. S"^^ F 87a. M LAN OS IFOR SALE On ^0 IN THE SOUTH m SOUTH , ALiABft]V[A I]V[]V[IGl^ATIOK BUREAU. E. B. WILKERSON A SON, MANAGERS, DoTHAN. ----- Alabama. Correspfii:iclence Sf^licited. DOTHAN, ALA. : THE WIRE-GRASS vSlFTlNGS. 1895. .1 Glass. Book. " Ci'^-b "> jlT- Dotlmii, Ala., July, 8 '95. "Editor Siftings: Since you have expressed your- self as being heartily in favor of our emigration movement, and feeling our need of an exact de- scription of this country, we take the liberty of asking you to give us a written statement of that section mentioned in our adver- tisement; it's soil, fertility and variety of products raised, as well as some account of the people. Very truly, E. B. WiLKRRSON & Son. In answer to the above, The Siftings could say a great deal, and leave, then, the "half untold." We will, however, be as brief as possible, to be plain. SOUTH ALABAMA This is an agricultural country, rich in resources, and a veritable paradise for the farmer. The lands are generally level, though rolling enough for drain- age, and are well watered with springs and small brooks of pure freestone water. THE SOIL is fertile, with hard clay sub-soil, except the northern portion (about Abbeville) which is red lo-sm. The central and southern portions have gray and dark soil. ITS PRODUCTS. Cotton, corn, oats, peanuts, peas, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, melons, peaches, pears, plums, apples, grapes, and vegetables of all kinds grow in abundance here, also wheat and hay. Though the lands are not so well adapted to IMMIGRATION BUREAU. wheat as they are the other pro- ducts mentioned. The soil is particnlarly snited to corn, pea- nuts, sugar cane, potatoes, mel- ons and vegetables, and it re- quires but little ground and at- tention for any family to pro- duce an abundant supply of all of these things, also to raise plen- ty of hogs and cattle for meat, milk and butter. TURPENTINE AND LUMBER are also thriving industries here, there being sixteen (i6) large turpentine distilleries within ten miles of the city of Dothan, and as many saw mills. THE CLIMATE is delightful. The winters are mild. We have frosts, and some cool weather, generally the first SOUTH ALABAMA and the latter parts of the winter, but rarely ever snow or blizzards. About once to every four or five years is as often as we have snow. The summers, owing to healthful waters, pure air and constant breezes, are to be spent as pleas- antly here as in almost any sec- tion of the north. The ther- mometor seldom ever reaches 95 z THE IMPROVEMENTS, The farmers are settled on small homesteads, of 40, 80 and 100 acres, and sometimes 300 to 600 acres, in this country, though there are very few *'big planta- tions" in it. Fully one half the lands or more are now lying idle, unimproved, and there's room for three times the population we have. IMMIGRATION BURKAU. THEIR VALUE. Good improved farms can be bought at $5 to $15 per acre con- venient to the railroads and towns and unimproved lands for less. NEVER FAIL. These lands never fail to make crops. They upon an average produce 15 bushels corn and 400 lbs seed cotton per acre, but with high fertilizing and extra atten- tion many of them make as high as 40 bushels corn and 1,500 lbs seed cotton per acre. Farmers who plant and work their crops right are never shut out by any such things as floods, droughts or pestilences. Some times they may have a little too much rain or not enough but they make plenty. SOUTH ALABAMA THE METROPOLIS of this favored section known as the "wire-grass," is Dothan. Sit- uated on the main line of the Plant System of railways 119 miles from Montgomery, the State Capital, and the same dis- tance from Thomasville, Ga., a famous resort and the popular route to Florida and to Savannah; it is also the Southern terminus of the Abbeville Southern rail- way, Dothan is a young town, five years of age, with a popula- tion of 3,500, good churches, fine graded schools, free tuition, water- works now under construction, many handsome residences and brick business houses, all new; and the town is backed up by one of the best countries this side of "homeless France." The city. IMMIGRATION BUREAU though small, is plucky and fur- nishes a good market for the farm- ers. The cotton compress at Do- than the past season pressed 2 1 ,- 000 bales cotton, two-thirds of which was received from the farm- ers' wagon direct here. MORE ABOUT IT. This is what you might term a fine poor mans country. Any family who will get a home and work can make an easy and in- dependent living here. Meat, bread, milk, butter, syrup, pota- toes, peas, rice, honey, fruits and vegetables can be had to waste, with a little care. Until very re- cently these things were all neg- lected for cotton, only about half enough being raised, and the bal- ance bought wiih the cotton crop. But the decline in cotton has "3 vSOUTH ALABAMA caused the home supplies to re- ceive more attention, and the farmers are already in a more cheerful condition. This writer has been through many sections of the United States and Canada, and is free to say that, in his opinion this is one of the most desirable countries, all things considered, to be found. In the language of Governor Gates, "It is a mine of wealth, which only needs developing." And people wanting homes can get them so easilv here. Gur State is a mine of w^ealth