The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-09-30
lRMERS MOVING
 OUT ID TEXAS Ireat Land Boom on is the
 Panhandle THE PRICES ARE SOARING Practically All the Big Ranches Sold to Land Companies Which Are Taking Western Farmers
 to Texas.

to Texas.
 From the New York Sun.
 Westerners are having another virulent attack of land fever. A couple of years ago it was Oklahoma to which the home seeker was steered. Then 1t was Canada Now it Is Texas. If third of the far mers from Iowa. Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri who have gone down there this fall remain it won't be long until Texas is among the doubtful political states
 This is no spontaneous outburst, but the result of the business methods of the land agents. In the last two years practically all the big ranches in the Texas Panhan- dle have been bought by land companies These have arranged with the railroads to run excursion trains from as far east as Indianapolis at half fare.
 Their eastern agents gather up the far mers who will come, and these are all punched at Kansas City, Wichita or Fl Reno, and there westerners who know the land thoroughly and can talk a num- my into purchase take charge.
 Amarillo, Tex. is the center of the big land boom Two years ago 1t was a cat tie shipping point the center of the gl- gantic LX ranch. with several hundred inhabitants. Today 1t has 5000. and night ly people have to sleep on the streets for lack of accommodations.
 The old ranch was 27 miles wide and 60 long, and was all under fence. There were 1,200 sections. or nearly 770,OOO acres. The company bought the land originally for 20 cents an acre.
 The land boom in the Panhandle began when the company that owned the ranch divided 1t up into sections and began of- fering 1t at from $1,5O0 to $2.5O0 a section. A fourth of the land is yet unsold, but the company has gathered in six millions for the land disposed of.
 The sale value is now from S10 to $20 an acre.
 There are other big ranches in the Pan handle, out in the Big Pasture as they call it. These are all being cut up and offered to the hungry land seekers.
 Everybody specuating,
 Everybody in the towns whereabouts is a land agent and speculator. The com pany pays a commission to all who can prove they had a hand in getting a man to Invest, and there is no rest for the wayfarer who isn't hunting land.
 If he drops into the bar to get drink, sf he stops on a street corner to wipe his fevered brow, if he steps into barber shop, the bartender the pedestrian or the barber will come forward with the glad hand.
 Stranger hereabouts, are ye?"
 "Yes"
 Been lookin at some land?"
 It doesn't particularly matter if you haven't. The formula is the same We have the best land in the country down here. If you have not bought yet, let me put you on to a nice little snap money m
 And then begins business.
 There Is keen rivalry between the 9gents but they have an understanding that it is hands off as long as a man has customer in tow. And understandings are pretty well kept down in the Panhan- dle.
 In some of the towns they have proper ty farmers, residents who promenade the streets dressed up like agriculturists. and whom the agent with a customer in hand accidentally meets.
 "Hello Billr calls out the agent, and his outstretched hand is grasped by the \ property farmer. 'tWhen did you drive | III? How were your crops this year? Haven't seen you for two months" and So on.
 Before long the property farmer is tell ing all about the big crops he raised and the good prices he secured, all for the benefit of the newcomer.
 Automobile SuppIants Blackboard.
 The blackboard has been superseded in the Panhandle by the automobile fer the use of land agents. There is one advan- tage in using the auto as a means of con- veyance that usually does not impress the land buyer until afterward That is, it lessens distances from towns, or helps to deceive the buyer into believing that the farm shown him Is only out a few miles, when 1t may be fifteen or twenty
 nrA Af IoF has two automobiles. It uses them to transport customers to it's great tract of land twenty miles away, where it con- ducts a private hotel for their accommo- dalton.
 The country is very level the sod is sol i'd, of short. curly buffalo grass and it is almost as good for travel as an asphalt street. There isn't enough rain to hurt the roads at any time, but the land buy CT is not told this fact.
 The surface here and there dips into saucerlke depressions. The subsoi being clay, when 1t rains lakes form in these holows in a night. In a week they have disappeared. There has been rain enough this sum mer, however, to make some of these lakes present the appearance of perma- nent institutions. and the land agent em- ploys them right handily in clinchng his propositions. The Panhandle contains about 20, 000 square miles, and practically all of 1t has been sold several times in the last three years.
 The final unloading Is now on. Take a farmer from Illinois and Iowa. and he finds it difficult to make more than 6 per cent on his $125 land at home. A quarter section will readily sell for $20,- 000 and with that sum he gets from 1000 to 1000 acres in Texas, or land enough for all of the boys and some left to make a new home on. One Des Moines firm has options on 750 900 acres in three counties. The firm l has agreed to build 150 miles of railroad through the counties and to plant 15,O00 settlers there within eighteen months. It looks now as though 1t wN1ld have no diff ficulty in making good.
 It recently ran a special train of Iowa farmers, men who represented 1000 faml- lies in their section, in a handspring tour, down into Lubbock county, and sold them a big tract of land in a body. It is not unusual for considerable portion of the residents of one county in the older states l to transplant itself in body to Texas. Climate Is Delightful.
 The Panhandle is described as a pretty country to look at, with a delightful cli- mate. owing to the high altitude Its one drawback, about which little Is said, is Ne depth one must go for water. It is seldom found at less than 300 feet, and sometimes one has to go three times that distance
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