The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-01
FARMERS FLOWING UP COTTON CROPS Boil WeeviIS And Rain Cause Trouble In Mississippi CORN AND PEAS PLANTED Old Pictures of First Railroad Train in Mississippi Are Interesting in
 Comparison With Present
 Day Equipment.
CORN AND PEAS PLANTED

Jackson, Miss, June so-(Special.)-A travelling man who spent yesterday at Natchez states that he was told while there that a great many of the planters and farmers of Adams county are blow ing up cotton that is nearly knee high and planting the land to corn and peas. The boil weevils have taken possession of many places, and the farmers see that if they would make anything at all they must produce something that the weevils will not eat
 The weevlls have attacked the young cotton in great numbers, and every form or boil that appears Is promptly pune tured and killed, so that the best cotton in the county is doomed.
 The weevils have not been reported in Hinds county so far, but the farmers along the southern border know they are coming and dread the day. One reason, perhaps. they have not done any damage In this section of the state is that there Is no cotton yet large enough or suf ficiently advanced to support form or hold up a boil. All crops are not that backward, as matter of course, but that is the rule in this section, and the farm CTS are wearing very long faces, appre- ciating the fact that they are up against the naroost proposltiou III the way or crop prospects they ever faced in their lives And the rains continue every day.
 The Rev. B. E. Lewis of Columbia sends pr. Dunbar Rowland, director of archives and history, four pieces of money issued by the West F'eliciana Railroad company at its offices in Woodvile in 1892 Two of these bills are of the s2o denomination. one is for $50 and the other for S100. If R<r fha,- %Iaxv nc f.ta f1aI interest as showing a photograph of a railroad engine and train of cars of that date. These are of no more resemblance to the engines and coaches of today than an OK cart Is like the newest models of autos. This West Feliciana railroad was perhaps the first ever chartered by the state of Mississippi and that was by the legislature of 1881. It was to operate between Woodville and St. Francisville3 La, a distance of g miles. But about the same time, or shortly thereafter, other roads were under way and by 1s40 there were S3 miles of railroad in the state 800 hands being at work on the Vicksburg and Brandon, IA miles of which had been completed east from Vicksburg and A miles on the Grand Gulf and Port Gibson. By 1855. according to the report of the Railroad Journal of New York, there were 226 miles of railroad in operation in Mis-
 
 nearly 400 miles of standard gauge railroad in the state and others projected.
 Not satisfied with being known as the banner county in the state, so far as good roads are concerned, the citizens of Coahoma have matched a gigantic scheme to construct an automobile drive from Memphis to New Orleans. following the great levees and the tracks and embank- ments of the Valley railroad. The Busi- ness league of the city of Clarksdale seems to be In dead earnest about the matter, and will go before the board of supervisors with a proposition to float bonds in the sum of $25O.OO0 to further the movement.
 The local paper takes up the proposition declaring the idea is feasible one and in every way practicable. It Is stated that adjoining counties have promised to come In on the movement and in the event they do, 1t will be carried to suc- cess, as these delta counties do not stand back on ceremony or cost.