The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-11-23
"CUMBERLAND'S FINE SOIL.
Farms Jump From $500 to $4,000
in a Short Time-Old T~urpentlne
Lands Are Capital For Cotton
More Than a Bale to the Acre ITO

Fayetteville, Nov. 14.-This is the
glorious day Of the great Southern
kins-King Cotton-and those who
grow it; with lint bringing IS cents
a pound and seed As a bushel, the in
telligent grower is in high clover.
Fayetteville is the heart of a very
excellent cotton region, and the crop
here, this year. is good: some lar
mers are making more THAI a bale
per acre. Recently, within the last
our years, a significant movement
affecting this immediate sect1on' was
begun in South Carolina. Years g
when the long leaf pines began to
fail, hundreds of land owners DESERT
ed their possessions in this State and
went South. to Georgia, first, and
then to Florida, where they could
continue in the turpentine business.
The abandoned North Carolina lands
were leased to Indifferent tenants
who wrested from them a bare exist
ence. In Cumberland there were
many such. It was discovered, not
long ago, that these old turpentlne-
tree lands, with top coat of sand and
clay sub-sOil, were fine for cotton.
Young farmers came up from Mari
boro county South Carolina, and
bought farms for songs and 1t ala
not take many years to reveal the
fact that with proper treatment this
soil would produce as much as the
500 an acre lands they left behind.
Some of their friends Joined them.
The xodus from Marlboro has con-
tinued, and the price of the soil In
creased. One farm that sold for So
500 four years ago brought the hand
some sum of $4,000 last week.
Seventy-five acres that produced IT
bales in 1904 will produce more than
rs bales this year. Seventy-hrst town
ship, nearly as large as Durham
county, is going to be a gold mine.
King Coteon is flourishing there as it
has done for years in Marlboro coun-
ty. Many outsiders are coming here
to locate. DR.. Paul Barringer, presi-
dent of the Virginia Polytechnic IN
stitute, at B~lacksburg, has just pur-
chased a pretty place near Fayette-
Vile, and will send one of his sons
there to farm on it. Mr.. Williamson
Hamer, a W~ell-known planter Of
South Carolina, bid in $40 acres in
Se~Venty-frst, at auction, ten days ago.,
for S45 an acre. Inside Of six years
the same land SOLD for $3.50 per
acre.
This movement Of farmers was
started, l was told, by the Edins
brothers of the Rowland neighbor-
hood when they purchased the Maury
Fork place of w. N. Williams.
The other day, while at Fayette-
vile. | saw Mr.. John H. McIlwinen,
ST., riding about the streets in an
automobile, and was Informed that
he was one of the new farmers of
Se~venty-first. Before that time l had
not seen a farmer in his own autono-
bile. On a large tract Of land Mr..
McIlWinen has harvested more than
500 pounds Of lint per acre.
Later in the day, when / met Mr..
M~cIlwinen, and asked him concerning
the lands of Cumberland. he said:
This cotton section has a light top
soil, with clay foundation. Most Of
it is covered, before cleared, with the
r~ound-leaf black jack. We are max
ing form a bale to a bale and a half
per acre. [ have 500 acres that will
yield 500 bales this season. think
the soil of Cumberland is better than
that of Marlboro.
This land lies within eight miles
of Fayetteville. Five year ago it
was selling for SIS an acre; now it is
bringing $500"
This is a remarkable story. Every
body here is talking about the sud
den bound of the old sand hill. Mr..
Walter L. Holt has 1000 acres that
cost him about $4,000 several years
ago. Heretofore he has used them
for fish-lakes.
Cumberland is a large county, hay
ing but 1000 acres less han Robson,
the largest county in the State. Many
of her acres have been idle for de-
cades but it looks now as if they
would be put in cotton and other
valuable Tops.
1t is nOt unusual to see two or
three strangers driving about the
country, looking at lands, With a view
to locating. Former Sheriff James f.
Jordan, Of Greensboro, one of the
leading real estate men Of the South,
is investing heavily in Cumberland
He owns thousands of acres near
Manchester. The people of FayetJs-
Vile are very much interested in the
influx Of land-purchasers. Fl. E. C. B.
Moral: Raise Supplies at Home.