Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1914 — INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MISSISSIPPI [ARTICLE]

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MISSISSIPPI

M. R. Halstead Writes of His Home In the Black Belt—Northerners Locating There. McLeod, Miss, Jan. 13, ’l4 Republican: Ideal t weather still prevails throughout the Black Prairie Belt. Bright, still and warm. Temperature today at 10 / a. m, 60 degrees. Occasionally we have a light frost at night. The roads are dry, hard and smooth. Automobile owners are not neglecting this opportunity, especially those in the real estate business. The farmers have most of their plowing done. The boll weevil has arrived in this region and farmers are cutting down the acreage of cotton and increasing oats, corn, inaedows and pastures, and givipg more attention to stock raising. Not less than 1,000 acres of in "this= immediate section in the spring. They are a very profitable crop here. Some are planning to engage in the truck raising business and a large acreage of cabbage will be planted in the spring. . One man located near York, Ala., netted $19,000 on strawberries last year. He plans to double his acreage this year. He came from Indiana a few years ago and started raising strawberries with 'very little capital. Had he possessed the capital and engaged in the strawberry business on a large scale at the start he would probably have been relieved of his capital by this time and be engaged in soma other business in some other country. This Black Prairie Belt at one time was a great cotton and corn growing section, but it is as a grass and live stock country that it is destined to become famous in the future. As to its natural advantages In that respect, it is my opinion that it has few if any equals and absolutely no superior. The cattle tick Is practically eradicaeed in this county. The quarantine is raised. Bermuda grass, paspalum, lespedeza, carpet grass and burr clover furnish the very best of gracing for almost the entire year. Alfalfa produces from 2% to 5 tons per acre and Johnson grass, which is superior to timothy, produces .from 2 to 6 tons. Two crops of ensilage corn can be produced in one season and when it comes to the amount of good grazing that the best of our pastures produce, we refuse to-take a back seat for the blue Irass regions of Kentucky or Virginia Or any otheT good grass growing country within the bounds of Uncle Sam’s domain. Now we have here with us a venerable old stockman, an Irishman by birth, but who, like our friend O’Connor, is a loyal American citizen. He is honorable and reliable in every way. He came here from Missouri a few years ago and engaged in farming and stock raising. I yisit him occasionally and each time I find him still more enthusiastic over the live stock producing possibilities of this country. He recently made a shipment of sheep to St. Louis, which brought 40c per cwt., more (than any other sheep of the knd on the market that day, thus setting a new for northern and western sheep men to reach, and it is predicted,, by good authority that they will not be likely to reach It soon. Mr. Cresswell, the stockman referred to, has a pasture'that is probably as goon as any in this county. He states that this pasture last year produced good grazing for three cows per acre for eight months and kept them in good condition, and he further states that he never saw any grass lands in any other country that would do this.

These prairie lands are steadily increasing in price. When I came here three years ago none of the prairie farms were selling for more than $35 per acre. Today the improved farms are selling readily at SSO per acre and a northern man recently refused $65 per acre for a farm he bought last fall for SSO. More northern land buyers are coming this way than ever before. They are coming from Ohio, Indiana Illinois, lowa and Missouri. We are glad to see this come and know they will make no mistake in buying at present prices. My subscription has expired. I hand you herewth the price ,of a year’s subscription. Yours respectfully M. R. Halstead.