produced right here. You see they had nothing when they came here. Some of them barely had a wagon to move in. Most of them homesteaded their lands. I am speak ing particularly of those who came in | twenty or twenty-five years ago. Once in here they went to work and now bank accounts are the rule rather, than 1 the exception. You would be sur prised to see some of the many com foFtable homes about Geneva and hardly know of farmer who is not holding some cotton for better price. And all of this belongs to man who came in here with practically noths l ing."
 IhCEE28G The increase of land values, even in the past fifteen years has been nothing short of phenomenal in and around Geneva, Much of this land has in- creased a thousand per cent. As indf- cations as proof of the way in which land values are rising in Geneva and adjoining counties the interested visi. tor comes across various impressive facts. The Geneva Reaper of last s~-4Y story of the return ot Taylor Hutto. who left here over quaI ter of a cen- tury ago. to move to Talladega. At the time Mfr. Hutto moved away the family owned eighty acres of wooded land a few miles from town When other holdings were sold this land was not considered of enough importance to warrant an effort to sell It. IL was thought that probably the land would bring at that time about 75 cents an acra
 Tales of the growth of Southeast Alabama having reached MT. Hulto, he thought that the eighty acres of land he left in the woods might be worth the trouble of a trip to Geneva He found on coming here last week that the land was easily worth s10 an acre And after noting not only the sub stantial growth of Geneva, but the
 
 tricts which he had left almost a wilderness Mir Hulto decided that the land could be well let alone so that 1t might continue to increase in value.
 Threatens Turpentine Industry.
 Again the rapid increase in land values was brought home to me by NJ. A. Parrish, a turpentine operator who has conducted turpentine stills for the past ten years in Geneva County and Is now operating still at Union, Fla, for be 1t remembered that the town of Geneva Is only five miles from the Florida line. Mir, Parrish declar- ed that the rapid advance in the price of lands in Geneva and adjoining coun- ties was a serious menace to the tur- pentine industry.
 why ten years ago." said Fr. Par rish, the turpentine rights on some. of these lands could be bought for 75c an acre. dare say you. could have bought the turpentine rights, the tim Der rights and the land itself for $1.50 an acre. But it's different now. The land owners are demanding and getting $3 an acre for the turpentine rights and reserving for themselves, the timber and the land. Under some conditions that would be a ruinous price for tur- pentine. But on account of the satis- factory price of spirts-they are sell ing TOT 6l 10 03 cents Ea1lOn-tne turpentine men can stand the price and continue in the business. But if tur- pentine should go down-well I think the high priced lands about here would kill the industry
 It is a great material advance which that section of the Wiregrass embrac- ed in the County of Geneva has made county has made a great advance when it's lands which sold a few years ago for 75 cents. s1.5O and S1,25 an acre and which now find purchasers at from $6 to $10 an acre.
 Forgotten now is that stage of its history when agriculture was practi- cally unknown when it's lands were given over to the uninterrupted graz Ing of cattle, when its products were chiefly hides, cows and sheep and when it wore the designation, COW county A chain of farm housess the one hardly out of sight of the other, chain of fertile farmers. which has supplanted the wilderness, bank accounts, pros- perity and contentment now give the lie to the appellation. if 1t is used in derision or disrespect.