Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1909-10-02
WHAI ONE MAN Has
DONE IN NORTH CAROLINA
Reclaimed Land That Nets
S4O0 to an Acre
Soil Beneath Swamps
Ten Feet Deep in
Richness

| w dSHIllS L. Us OCLs l.
John A. Wilkinson lives at Bel
| haven, n c.. He was born on back
woods farm miles from his present
residence. That was before Belhaven
came into existence, for Wilkinson
has built that prosperous town of
| 1000 people. That section of North
Carolina which lies between Able
marie and Pamlico sounds was prac-
tically a swamp in the early life of
Wilkinson, and wrestling a livelihood
from his fathers clearing resolved it.
self into a battle against too much
moisture The family victories were
often near defeats, with tragedy al
ways in the offing.
When Wilkinson had grown into
young manhood a railroad was built
into the section for the sake of the.
timber it contained and the young ma
tive son made fortune in lumber in
the Is years that followed. Inciden-
tally he sold lumber the country
over and got the viewpoint of the
great outside. He began to think of
applying what he learned to the lands
of his native birth. Scientific agri-
culture, practical drainage, offered
opportunity for experiment. He tried
these on the farm of his boyhood
The result was such crops as Illinois
never dreamed of. He grew rs bar
rels of potatoes and followed with rs
bushels of corn the same season and
sold the crop for $400 to the acre. He
Melted $4,000 on a field of cotton
containing $50 acres. Such staple
crops as corn and cotton yielded reg
nlarly $50 to the acre and better. Will
kinson determined to bring the posi-
bility of this yield to that 5O0,0O0l
acres of land that skirted the coast
between the two sounds.
He called upon the national depart
ment of agriculture to investigate its
soils, establish it's levels, and tell him
the manner in which it should be
drained and farmed. The soils were
found to be 10 feet deep with the veg
etable deposits of ages; the lands
high enough for drainage, and the
matter of farming merely the appli
cation of the principle of thorough
ness.
Wilkinson secured legislation which
authorized the formation of drainage
.:..YcSs to bond themselves for their
own improvement upon a vote of
three-flfths of the acreage. He gained
control of the necessary amount of
land to drain the whole region and
today his dredges are blowing great
canals through the forest-covered
swamps 20 feet wide, s feet deep and
but a mile apart. His men are telling
the timber in tracts of 5000 acres at
a time, match is being set to it when
dry. and without cultivation corn is
being planted in the loose loan and
a crop raised among the charred logs
and stumps that pays for the whole
operation.
This accomplishment is multiplying
the value of the land by 20 and its
productiveness by 1000. 1t is con-
verting the most despised region in
the United States into farming COM
munity which Willett NJ. Hayes, as
sistant secretary of agriculture, says
will surpass Iowa. 1t is making
wealthy the coon-hunting companions
of the youth of the man who is doing
this work. 1t is feeding the multitude
and building monument to it's NOV
ing spirit that will endure forever
Yet men have been growing up in
this section for 300 years and missing
its opportunities. The possibilities
were not apparent. Similar chances
rest latent in thousand communities
for the men who are able to see them.