The gold leaf., 1910-09-22
The Prosperous South.
Future Grain Belt Of the Country
Will be Southern States.

0reat development | trough
out the Length and Breadth
of Dixie Remarkable Build
ing Activity in Most Of the
Cities-Outlook in all Lines
of Progress Never So Prom
ising as 1t is Today-lm-
provement III Agricultural
Conditions Especially No
ticeable Everywhere.
A press dispatch from Baltimore
says that Richard H. Edmonds, edi-
tor of the Manufacturers Record,
who has just returned from person
al tour of the South, made with n
view to studying crop and business
conditions, in an interview said:
"The South will this year produce
1,0OO,000,00O bushels grain, mainly
corn, which will be about 200, 100000
bushels more than the yield of last
y SedI. ut ucNeIopilcilt vi COI IL
growing typifies the return OF the
South to the diversifcation OF agri-
culture prevailing prior to the war.
During the last twelve months
Southern cotton growers buying
feed stuff for their livestock have
paid from seventy We cents to ninety
cents a bushel for corn, while the
smaller farmers, buying on credit,
have paid as high as 1925 for it.
The great corn crop this year COM
pletely changes the situation.
"While it is too early to make any
safe prediction as to the production
OF cotton, there has been marked
Improvement in the cotton plant
throughout most of the South dur
ing the last few weeks. Whether the
crop be large or small it will be eneed-
ed to meet the worlds increasing
consumptive requirements. There is
a great expansion in the diversity OF
which cotton is being put.
"It is safe to estimate the value of
this years cotton crop from $780,
100000 to $1,000,O0O,O00, or more
than twice the production of ell the
gold mines in the world during the
same period. Grain and other crops
add from 81, 100000, 900 to $4,000
100000 to these figures, making
the total value OF the South's agri-
cultural output this year $780,
100000, as compared with $1,27O,-
100000 in 1900. The magnitude OF
this increase in the SOuth's agricul-
ture is seen in the fact that the value
OF this years output will exceed by
$3, 900, 100000 the total value of the
farm crops OF the United States in
1890.
$50 rapid has been the Industrial
development OF the South that the
value of manufactured and mineral
products of that section will this
year exceed the value of it's agricul-
tural output.
"In every part OF the South there
is remarkable building activity, most
OF the leading cities from Maryland
to Texas showing more building
work now under way than ever be-
fore. In Birmingham the United
States Steel Corporation, through
it's subsidity, the Tennessee Coal, Iron
and Railroad Company, is spending
about $S,OOO,OOO in the enlarge
ment OF its plant. The American
Steel and Wire Company, another
subsidiary, is building, at cost of
81 100000, a wire and rod mill.
"On the whole" continued Mr.. Ed
monds, "the outlook for the solid
business development of the South
was never so promising as it is to-
day. In that section there is com
paratively little OF the vigorous po-
litical agitation which a few years
ago helped to bring about stag
nation in industry by frightening
capital Conditions have materially
changed in that respect and unless
political agitation outside Of the
South should upset all business in
| terests the South will have year of
abounding prosperity"