The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-14
FARMING EXPERTS
 ON SPECIAL TRAIN
Addresses Made to Farmers in
 Mississippi Towns
LONG STOP AT MERIDIAN
Court Adjourns That Everybody May Hear What the Agricultural Ex- perts Have To Say About
 Improved Farming.

| The party of agricultural experts and railroad officials who are on tour through Mississippi and Alabama on the farmers special of the Mobile and Ohio and the Southern railway arrived in Me ridian shortly after 2 o'clock this after noon. On the arrival of the special at the union depot the visitors were met by a committee delegated by the Board of Trade and conducted to the courthouse, Those in the committee were: o. l.. Mc- Kay, freight agent Mobile and Ohio rail road; Spencer Gray local agent New Or leans and Northeastern; J. A. Gibson, cashier Union Bank and Trust company; Edwin McMorries. president First Ma tional bank; Col. H. M. Street, vice pres ident Meridian Board of Trade, and pres ident Citizens National bank; Simon Klein and representatives of the local newspapers.
 Judge J. L. Buckley adjourned cir | cult court for the afternoon at o'clock in order to enable the visitors to use the courthouse and to permit the farmers who were attending court to hear the speaking.
 
 first presenting M " Richards, land and industrial agent of the Southern railway and Mobile and Ohio railway, of Wash ington. under whose direction the tour is being made.
 Speech of Richards. | MT. Richards spoke of the interest which the railroad company feels in the success of the agriculturists along its line, realizing that on the prosperity of the people largely depends the prosperity of the common carriers. The opinions of the northern and western farmer in re- gard to this part of the south have been l entirely changed within the last few years and many of them are coming in this direction, or making inquiries in regard to locations in the yellow pine belt, he said. The cry, "Go west, young man." has been changed to Ego south." Many of the southern people who went away | are returning more convinced that the south has great and unrivalled possibil- ities.
 1 MT. Richards urged his hearers to vital ize their opportunities and predicted that in ten years the farming element in Mis- sissippi will be surprised at the progress they have made. He spoke of the can ming industry as one which will event ually make the people of this neighbor- hood more prosperous and said that the Mobile and Ohio railroad, in order to encourage truck growing in eastern Mis- sissippi will run a fast freight from Mo- bile to St. Louis as soon as the vegetable season opens. The freight rates. he said, will be about 35 per cent less than ex- press rates on the same class of mer- chandise. The remarks of MT. Richards were heartily applauded.
 MT. Wilson's Address. R. s. Wilson of Columbus, Miss, who has charge of the farmers cooperative demonstration work in the states of Ala bama and Mississippi was next intro | duced. He said that he was glad to say the department of agriculture is no longer the department of agriculture at Wash | ington but of the United States; that practical men are now being sent all 1 over the country not merely to write about and to talk about better methods | of farming, but to actually demonstrate | the work promulgated by the experts of | the department in the field and at Wash l sissippi last year conducted demonstra- tion farms in Mississippi alone under the | direct supervision of men sent out by | the department to instruct them. The results obtained, as shown By the reports l of experiments, have been such as to justify the belief that the modern meth ods recommended by the department will be generally adopted
 Mr. WiIkinson's Speech.
 The next speaker was the Hon. J. A. | Wilkinson, commissioner of agriculture and industries for the state of Alabama. 1 MT. Wilkinson Is a practical farmer and l knows how to tell farmers facts in re- | gard to their industry in an interesting manner He entertained the audience l with numerous stories which brought | forth frequent applause and concluded by urging the southern farmers to di- versify their crops and to raise and pre- | serve products which are now shipped into this section by the hundreds of carloads and which could as well be grown in Alabama and Mississippi.
 Commissioner Blakeslee of Jackson was the last of the speakers. He told of the work now being done by the agricultural department of the state of Mississippi which was establishe ed only three and a half years ago. He | outlined the acts of the last legislature in the interest of the farmers and said that the last legislature had done more to advance and protect the agricultural Interest than any of it's predecessors in the past 10 years.
 Colonel Street Speaks. Col H. M. Street len addressed the visitors and audience in behalf of the board of trade. He thanked the speak CTS for the lessons which they have taught and predicted a great deal oi good would come from such efforts in behalf of better agricultural methods and also agreed with them along the lines that this section needs many ad. ditional manufacturing industries foI the, utilization of the raw material pro- duced on farms.
 Besides those who made addresses accompanying the farmers special, are Messrs c. A. Pigford, superintendent of the Mobile and Ohio, Meridian divis. ion; w. E. England, freight agent Charles Rudolph, passenger agent; w l.. Henderson, agent land and industria department c. F. Blue, superintendent of ways and sustenance; E. c. Randall superintendent of transportation, Mo. bile and Ohio railroad; G. B. Trigg ant H. D. V. King, secretaries. David Holt industrial writer. representing south err papers, is also with the party.
 Stop at Waynesboro.
 The farmers special train left Mo. bile on it's way north Tuesday morning and after numerous stops where en | thusiastic crowds of farmers and trucl growers were addressed by the agri cultural specialists, reached Waynes boro Tuesday night. Circuit court i