Arizona republican., 1921-03-20
MOTOR GAR HELPS LAND VALUES IN THE
 SOUTHERN STATES

in the entire complexion of the South ern states. This complete transforma- casual travellers through that section of the country. but particularly by those persons who have been in the habit of making journeys South during the last half dozen years.
 The changes that have taken place due largely to better means of rural transportation, have been of vast inn portance not only in an economic sense, but in social way. The value of land, which in former years could be bought for n song, has materially increased. Social intercourse has been promoted and no longer is the wife of the farmer isolated in her little frame dwelling in the backwoods, but she is brought di- rectly into contact with the larger life of the city, because with her motor car she can readily reach the nearest rail- road station. whence usually it is but a short ride to the city, where she can save money on her purchases and also take in the sights.
 The enhancement of land values in the middle sections of Georgia, Ala bama and Mississippi, by reason of motor transportation, has been partic- ularly marked. Splendid farms at a distance of 20 miles from the nearest railroad formerly could be bought for as little as S3 to $6 an acre But that situation has now been changed The change has been worked in an interesting manner. That these iso lated farm lands formerly found no purchasers was entirely due to their inaccessibility. Plantation owners, who for many years have been in the habit of advancing both money and rations to their tenants, found this kind of business unprofitable, because they were unable to determine the prog ress of the crops at the time that they made the advances, and further, at harvest time they were unable to de- termine whether interruptions tenants were running off large proportions | of their cotton, corn and cattle on which the merchant planters held l liens.
 1 Now this situation has been obviated. The landlord jumps into his motor car and within the hour he is riding over his plantation in the capacity of an overseer. Many of the old-time darkies complain bitterly that their landlords are exercising too great a vigilance and that they are unable to realize the profits on their harvests as in former years.
 But many of the negro tenants have moved out of the rural sections. leaving their farms idle. This condition was 1 greatly accentuated by the demand for industrial laborers during the war. h. deed, in some sections of the black belt the farms have been so utterly I deserted that the countryside has been | plagued with an excess of rabbits, for merly the principal sport of the ne groes. These animals work great de- T struction to sweet potatoes and other crops and the farmers have been forced to abandon the potato crop in lmany instances. just as they were formed to give up the cultivation oi cotton because of the boil weevil-
 What should be done with these idle farms was a perplexing problem for the Southern landowners. until they
 awoke to the practicability of motor transportation. They are converting
 these tracts of land into immense , pecan orchards, and with the aid oi the motor car they are able to plant i, land cultivate these nut-bearing trees For, while labor is unobtainable on the farms they find it possible to gather the forces of worlSmen that are re- |, quired to dig the holes and plant the , budded trees, and then once or twice
 a year make journey back to tnt orchards to break up the soil with disl blows, prune the young trees and re fplace all those that have died.
 The landowners in the middle bell | of the southern tier of the southerr
 states admit that the motor car ha:
 been responsible for the enormous ad-
 vance in values of their land What
 formerly sold for s3 and s an acr' is now fetching S25 an acre in the re
 mote districts, and small farms adja
 cent to the villages, situated on tht
 railroads. are selling for as much al s100 an acre. This is because of the
 enormous productivity of pecar
 groves. The landowners estimatt
 that an acre planted in oceans vii ~ produce yearly s250, even should these
 nuts which have been selling in tn, last few years for S1 a pound, decline | in price to as little as 10 cents, whicf ] is highly improbable. because thu homely peanut has ralely ever falleI ] to that mark.
 The motor car similarly has proved } a godsend to the cattle men. In year,
 gone by they depended almost solel! | on the saddle horse to convey then i through miles of fields and hills il search of their stock, and it was whole days job to round up cattl for salting and feeding. A typica $ instance of the benefit to the cattl'
 raisers from the motor car was ob served recently on a ranch near Liv ingston Ala The owner of an es 9 tate of about 1000 acres, who formerl. , realized returns from the land tha 2 were hardly sufficient to pay taxes
 decided to stock it with cattle. / : few years ago this land was but
 series of limestone hills, as white ant
 as bleak as the deserts of Arizona.
 The hills were washing away unti
 the owner conceived the idea of fillini
 the gulleys with underbrush to stol
 the erosion and then planted the lan' with alfalfa. This treatment resulted n at the end of couple of years il r yielding one of the richest pasture
 ever seen in that part of the country
 The owner then stocked the lan'
 with 500 head of cattle. These h :, bought as yearlings at s35 a head am o | turned them in upon the alfalfa lands v where they were able to find sub a | sistence for nine months out of ever,
 twelve. During the three sever
 months of winter the cattle are pu
 under sheds. where they feed iron a | silos stocked with miIlet and corn. A
 the end of the second year these cattl r. have increased in weight to 100 4 pounds and are sold for cents on tn . hoof. netting the cattle owner s55
 head or about s27,500 on the entir
 herd
 Q That he is able to tend these cattl a practically unaided is due to the fac f that he has equipped himself with a | small motor car in which he can clim . the hills of his cattle ranch and nego q tiate many Of the rough spots whic
 formerly it was believed only hors = could pass. Sometimes he rides fo