THE ALABAMA OPPORTUNITY. 165 



LANDS. 



Now we present to you that lands are very cheap, their pro- 

 ductiveness considered. Think of buying lands for ten dollars 

 which will produce without fertilizer 35 bushels of corn and 

 subject to great improvement. The foundation of our soil is 

 red clay. If the soil has washed away, you could take a disc 

 plow, break the clay deep, harrow with a disc and plant in 

 field peas, and in two years you have as fertile a field as you 

 ever saw and a crop of peas each year which will compensate 

 ■you for your labor and rent. 



STOCK COUNTRY. 



As a stock producing country this section will equal the 

 blue grass region of Kentucky. In fact blue grass grows here 

 luxuriantly, and the Bermuda grass, a hardy nutritious graz 

 ing grows most luxuriantly. The oats of the Tennessee Val- 

 ley like the corn and clover cannot be excelled. The stock 

 water from free stone springs is at hand every where. The 

 climate is most favorable, in fact it is seductive, many placing 

 so great reliance on climate, that they rnake no winter pro- 

 vision for young stock. This is a mistake, as young stock 

 should be protected from weather and not left dependent upon 

 old fields for winter support. We once heard a successful 

 farmer living near Athens, in Limestone county, say, ("When 

 a farmer is equipped with sheds for his stock in winter, and 

 provides suitable feed to carry them through December, Jan- 

 uary, February and March, they grow up around him spon- 

 taneously. He cited his own success in raising, mules, colts, 

 sheep, cattle and hogs. Hog raising here is easy.) A hog 

 can be raised at a nominal cost, we asked M. C. Cobb, of 

 Madison county, who was oflfering four hogs weighing on 

 average three hundred and eighty pounds, what it cost to raise 

 them. He said, "They are eleven months old, and they have 

 cost me nothing except a lot of refuse corn, corn that I did 

 not desire putting in the trough for the horses, especially 

 when I had an abundance of sound corn — in short." said he, 

 "They saved what I would have thrown away." The reader 

 must not deceive himself with the idea, that we have no fine 

 stock hogs here, and no enterprising spirits who raise them, 

 for while they are not frequent, still we have them. 



