Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-10-07
NEW INVASION OF
SOUTH PLANNED
New York Syndicate Gong Into
Georgia To Develop Small Farms

able homes, nj cropping days year
ample rainfall and convenient mark
cts are some of the pleasing features
of the most recently launched enter
prise for the development of the
South through popularizing of the di-
versified crop movement.
A New York syndicate known as
the Southern States Development Co.,
has just been formed to develop farm
lands in Coffee County, Georgia. The
syndicate which includes among its
founders James C. Brady, Nicholas
F Brady, Frank Petit, Frank M.
Taft, and William V. Griffin of New
York; Langbourne M. Williams of
Richmond and William H. Barrett and
Dixon F. Kirkland of Augusta. Ga,
has purchased 1900 acre tract $50
miles from Augusta, running along
the line of the Georgia and Florida
railroad.
Already ten homes have been built
sort of dwellings which are to be fur
nished by the syndicate. The houses
are to be comfortable five or six room
modern buildings, attractive in ap-
pearance and equipped so that life
will be agreeable for the women folk
and offer opportunities of pleasant
family life. In addition to the dwell
ing house each unit will have its barn
or garage and other necessary out
buildings for farming purposes.
Each unit of the tract will contain
about 120 acres of fertile land partial
ly or wholly cleared The farmers who
are taking up the land will make an
initial payment of $1,000 or $1,000 and
will have ten years to pay off the en-
tire purchase price of $500.
Looking for Practical Farmers
'eW are more interested at present
in getting good farmers to. take up
units than in marketing our land"
Said Mr.. Petit today. "We propose
to go on with Southern development
and we want this tract to be aiken up
by practical farmers, men who are
ambitious and who will know how to
use the great opportunities afforded
by this fertile land and the ideal grow
ing conditions to advantage. Good
farmers are bound to make money
down there and we want to see them
make money. There is no better
land for pigs and poultry in the Uni
ted States, although the Southern peo-
pie have never developed these posi-
bilities. The adaptability of this part
of the country for the growing of
melons, peaches and other fruits is
of course well known. The right sort
of people will appreciate the pleasant
homes which will be made over to
them and the fact that the land ~
cleared and ready for planting when
it is turned over. They will be able
to live comfortably from the first with
out waiting for years for the money
to enlarge their houses or improve
them to meet modern standards.
'The South has always been in the
hands of men who owned large plan
tations containing from 10000 to 80.
600 acres. They had no neighbors,
and didn't want any, grew cotton only
and depended on negro workers. Now
they wat to have the land occupied
by farmers who will take up moder-
ate sized tracts and they are eager to
get away from cotton as the stole
crop. Last year the melon crop in that
section of Georgia did a good deal to
compensate for the losses from the
cotton crop so that they are willing
o see something else tried in the neig-
hborhood.