202 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



and information on various subjects affecting their beneficial use. 

 It has been demonstrated over and over again on every type of 

 soil in this region that these cut-over lands can be made very pro- 

 ductive. On thousands of demonstration farms with all the staple 

 Phenomenal crops, yields running from fifty to two hundred per cent over and 

 Yields on Cut- above the average of the state have been secured. Yields of from 

 Over Lands tweiity-five to thirty bushels of corn have been usual on such 

 lands, but many phenomenal yields running as high as two 

 hundred bushels per acre have been secured. In cotton we have 

 produced from one-half bale to two bales per acre, and similar 

 results with every standard crop have been secured. 



|In view of such results, absolutely proving the great possi- 

 bilities of these soils, the question asked by your chairman at the 

 beginning of this meeting is pertinent. What is the rea.son these 

 lands remain unsettled and are apparently so unattractive to the 

 average investor? I am a Southern man, and I believe — yes, 

 know — cut-over lands of the South are destined some day to pro- 

 vide homes for a great multitude of happy, independent, and 

 prosperous farmers. But here is the situation. With things as 

 they are, not one man in ten — and many careful observers with 

 long experience in cut-over land sections say one in twenty-five 

 — have any possible chance to go onto these cut-over lands, buy 

 them, pay for them, and establish a home unless he has. ample 

 resources or some outside means of subsistence, particularly for 

 the first two or three years. It can't be done. A gentleman in the 

 Settler Must meeting this morning stated — and it is a well known fact — that it 

 Be Adequate- y^^g usually the third purchaser that was able to stay on any par- 

 y inance ticular piece of land, and he considered this as an unavoidable 

 condition. What makes it necessary? Simply this : these people 

 have been brought to the South under almost fraudulent repre- 

 sentations of what they could do on these lands with little capi- 

 tal. Inspired by the glowing pictures painted by land promoters 

 and sellers, clerks, stenographers, school teachers, preachers and 

 people engaged in other occupations — not farmers — have been 

 tempted to invest their little savings and come South in the be- 

 lief that from a few acres they could wrest an immediate living- 

 and future independence. Practically all their money is taken 

 from them as a cash payment, and the lit^;le left is used up in 

 I moving to their possessions. To go on cut-over land without 



capital or without outside help or assistance to try to make a 

 living is a hopeless task. They fail; they are bound to fail, and 

 then they go home and "cuss" the country. 



