The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-18
IMMIGRANTS GAN
 TEACH LESSONS How a Georgia Farmer is DeaI- ing With the Question TOMATOES A PAYING CROP Potatoes Are Also Raised to Great Ad. vantage-Forty-Acre Tracts Are
 ParceIed Out to German
 immigrants.
TOMATOES A PAYING CROP

John D. Walker of Sparta, Ga, one of the directors of the Georgia Immigration association, and one of the most prom inent citizens of Sparta, was in Bir- ] mngham yesterday. and will address the Bankers association this morning. MT. Walker is very much interested in the immigration question. and is at the pres ent doing some practical work along that line in Hancock county, Georgia.
 MT. Walker states that the Georgia Inn migration association is working now to organize immigration locals in every coun- ty in the state, ana in this way he thinks they will be able to warm the people up to the subject If a real live interest in the question is aroused throughout, the state it is believed that liberal appropria- tions from the legislature can be secured.
 ''rhe great question of immigration, however, is not so much a state or coun- ty question, as it is an individual ques- tion,' said MT. Walker. We need the state and county to help in the way of the establishment of bureaus of infor- nation and other centers from which to promote immigration to the best advan- , tage; but the most effective work, l be- lieve, is to be accomplished by the indi- vidual. The appropriation which the state may give do not accomplish the purpose for which they are intended except In an indirect way, and in most cases, if we wait on the state the thing will never be accomplished"
 MT. Walker owns a farm of about eight 4f.
 sa, which he has already begun to put to use. In speaking of hls plans yester- day he said:
 There seems to be a complaint among some of the farmers in Georgia and in other states that if the immigrants are sent to the south. more harm than good will be done, by the over production of certain products, especially cotton.
 My plan Is to divide the farm into 4O-acre tracts and allot one tract to each family. They will produce nothing but potatoes and tomatoes. and some other such truck. The various states should be producing these products instead of receiving them from the outside
 ''rhere are already six families on the farm, and there are twenty-three families to arrive from Long Island today These families are selected by man in New York, and are taken from the best class of German farmers who mmigrate. There is no trouble to get these families, and there are plenty of good ones.
 As an inducement they are offered good house, forty acres of land, good mule and other necessary equipment for the production of the first years crop. There is an expert German farmer who acts as overseer over the colony, and the families wno settle agree to act in ac- cordance with the ideas of this expert, and benefit thereby. Each family gets the whole crop, and out of the proceeds
 he buys the home in which he is living With the amount of fertilizer put on the ground they can easily make three good crops each year, and it is believed that profit of 5000 is conservative esti- mate.
 "We are preparing things so that the farmers will have q market right among them. canning factory is being put up and great deal of tine truck produced will be put up in cans. The farm is a uILle IeSS lndn seven HllleS rom the rall- road, and this makes 1t practicable to market the larger part or the crops in neighboring points in Georgia and in the adjoining states.
 ''The immigrants are to give 50 per cent of the first years crop toward the pur- chase of the ground on which they live, the regular market price of their product hainp allowed fhen1
 Tine thoroughness of the German farm CT is shown by the way they prepare their land. One of the first men who came to the colony set in to work on his ground and instead of merefy cutting the trees down and leaving the stumps which we would have to blow around. he dug every tree up by the roots. leaving him clear of interruption.
 q believe these immigrants will teach the negroes, and even our white farmers, how to make the business pay much more than they are now getting out of it"