Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 269, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1917 — NOTES FROM THE SUNNY SOUTH [ARTICLE]

NOTES FROM THE SUNNY SOUTH

ABSENT EDITOR SENDS SOME INTERESTING NOTES FROM MISSISSIPPI Gloster, Miss., Nov. 25.—Harve J. Robinson, former linotye operator of the Republican, arrived her last evening in company with G. H. Barney, of Gloster, who had been north on a business trip. Harve left for his future home near Liberty at noon today in “Bill’ Porter’s auto and from now on expects to be a full fledged cotton planter. He reported that' he saw ice on much of the way down here, but was surprised on reaching Gloster to find the weather so nice. Before leaving for his new home he visited Mr Barney’s dog kennels and inspected the blooded bull dogs that are raised there. Mr. Barney has promised him one of the dogs to take over to the plantation to look after “Bill’s” hound dog. o—o Last evening a car load of goods and a family of Swedes arrived from the north who expect to make their home on a farm which they have bought near here. o— —-o W. G. Caldwell, of Rensselaer, has written that he will move here in about three weeks and to have the residence ready for his occupancy and to find tenants for the numerous tehant houses. He also wants 0 arrangements made to secure mules -yd horses, cattle, cotton seed, corn, hay, etc. As corn is much higher here than in Jasper county it would be adviseable for him to ship some of the corn raised on his farm there with his car of household goods if he has not already disposed of it.

o—o Mr. Avery, who moved here from near Lafayette this week, met with an unpleasant surprise yesterday when his household goods arrived and he called for them. He had paid the freight amounting to $92 at Lafayette, but he was informed that he still owed $155 on the car. The agent, at Lafayette told him it would be all right to ship his Ford with his household goods if he crated it. But this is not permissible and he was charged the automobile rate on the entire car of goods,which is over double the emigrant rate. He jut the Ford into instant use in lauling the goods out to his new place and his first load had the kitchen range tied onto the running joad, and other freight loaded onto ;he car to balance the range. The oad attracted considerable attenton. O -O Before the saw mill town of Stephenson was founded near here the company quietly bought up all the land on the site of the mill except 80 acres, which was owned by an olcT colored woman. .’ll efforts to buy her home failed. She said she was sure Mr. Stephenson was a good man and she did not object to laving him for a neighbor. The town was built on the plan of of Gary and the company owns all the stores and every business and every house there. The other night the old colored lay’s house burned and the place is now for sale and the' land company will be the purchaser. The whites here generally get what they go after where the negro is concerned and there is more ways than one in accomplishing their desires.

r o—o The company referred to above has purchased 70,000 acres of virgin timber land near here, which it is estimated will take thirty years to cut. They have built railroads through the tract, on which they haul the logs to the mill at Stephenson, which is the most up-to-date mill in the country. They are only cutting the larger trees now. They Ague it will take thirty years to get through the timber and in that timer the timber they left in the first cutting will be of immense size and they can repeat the operation, and in another thirty years they will still have good timber, which will be much more valuable than now. o—-o Mississippi has known prosperity in the past when cotton crops were large and prices high. Usually, though, this flood of money was turned loose only in the Delta, and the poor upland fanner wondered why he hadn’t settled in that fertile section. This year, though, the state is prosperous in every nook and comer, and the tremendous volume of money that has poured into the pockets of the farmers has been just as great in upland sections as in the Delta, Cotton planters are not burdened with money this year, it is true, but diversified- farmers are knowing what it is to pay off all debts, put a large, comfortable sum in theftbafifcr and still have money left to buy a car, with a tank full of gasoline. Food crops—corn, first of all, sorghum, velvet and sow beans, peas, and live stock, are responsible for the unbounded prosperity of the present season. For the first time in the history of the state, com by the hundreds of car loads,has been shipped away. Sorghum and syrup by the thousands of gallons, at from 40 to 75 cents per gallon, has flowed towards the larger cities to be used in the manufacture of jnixed feeds or for human coh-

sumption, and has proved one of the most profitable crops ever grown in the state. The 100,000,000 bushel corn crop’s value alone was close to $100,000,000 in round figures, and to this must be added the legumes that were grown in nearly every acre of corn in the state. Added to this the state has shipped live stock in such quantities as surpassed even the most sanguine hopes of the experts who have been fostering the industry during the past five years. One county, Yazoo, will ship close to SIOO,OOO worth of hogs this year, and there are others that will very closely approach this record. Cattle and sheep have gone forward carload after carlooad durin the entire year, and the prices have been good enough to make the feeding of $1.25 corn and $3.50 velvet beans well worth while. Northern and middle western stock-1 men, who have moved into Mississippi by the hundreds during the past two years, reaped a harvest this year, and for the most part are perfectly satisfied with the south as a stock country. Indications are that the next year will see a continuance of this prosperity, with the state making still more rapid strides toward becoming one of the greatest in the union in the production of foods. The dairy industry, for example, meant about a million dollars to the state this year, with 21 creameries in operation. Mississippi made butter cleaned up nearly all the prizes at southern fairs, and dairymen brought -in Holsteins and Jerseys not only by the car ioad but by the trainload during this season. The full effect of these developments will not be felt before 1918. it is estimated that the return from the dairy business alone next year should reach $5,000,000.