Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-05-13

tCopyrtght, 1917, by Frank G. Carpenter.)
NEW ORLEANS, La
ut is thirty-six hours by fast express
| train from Washington to New Or
leans The distance is about as great
q as from London to Rome, or as from
Boston to Chicago, and the trip can be
made in as comfortable trains. The
Southern railway, on which l came here.
takes one through parts of the south
which can do much in the furnishing of
food and war supplies. l rode the whole
length of Virginia, crossing the wheat
and corn lands of the rich Shenandoah
valley, passing through Lynchburg. the
great tobacco market, and striking my
first big cotton mills at Danville on the
border Of North Carolina. From there
on for distance as great as from New
York to Cleveland we were in sight of
cotton mills, many of which are making
supplies for the soldiers. The great red
brick, white Widowed factories rise right
up in the midst of the plantations, and it
seemed as though the smoke from their
stacks must pollute the white bolls when
the crop is ready for harvest. About
every factory is its mill village, consist
ing Of one-story houses of from three to
five rooms, and in most of the villages
are large new brick schoolhouses, which
rise high above the homes of the people.
In going through North Carolina we
stopped at Highpoint, the Grand Rapids
Of the south. 1t has seventy furniture
factories and its beds. chairs and tables
are now sold all over the Union. 1t also
makes street cars for Washington, New
York city and other large towns Of the
north. Further south we saw cottonseed
an Industrial beehive which reminds one
of the big cities of the middle west.
Everywhere the new south is in evidence
Its industries are rapidly growing, and it
can do a great deal along many lines in
this critical period. 1t is already making
about $4,000 900. 900 worth of goods every
year. or more than $500 per annum for
lives south of Mason and Dixons line.
Cotton is still the chief crop of the
south. The factories are rapidly in
creasing in number. and with the high
dividends. The .sky-high cotton"
boosted up by the war. is leading many
of the planters to drop their diversi-
fed farming. This tendency is being
fought by the Department of Agricul-
ture at Washington, and also by the
states and the railways.
The cry sent out for more food is af-
fecting the crops of this year. We saw
patches of corn. peas and beans here
and there along the line. and gardens
are being planted as never before.
Near Atlanta we passed through the
enormous peach orchards of Georgia.
which are now annually sending mill
lions of barrels of fruit to the north
The Southern railway alone carried
three thousand carloads last year.
Diversified farming is needed to bring
up the land. and the war. demand for
foodstuffs will do the country perma-
nent good AS it is, many of the farms
have been cropped again and again.
until they seem thin and worn out, and
the whole region lacks the prosperous
look of the states between New York
and the Mississippi river The greater
part of the country is dreary to an ex-
IRENE. The land washes into gulIeys
and the slopes must be terraced like
the farms of the Rhine valley and the
different from those of Ohio. Indiana
and Illinois. There are no large barns
nor outbuildings: There are no hay
stacks and no silos. There are no
fences Of either rail or wire, and but
few cattle. sheep, horses or hogs are
to be seen. The houses are growing
better. but most of them still need a
coat of fresh paint. There is no grass
to speak of, and the most of the land
has yet to be resown before it can be
turned into the mighty meat basket
that the agricultural experts say 1T Will
be when properly farmed.
Leaving Atlanta. we went downhill
almost all the way to the Gulf of
Mexico. We passed through Alabama,
whose coal. iron and steel will form
one of Uncle Sans big assets in max
ing guns, armor plate and similar war
rich Mississippi delta, with it's vast
unreclaimed swamps, and stopped at
New Orleans. in the very heart of
one of the coming bread lands of the
United States
All along the line from Washington
to the mouth of the Mississippi both
man and nature are jumping. In the
north the farmers are blowing and
planting their cotton. and setting out