The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1911-05-27

the neceSS4t' = o1 iiiC duu play al ILL
uortant pat IA the worlds cousump-
ton. Lng'..a.'s manufactures watch
US from the planting of the cottonseee
to every drop of rain that falls upon our
fields. The wires are kept busy be-
tween Liverpool, Wall street and the
New Orleans Cotton Exchange, and the
ouietude or feverish tone of the market
is duly and daily recorded.
Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas grow
the principal crops of the South's three
greatest staples. Land will produce
from one and q half to two bales per
acre in cotton, averaging five hundred
pounds per bale, at basis of ten cents
per pound, while sugar lands will yield
from twenty to twenty-five tons per
acre. which sells to the "eentral fac
tory" at from two and half to three
and half dollars per sack, producing
from fifteen to twenty to the acre.
Corn grows abundantly at little cost
and is of fine quality, well-cultivated
acre yielding forty bushels, while spe-
cial experiments have resulted in as
much as a hundred bushels.
No Southern writer who lifts his pen
in advocacy of immigration into the
South would hesitate to tell you that
we have a capital in our soil that only
awaits the heart and hand of the good,
steady yeomanry of the country, of the
good, rugged, honest type of citizen, to
develop and spread our inexhaustible
resources and prosperity throughout
the land.
Before the Civil War our land was
cultivated by numbers of negroes on a
large scale, hundreds and thousands OF
acres to one plantation. Since the war
this has been kept up to limited ex-
tent. But those who engage in it have
found out that it does not pay, except
when a large capital is employed, and
8 times out of ten the end is disastrous,
especially if the money be borrowed.
I consider we have a "New South"
We have long since recognized that
large plantations are of great risk to
the owner or owners, and, therefore, OF
little benefit to the country at large,
except for the mere employment OF
daily laborers and some tenants.
But the wise men of the South have
found out that what is good for the
country depends upon the facilities
afforded the laboring man and those
highest up, not only in intelligence, but
in financial possessions and the knowl-
edge of agricultural pursuits.
We have waste lands that are being
reclaimed, year By sr, ard swamps,
that after being drained are SO rich that
spade in them is equal to the plow in
ordinary soil.
The cai~-rant coming to the South
can select his crops or lay out his work
as he would sandwich his butter bread.
Here in Mississippi the fig ripens in the
sun, and there is hardly more than a
few steps between the poultry farm, the
dairy and the table. No good, enter
prising man can starve,
Our soil and our climate call for sue
cessful experiments in diversity OF
crops and there is no better example OF
what an emigrant could do in the South
than referring to the good old German
farmer, who, between his Holstein and
Jersey cows, his husbandry and his
poultry he never strives for riches, but
heis independent, out OF debt, with
surplus bank account, and on rainy
day is found at home enjoying the solic
comforts of the workingman's life.
But the emigrant to the South is want
ed in particular to draw the juices O.
the fruits, the products of our land and
distribute the great wealth for the gen
eral welfare of the citizen and tht
State in which he resides.
In the New Orleans City Item, 81
March 16, 1911, among other things
that journal truthfully stated: "Farn
lands all over the South.are rising in
price steadily. This is natural anc
highly desirable. The productive acre
age of the State is being increased eve
~ year through reclamation projects
and farmers from every part of th'
Union are taking up land here with the
intention of settling and developing
their holdings. One of the attractions
of the land has been its riches as to fer
tility and it's cheapness as to price,"
On his arrival here the emigrant car
take his choice between the product Of
the soil and her hidden treasures, wheth.
er it be of timber, of minerals, of oil anc
of salt, and of sulphur or the whiteihee.
CIV staple will be too beautiful for hin
to look upon, or, he may choose vegeta'
bles, strawberries and cane, with hog
and hominy pitted against adversely.
This reminds me to say that there il
not place in the South where the de-
sirable emigrant wishes to live anC
| where he cannot rotate his crops month
after month and follow his taste, from
pumpkins to the whippoorwill pea, and
from the drumhead cabbage and the
onion and the Irish potato down to the
sweet potato vine.
At present, this beautiful South o.
ours is rapidly being developed anc
is looked upon from all parts of the
United States as source of encourag-