which only needs developing. We have now every reason to be- lieve that good steel will soon be made out of our pig iron. What vast wealth will be realized from IMMIGRATION BITREAI1 this source pisses beyond the bounds of conjecture. We have coal enough, if taken froin our mines, to supply the entire world, at the present rate of consumption for more than one hundred and fifty years, Iron ore is exhaust- less. We have a fair quality of marble and excellent building- stone. W^e have gdld ore, but not yet discovered to exist in pay- ing quantities. We have mica, aluminum, diopsides topaz and other valuable stones. Our soil is fairly productive and of a variety of characters, adapted to the production of cot- ton, all kinds of grain nearly every kind of vegetable, and peaches, pears, apples, plums, melons and other fruits. Our forests contain woods of choice 10 SOUTH ALABAMA varieties, and are so exhaustless. Our climate is mild and consti- tutes a standing invitation to the people of the frozen regions of the Northwest to seek homes among us and enjoy the gentle balmy breezes of our mild and Spring- like climate. We have room in Alabama for thousands of law abiding and industrous people and we want only that kind to come. — Extract from a letter of Gov. Wm. C. Gates to R. R. Com- missioners. AN EMIGRANTS OPINION OF THIS SECTION. With my family, I left Sagi- naw% Mich., last May to seek a home in a w^armer climate. I went first to Evergreen, spending IMMIGRATION BUREAU. j j some time there, and finding strawberries, blackberries, plums, tomatoes and almost every known variety of vegetables ripe and in abundance. Finally I come to Doth an, and was so fa- vorably impressed with the country that I bought a place; and I have never had cause to regret my choice. I have found the people hospitable, and all vicing with each other as to which shall show the Northern stranger the greatest kindness. I have found the climate mild, and not warmer in summer than in the North. I have found the soil good and easily improved, and I think this is a splendid country for a man who wishes to live well and enjoy the comforts of life. D. B. Crosby. 12 SOUTH ALABAMA Dothan, Ala,, July 15th 1895. Mess. E. B. Wilkersoii & Son, Gentlemen: It is with no small degree of interest that the authorities of the town of Dothan learn of your contemplated efforts to secure for tliis section of tlie state, a portion oi the immigrants from the Wes- tern and Northwestern states, who are seeking homes in our genial Soutliern clime. These immigrants are a desirable class of citizens, and will receive a hearty welcome from our people, and we feel assured that all who come will be highly pleased with this country. A more opportune time could not be selected by any one to settle in this country, and we wish for you much success in your undertaking. Yours resp't. H. A. Pearce, Mayor. IMMIGRATION BUREAU. 13 To the three Southeastern counties of Alabama, Henry, Dale and Geneva, comprising a part of what is generally know as the ^'Wire-Grass" -section. Nature has perhaps been more generous than to any other section of the State, While at present on many thousands of its fertile acres, stand forests of the long leaf yel- low pine, its soil is peculiarly adapted to diversified agriculture, and its forests are gradually dis- appearing under the blows of the woodman's axe, and in their places are appearing well tended farms, bearing almost every agri- cultural product, adapted to the needs of man and the demands of commerce. That this liberal gift of Nature's is not being J 4 SO UTH A I.A B A MA wasted, however, is attested by the fact that there are within ten miles of the city of Dothan, no less than sixteen turpentine dis- tilleries, doing a lucrative busi- ness, giving" employment to thousands of laborers, and ship- ping their immense output to the various markets of the world. There are also within the same distance as many lumber mills manufacturing the yellow pine into lumber, some for the large and daily growing demand at home, others for foreign ship- ment. The lands are generally level, just rolling enough for proper drainage and are well watered with numberless springs, brooks and creeks of pure free stone water. • The soil is usually dark, IMMIGRATION BUREAU. jr witli clay sub3oiL The climate is mild and equable, our people suffering neither the vigors of ex- tremely severe winters, nor any oppressing heat in summer. Snow is not seen here oftener than once in four or five years and our close proximity to the Gulf of Mexico gives us a never- ceasing breeze in summer. With an atmosphere free of malaria, or miasmotic influences the health of the people is universally and exceptionally good. The natur- al producing capacity of the soil, measured in terms of corn and cotton is from 12 to 25 bushels of corn or from y^ to y. bale of cotton per acre. The lands how- ever respond more readily to fer- tilizing than any other lands m the world, and by the judicious 1 5 SOUTH ALABAMA use of home-made or commercial fertilizer can soon be brought up at small cost to a capacity of from 20 to 40 bushels of corn or }4 to }{ bale of cotton per acre. As well as the crops mentioned, small grain, such as oats, rye, barley and rice as well as millet and the bttst grasses, may be grown as profitably as in any oth- er section of the United