The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-05-26
THE SMALL FARM
IN OLD VIRGINIA
a Five Hundred Dollar
Farm and Home and
How 1t Pays.
'OAKDALE COLONY,
IN SUSSEX COUNTY
On Virginia Land Farmer Can
Make Money on Twenty-Five
Acres-An Experiment
That Is Showing
Splendid Re-
suits.

WAVEll.I, VA, May 2b.-The vast
and broad acre Iarm has been the
curse of the South under the new con-
ditions. and, per contra, the small,
compact farm will be It's salvation"
Thus spoke Colonel L. L. Polk OF
North Carolina, In what was one among
the last speeches he made before an
audience of farmers few months be-
fore his death. a decade or more ago.
Colonel Polk was an agitator, and by
some considered crank but as Com
missioner OF Agriculture of North
Carolina and editor of n leading agri-
cultural journal, he planted good seed
that have since sprouted. and some OF
them have brought abundant crops.
It's Day Has Passed Away.
The big plantation. which was all
right in the oiden time, when there
was no such things as labor scarcity
and labor troubles, was the bane of the
South for long years after the war.
and is yet serious trouble. 1t Is so
hard for the Southern people to grasp
the idea that a twenty five acre or a
ffty-acre. or even a hundred-acre farm
is really farm. Somehow. they have
been trained to look upon such guam
tity of land as mere garden patch,
ht only for children and boys to prac-
have been slow. too slow, to learn that
a small patch. we'll cultivated, beats
vast acres simply scratched over. 1t
requires object lessons to impress this
indisputabe fact.
One Right on Hand.
At OakdaIe, two and a half miles out
from this town, few gentlemen are
presenting such an object lesson. Three
or four years ago Mr.. +. Fl. LaBaumc,
the agricultural and Industrial agent of
the Norfolk and Western Railway,
learned that the Oakdale tract of 1900
acres was on the market and could be
bought cheap. He went over the land,
which was covered with timber and
underground there being not house
on 1t. and finding it good land he be-
lieved 1t afforded a splendid opportu-
nifty to present an object lesson, and
he brought the matter before the Nor
folk and Western authorities. The road
Is not in the real estate business, and,
under its rules and regulations, could
do no more than to encourage in gem
eral way such an enterprise. inaugu-
rated by private parties. Mr.. LaBaume
later induced several personal friends
to join with him in the purchase of the
tract 1t was bought cheap enough
and tho company instructed their
agent. Mr.. +. ]. Moore. to proceed to
develop it on the colony idea. so pop
ular in the West, and which has done
so much to build UP agriculture in that
region
Twenty-lve-Acrc "Patches."
A year ago survey of the tract was
made. and it was mapped out and d.
vided into twenty hve-acre FARMS
seventy-eight of them in ALL Contracts
We're made with builders for the erec-
ton of Settlers cottages" on five of
the diminutve farms, and road build
Sussex county roads. that already
passed through the tract, and 70 build
new ones where needed.
Then a small advertising camrairr
which the Norfolk and Western greatly
aided In was entered upon, and the
immediate result was to start the COLONY
with the sale of several of the small
farms and the cottages then thereon
70 actual settlers. These places were
SOLD TO western men OF srall means.
young married men, who are lust start
ing out In life with very limited means
to start upon; young settlers, pioneers.
IL may be said. They were given most
accommodating terms and encouraged
~ every way. They were pleased when
tney located and they wrote back to
their old homes to others who ara
Just starting in life. These letters
toiu or tho good lands. the accom-
'.touatihs terms. the hospitality of the
people of Waverly and Sussex COMMIT,
the salubrious climate. the good watar
we nearby markets. tho school and
church advantages, and Mr.. LaRaumeS
ana MS associates did not have RI do
any more Advertising. Sales We're made
readily, and now over half Of the twen-
y-HVe-acre farms have been sold. ann
al or those now sold and perhans ali
or tho track to be sold, will be occn-
pied ana cottages built upon them
oeio'e me opening of next spring,
The Colonists at Work.
At present, twelve actual settlers
from ., the rigid Northwest occupy
the h"mple cottages and they are
Morhihs llke busy bees in a hive.
clearing up the lands for this snrinr..
piah,ihs. several of the places taken
by the rirst-comers have already haen
made revenue producing. On five nr
thein memories We're established in
time to raise snring chickens for the
markets or Waverly, Petersburg. Ricb-
mond and Norfolk. On each Of these
Is q three-hundred egg incubator. and
over 5000 chickens have been sold from
the Oakdale colony this spring. An of
these early settlers have cleared nm
their lands or part of them and are
putting in crops that will bring them
good returns this year. Those who
came in later are alse-ln tIme for other
crops. but they We're Just a little late
for the spring chicken crop. However.
they Will be on the market in great
shape another spring.
Small beginnings.
Every little family that has entered
the colony las bought or is building
with the aid OF tha company only a 5000
cottage. and when cottages ara built i