Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1910-05-15
THE SOUTH WILL WELCOME SETTLERS Millions of Acres Now Await Flow of 7TIusbandman. OURFUTURE PROGRESS Cities and Towns to Flourish Nlth the Coming of Northern Brawn
 and Brains.
OURFUTURE PROGRESS
Chicago Record-Herald)

ThrOughout the entire South ana southwest-in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas especially there is beginning to take definite form a united movement, with the oD- feet of bringing settlers to millions of acres of uncultivated lands and added commerce to hundreds of cities and towns. Soon, tiguratively, the South is to journey up into the North and stretch forth it's arms.
 The South has not been oblivious to the back-to-the-soil movement which has been sweeping the north; ill fact there were many in the South who be- came so yitallv concerned with the velopment possibilities of Dixie that broad-guage investigations were un- dertaken to determine just what val ue Southern land possessed agricul- turally, aside from it's ability to pro- duce cotton and sugar cane. These inyestigations were made with the
  latent advantage the Southern States possessed, rather than solely With the object of exploitation to head off and turn southward thousands of settlers removing to other sections of the country to take competence from the soil. Now that the soil has been prov ;. %< i}c a0 m of education, and there are not few who believe that Dixie is within the next few years to see an agricultural and municipal development for which she has been waiting since the per- iod of the Civil war.
 Arkansas Is Awake.
 Perhaps the most striking lllustra- ton of the present attitude of the South is seen in Arkansas. At Pine Bluff, the Jefferson County Land and Industrial Congress has just been held this being the forerunner of some 40 or more similar congresses which are to be arranged this year A congress
 
 State, one following the other, and all supplementary to the first Arkan- sas land congress, held at Little Rock recently The object of these gath erings is to decide upon the most ef- ficient method to be adopted to place before the world the agricultural ad- vantages of Arkansas.
 To have spoken of Arkansas as an agricultural center at any time pos sibly, to few years ago would have drawn a smile of derision from prac- tically anyone outside the State. and no doubt from good proportion of those within it's borders. The discov- cry however, that rice could be grown profitably in Arkansas and the sub sequent discovery that by employing the water from the rice wells for oth- CT purposes, practically any crop could be successfully matured, have served to eradicate to a large extent the pre- judice of fifty years toward the Bear State.
 Aided by Wells.
 The soil in Arkansas is underlaid by subsoil of clay, and for this reason the shallowness of the surface-the State naturally was a poor producer until the underlying stratus of arte- sian water was found. There are thousands of acres of land in Arkan- sas which ten or twenty years ago could have been purchased for as lit tie af 50 cents an acre. At Stuttgart it is said that whole section of good prairie land-now mostly ill rice fields returning from $50 to $100 per acre-was once transferred for con- sideration that amounted to one sec ond-hand shot gun. The land today is valued at $100 per acre.
 At almost any point in Arkansas artesian wells can be sunk and water found. The depth of the wells var ies from 50 to 75 feet to several hum dred feet. The water rises to within o0 or 4O feet or the surface and IS pumped up by gasoline or steam pumps. The wells were first employ ed wholly for the cultivation of rice, but the farmers now have begun to rotate the crops and with the Arkan- sas rice fields are now seen many oats and corn fields. Orchards also are being profitably promoted and some alfalfa and wheat are being pro- duced.
 Extensive Stump Lands.
 South of Stuttgart, between Pine Bluff. Little Rock and Hot Springs, there are thousands of acres of cut over pine lands which can be pur- chased at prices in the nedghborhood