The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-21
TENNESSEE VALLEY HIGHER
 THAN THAT OF OHIO RIVER

l4aliderdale. To the mind of the well informed Alabamfan, the very mention ot me names of these counties suggests fertility, wealth and intelligence. The lower tier of counties is fixed in no lower degree in the estimation of the man or Alabama, who knows his state. n II are the rich counties of Colbert, Morgan, Lawrence and Marshal
 From time imniamorial the Valley mas been a great grhin country. There are repeated stories, In these days, of valleys In Jackson and Marshal coun- ties whichs produce annually hun dred bushels of corn to the acre. In all the South there Is no finer upland for corn making than that of Madison county The same Is true no less of Morgan, of Colbert, Of the other valley counties than 1t Is Of Madison.
 or the soil and people of the Ten nessee Valley, Charles P Lane, who has spent his life in the Valley has wfitten:
 Morgan County along the river and the rich valleys receding from the hills, presents some of the most productive and beautiful fields In Alabama. Right here population, the characters Of the tillers of the soil. Is a proper matter of inquiry. The pioneers of this conn- try left their Impress upon succeeding generations and did much to mold the class and character of the people For ilfustratieg there were but few origi- nal large land owners in Jackson Coun- ty in the early days, hence buk few negroes, as negroes were the creAtures of the wealthy Perhaps more than three fifths of that population is white and an equal percentage in Marshal. . The percentage of races as originally established seems to hold it's own. If s1 fxrft afVrer r1an ts- Nh side.
 "The white peonle Of Jackson and Marshal are hardy, virtuous. self-re- liant, law-abiding, hospitabse. excellent citizenship, the best neighbors and friends on earth. These counties offer some wonderful attractions to the home seekers.
 "The county Of Madison, the first and leading home of wealth and culture in the Valley. was peopled by the finer haired, aristocratic element of the South, refined. elegant people. They owned and established large plantations which they peopled with slaves, Thus in Madison you find much culture, an advanced condition. and now, that ne- gro labor is becoming scarce from nu- merous causes, much fine productive soil is offered to the Northern prospector at reasonable figures.
 Original Settlers of State.
 'The counties of Limestone, Lauder dale Colbert and Lawrence present both of the original first settler class One portion of these counties is settled al- most exclusively by whites and tho other portion the old plantation sys- tenn remains. The whites represent the labor on the smaller farms, the negro the larger, old time ante-bellum plan tations. The counties of Limestone and Lauderdale north of the river Colbert aN, 1 T II. sent to the home seeker attractions equal to those of their eastern sister counties"
 But after all, the best claims to dis tinction of the Tennessee Valley, are not the intelligence and virtue Of it's citizenship, as high as their standards may be. but they are more. The Val iey's best claim is, first, thaHmatchless which it shares with all Ala and third, its own peculiar distinction of presenting an established diversity in agriculture which cannot be sue eessfully challenged by any other DOT tion of Alabama.
 The grain belt and the cotton belt meet here in the Tennessee Valley, The wheat field and the cotton field melts into each other. They grow corn in South Alabama, but they don't grow 1t
 
 ley. As for cotton, while enoTmous . crops are grown on the white farms of the Wire Grass, and in the river bottoms of South Alabama, and on the prairies and in the Canebrakes, to the eye the Tennessee Valley crops appear almost, if not quite as good.
 South of the Valley, wheat. in> these days is not successfully grown, al though ante bellum traditions of its successful growth still obtain. So fine a grain scountry could not be otherwise than a fine cattle and fine stock eoun- try, Such. indeed. is the Tennessee Valley. It has ever been a chosen country for horses and for cattle, To- day some of the best cattle and some of the finest horses in Alabama gTa&e upon the hills of the Tennessee Valley.
 The County of Madison Is the great est horticultural County in the South. Fruit growing in Alabama is still in it's formative period, but Madison Coun- ty ships out more fruit trees than any other Southern County
 And the Alabama man. whether he comes from the Tennessee Valley or whether he comes from the Gulf coast wrongs his state when he permits the stigma of malaria and sickness to be nut upon Alabama, and pass uhresent- ed. Malaria can be found in Alabama, if you hunt for it. IL can be found In Maine and Minnesota. when one hunts for it. Alabama hasn't an undue share of if and any such belief or impression is a wrong to the State.