The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-09-19
What Was Done at Chad
bourn an Object
Lesson
WHAT DRAINAGE IS DOING

The Settlers and the Old Timers Have
Gone Into the Matter Of Drainage
in a Way That Will Greatly Improve
the Crops and the Health-SOme
Facts About the Development of
the Straw berry and Trucking Inter
ests.
The editor of the Whiteville News
Reporter last week paid a visit to
C~hadbourn, the town built by State
Senator Joseph a. Brown and his
brother. They brought many settlers
into the section and have mad land
that went begging at one dollar an
acre worth from $40 to 500 an acre.
These Brown boys bought a piece of
land around Chadbourn and cut the
timber, and made d little money. Then
comes the development, as Editor
Gault tells it:
after saving off the timber, Hon.
J. A. Brown stated to us that he be-
came so respondent that he decided
to exodus to a far Western State. On
reaching Chicago, he met an enter
prising gentleman who advised him to
COLOMBO these lands with farmers
from the Middle West, and loaned
him $1,000 to assist in the york. This
was some fourteen years ago. AssO-
ciated with his enterprising brother,
Mr.. r. e. L. Brown, they bought up
around C~hadbourn a considerable bod
of that cheap land, had it surveyed
into f~orty-acre tracts. some bitches
cut and then expended $4,000 in ad-
vertising and launching their coloni-
cation scheme. They fixed the price
Of land at only IS per acre, on easy
terms of payment, and did not seek
to mislead or deceive. They said the
land was fertile. but it was entirely
unimprOved and must be cleared and
drained. Some 1900 c~olonists re-
sponded, some landing here utterly
penniless, a few with sums ranging up
to $500, and others drove through the
country, being months on the road.
One family started with a brood of
newly Matched biddies in a basket and
on landing in C~hadbOurn the chickens
were large enough to eat. But these
were magnificent specimens
of American citizens, such men as
carved our great nation from a howl
ing wilderness. MI. Brown says he
used great care in choosing these col
onists, excluding all members Of the
Latin races and giving preference to
the different Protestant denomina-
lions. To show the nativities of the
~colonists round Chadbourn we found
countries and States: England, Can
ada. New York, Massachusetts. Penn
sylVanla, Delaware, Maryland, Michi-
gan. Ohio, Iowa, Virginia, Indiana,
Missouri, Kansas, California, Colorado,
New Mexico. Florida, West Virginia,
Montana and Oklahoma. We do not
ppos there is such a cosmopolitan
rural community in the South, or any
community i'll which good will, unity
and harmony prevails.
Never did the hardy frontiersman
greater encouragement
than these celonists when they reach
ed the site of what is now the thriv-
ing little city of C~hadbourn. The
country was almost an unbroken will
derness, dotted with unsightly pools
of water. Some became discouraged
and returned home without investing.
Others bought land and after encoun-
tering so many obstacles, returned to
their former homes; but Mr.. Brown
says most of those who purchased
land came back again to it and YOU
now can't buy their farms and they
are delighted with their new homes in
the Sunny South.
What Drainage Is Doing.
And then again we had an oppor-
tunity to investigate the Chadbourn
drainage district and which will do so
much for that section. The water lev
Ell will be lowered from four to six
feet on 1000 acres Of land. There
will be 10 miles of canal to cut, at a
contract cost Of thirty thousand dol
lars. This makes the cost Of drain
age something under $3.50 per acre
and the yields already show that the
increased crops will more than return
this outlay the first year while the
price of lands in the drainage section
is advancing by leaps and bounds. Mr..