The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1922-07-15
PRES. PERKINS HAS
PLAN, TO SELL LAND
Would Pool and Advertise in
County Papers of North
and West.


an excellent musical program by the
Alpha Concert Company. The sing
ing of the negro troupe made big
hit with the members and visitors,
and the club unanimously passed a
resolution endorsing the Alpha COM
pany as the best heard here in many
years.
President Perkins, after introduc-
ing aviator Erwin, w. H. Smith and
three visiting farmers from neigh
boring county, made a short, but i'm
pressive talk on the proper way of
conducting a campaign to sell farm
lands to honest-to-goodness farmers
for diversified farming. Mr.. Per-
kins' speech is reproduced in FULL
MARKETING OUR FARM LANDS
FOR DIVERSIFIED FARMING
AS Diversified Farming has been
proven success for our County, we
must try to find way to bring in
new blood and intelligent farmers to
cultivate our lands.
have been told that only one
third of the land in Lincoln County
is now under cultivation.
We have been assured of sufficient
acreage for the strawberry industry
to make it a great thing in the near
| future, as our farmers have already
pledged enough acreage to make car
load shipments. AS we are not in a
manufacturing country, it is neces-
sary for us to look to our farm in
dustries for our success.
have a suggestion to make to our
business men and merchants as to
how to start something to dispose of
the idle land in our county and put
1t to work." In the past, the real es-
tate agencies of the South have ad-
vertised largely in the city newspa-
pers of the North, when trying to
sell their lands. The result is that
most of the land has been sold to
made-over-night farmers-some of
them people who had never seen a
farm-retail merchants, profession
al men, veterinary surgeons and 9TH
ers. The land was sold on options
taken by real estate men, at twice |
its value. When the prospective
farmers came South, they were
shown the land and told of the great
many things it would produce, which |
they later found out it was impossi- |
bic to grow, and, having purchased |
the land at inflated values, when they
found out from their neighbors it's
real value, they became disgusted
and demoralized and only a small |
per centage remained in the South;
the majority returning to their for
mer homes and leaving with a bad
impression of the South.
The same line of advertising has
been used in farm magazines but this !
class of advertising never reaches the |
farmers we need for our county. Per-
haps you have been in one of the big
terminal stations and picked up such
a magazine, carrying advertisements |
from every state in the union, each
of which told of the good things they |
offered. This caused the prospective |
buyer to become like the Irishman, |
who could net decide to accept any
religion, and when he passed away, |
his wife looked at him and said pat |
is all dressed up and has nowhere to
CO." Prospective buyers, after read |
ing such magazines, really can not |
tell which place to accept and where |
to go.
Gentlemen have a vision. If |
the merchants and business men of |
Brookhaven, who have surplus land
would pool these lands and offer
them at real honest-to-goodnes val
ues, have maps of same printed for
distribution and used in connection
with publicity through the country
papers in the North, East and West
in the best locations we can get from
the Land Department of the I. G.
Railroad; telling in these papers our
possibilities, what we are doing in
the dairy and trucking business and
prospects for peach and strawberry
industries and the truth about our
soil, water and health, the climate
and amount of crops we grow in
one season-we would surely have
answers to our honest-to-goodness
advertising.
When we have prospective buy
er interested and he comes and looks
over our land, am sure we can sell
him, in some cases, providing he has
made a proposition for small initial
payment and the balance on time. A
great many practical farmers have
accumulated some money by renting
farms from farm-owners in the
North and could be attracted here
by this method Of advertising. A
satisfied customer will improve his
property and write back for other
farmers to come.
I 1t will take some funds to put this
proposition over but it will be cas-
lily done. if we work on the right
principles, on the cooperative plan.
The Mormons have been success
full in farming the deserts of the
West-the Oneida community of the
Northeast has made success of
manufacturing by the cooperative
plan and, with little effort and
some funds, we can dispose of the
surplus lands of our county.
Mr.. S. e. Moreton announces to
me that he is ready to sub-divide ESQ
acres of land on the outside of the
city limits and build homes to sell on
partial payment and the balance on
terms to the diversified farmers.
Mr.. Perkins talk was followed by
Swinging on the Golden Gate" by
the Alpha Concert Co., Couldn't
Hear Nobody Pray" "Oh, Sole Mo-"
my Heart at Thy Sweet Voice" and
by request. Swing Low, Sweet Cha
riot"
AIRPLANE FOR TRADE DAY.
Aviator Erwin was given the floor