The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-20

 STILL VERY CHEAP Can Be Bought for $35 an
 Acre IS A DISADVANTAGE
Northern Immigrants Think There Must Be Something Wrong With Lands Which Are Offered
 So Very Cheap
By WALTER HARPER

l Some of the best alfalfa lands in Mar engo. Perry and Greene coutnies may be | bought at $35 per acre.
 The government experts on soils who have recently made special investigations of these lands declare that they are the
 best and cheapest alfalfa lands in the world. Taking all things into considera- ton. they are the best in the world al any price.
 Red clay hill lands in Bibb. Shelby and
 Talladega counties that will not grow al- falfa are selling at s100 per acre, Some | of them cannot be bought for that price. | After riding through the best section or the hlacJx alfalfa lands in Alabama this
 week I came up into Bibb county among
 the hills and drove over farms that are held at more than s1o0 per acre. The very best of the alfalfa lands no" in cultivation are offered at only $3o. The cheapnes of these lands is one req son that they do not sell more rapidly
 The would-be buyer from the north ana
 west shys at the price, He naturally ar eues to himself that there must be some
 hidden disadvantage or defect in the lands. He is used to high-priced lands t1a knows the value of good soil and values it at the returns 1t Will prihe HI certain crops If these are the best alfaiia lands in the world he knows they should
 he worth many times the price asked. When he comes down to make an in-
 vest,pation and is carried out to inspect inc country he finds cotton and some corn growing on the finest of soils. mere are
 a few scattering fields of alfalfa that show I'D well, of course, where they are properly managed, but the gerat area or the country is planted to cotton ana the yield under the prevailing tenant system makes a very poor showing. There are wide sections of waste lana where the hegor tenants have backed away from hedge rows, patches or Johh- son grass and bald places that have been yielded to the force of erosion. The visitor sees but little stock outside
 inc regular stock farms that have but rscentlv been established. The average run of cattle on the tenant farms are scruhhv and poor on account of the infec- l t,on of the Texas fever tick and bad man agement.
 | The impression is altogether unravnra- ble and the visitor decides that tnere
 must be something wrong with the gov errment reports and he returns 10 the
 north or west. where the best there IS Tn
 the lands is being developed Another thing that decides the progress
 sive would-be buyer is the desolation or the farming section. The land owners as | q rule live in the towns and cities and the farms are left almost entirely with the
 neproes. Where the visitor naturally ex- poets to find neat and comfortapie noihes out on the farm he finds miserable negro l cabins.
 | Of course these conditions are peihs changed and very rapidly The approach l of the boil weevil and the migration ol 1 labor have forced the land owners 10 take some personal interest in the culti-
 vation of their lands. Some of the larger | and owners who appreciate the inevitable have placed portions of their holdings on | the market.
 | Some of the larger planters if they are
 unable to supervise the farm work them
 selves. arc employing experienced over
 seers who are either living on the planta-
 ton or ride out every day to direct oper- | ations
 Where such supervision has been adopt
 ed wonderful results are being accom-
 plished. Some of the more intelligent
 planters have already begun to realize
 the undiscovered value of their lands and the benefits of diversification.
 They are discovering at late day that continuous planting to cotton has well nigh sapped this wonderful soil of all It's | vitality. The fact that these lands have grown cotton continuously for more than a century is proof of their original ca pacity.
 What they will do under intelligent cul- tivation and scientific rotation has never been discovered.
 yet they may be bought at from slo to