States. And in addition to these, our people find good profit in raising- peas, peanuts, chufas, sweet pota- toes and sugar cane. Fine or- chards of peaches, pears, plums, apples, mulberries and grapes may be seen on nearly every farm and strawberry culture is begin- ning to receive its share of atten- tion. The farmers of this section are just waking up to a realizing IMMIGRATION BUREAU. j>j sense of the fact that melons may be as profitably raised here for the northern, eastern and western markets as elsewhere; the ship- ments this year from this imme- diate section will amount to three or four hundred carloads. Near- ly every vegetable that grows is successfully raised here; it is a source of wonder that truck farm- ing is receiving so little attention when 95 per cent of the people produce for their own use almost every known variety of vegetable, and of the finest raised anywhere in the world. Truck farming is destined within a very few years to become one of the best paying industries of the country. This is pre-eminently and dis- tinctively the home of the ^'small farmer" as well as a veritable El SOUTH ALABAMA Dorado for the poor man. Good soil, susceptible of unlimited im- provement, and virtually inex- haustible, knowing not the ca- lamity of long drouths, extreme stress of weather, nor a failure in crops, with good water, mild cli- mate, pure atmosphere insuring' health and long life; with a mor- al and intelligent citizenship already here and alive to the in- terests of good schools and churches with good but unim- proved lands obtainable at two to five dollars per acre and the best improved lands in tlie territory of Dothan the '^Queen of the Wire- Grass," from $5,00 to $15.00 per acre, with good railroad facilities for the cheap and rapid shipment of the numerous products of the soil, with a soil fertile, well watered and level enough IMMIGRATION BUREAU 19 to be easily cultivated by machinery, with a popula- tion conip3sed almost entirely of white people, wlio are hospit- able, law abiding and friendh', wliat better or more attractive in- ducements could be offered to home seekers. The truth of what we have :^aid is already being realized by other people, immi- grants from the cold Northern States have already begun to come, and capitalist are realizing that no better investments can be found than in South Alabama. The final survey of the South Alabama and Gulf R. R. from Dothan to Selma is just being completed, and a railroad from Dothan to St. Andrews Bay is now under contemplation, and is sure to be built some time soon. 20 SOUTH ALABAMA This is the coming section of Alabama. Now property is cheap, and the conntry not more than half settled. A comfortable home with a hundred acres of land can be bought with from $500.00 to $1,000.00; and upon this land some one or two crops can be growing the whole year round. Work can be done out of doors, in forest or on farm, all the year round. We are never "snowed in;" the temperature rarely falling below 50^. To this section we invite your attention, all inquiries as to the condition, opportunities, and ad- vantages of Alabama will be promptly and fully answered. This bureau will take pleasure in answering inquiries as to an)' portion of Alabama, and in giv- IMMIGRATION BUREAU. 2 1 iiig any assistance in its power to capital seeking investment, or people seeking homes anywhere in the State. BELOW ARE SAMPLES OF THE BARGAINS THAT WE HAVE FOR SALE. 140 acres within two miles of Dothan, 75 acres in fine state* of cultivation. Good cow pasture. Timbered lands have never been touched by an axe. Good W9ter. Good house, with school in sight. Price $1,300.00. 80 acres of land near city. 40 acfes of it in city limits. Good land, well cultivated, with dwel- ling house and seven out houses. Price $25.00 per acre. 22 SOUTH ALABAMA 90 acres 3^ miles from Do- thaii, 45 acres cleared and in fine state of cultivation. Well wat- ered, and timber good. Price $400.00. 920 acres in Dale Co. Level land, well improved, 200 acres in cultivation. Almost new seven room dwelling which cost $1,- 000.00; three good tenant houses. Price $3,000.00, 1,100 acres, 300 acres in culti- vation, 800 acres in yellow pine, fine orchards; 4 settlements. Price $4,000.00. 250 acres on Chattahoochie river — all in river bottom, and in cultivation. Several houses. Price $1,500.00. IMMIGRATION BUREAU. 23 160 acres near Dothan; 40 acres in fine state of cnltivation, good orchard, and nice frame honse. Price $500.00. 40 acres; 25 acres cleared; plenty timber and water. Good frame house and orchard. Level land; near railroad. Splendid place. Terms $400.00. 800 acres. 300 acres cleared; S settlements. One frame 6 room honse and other smaller houses. All new. Railroad runs through entire tract. Level, and can be cultivated by machinery. One of the best farms in the State. Price $5,000.00; one half cash, balance in installments to suit purchaser. 24 SOUTH ALABAMA 300 acres; 75 acres in fine state of cultivation, rest in fine yellow pine; well watered, with good house and necessary out-build- Price $1,200. C o w < t: a^ o w g ^ '5i^^ ^^cfiioio lo^ r^x lo o r^ Tt p — o f^ t^T" lo o ^^ < < o 5 3 GC 00 ON 5 55 s ^ ^^^-^^""v^Hiii ^ Pit' (0 S^^ '^ 'So 0^ ^ So' Vh g K oj o_o 5i^i .1^0. ^^^?^ ;? c/. (N »2,fc ^ v^<: OQ O !?; G i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 541 588 3