r <^* A PAMPHLET = /Y 'HUSHED t'XDEK Al'STICES (>/' THE = I~ SjAVANNAH, FLOR\I,DjA k WESTER\N, RAILWA Y, I^^^ I BRUNSWICK 4 ALBANY RAIL ROAD, I ^^z ^ J J - AND MJICON & BRUNSWICK [(AIL COMPILED BY JOSEPH TILLMAN, Editor, and C. P. GOODYEAR, Associate Editor, Of " WA YCROSS REPOR TER" 1881: SAVANNAH TIMES STEAM PRINTING HOUSE. BLANK BOOK MANUFACTORY. IF. .1 f n J.E ^ ^ -< lUl . L A PAMPHLET PUBLISHED UNDER AUSPICES OF THE Savannah, Florida k Western Railway, Brunswick AND Maeon k Brunswick Rail COMPILED BY JOSEPH TILLIAH, Editor, and C. P. GOODYEAR, Associate Editor, OS"WAYCROSS REPORTER: VALUABLE INFORMATION TO Fanners, Naval Stores Manufacturers, Timber Men, Lumber Manufacturers, Fruit Growers, Vegetable Growers, Tourists, Invalids, Pleasure Seekers, ? Travellers, Parties Seeking New Homes, -AND--- All who desire to better their condition. \ VI 1881. SAVANNAH TIMES STEAM PRINTING HOUSE, 6 DRAYTON STREET. -ii INTRODUCTION. The undersigned, as editor and associate editor of the Waycross Reporter^ are engaged by the Savannah, Florida Western, Brunswick and Albany and Macon and Brunswick Rail road Companies, which form the railroad system of South Geor gia, in advocating and preparing the public mind for a compre hensive system of immigration from the North, Northwest and Europe. A short time since we conceived the idea of the pre sentation to our visitors at the exposition in pamphlet form of a short description of South Georgia, and with the approval of the railway companies named, present the material in the following pages, which is a hasty condensation of matter appearing in the files of the Reporter and from other sources, lacking in literary finish, but a truthful presentation ofthis section, and the advantages it offers to settlers. JOSEPH TILLMAN, Editor Waycross Reporter. C. P. GOODYEAR, Associate Editor Waycross Reporter. CHAPTER I. The Railroad System of South Georgia. The Savannah, Florida and Western, Macon and Brunswick and Brunswick and Albany Railroads constitute the railway com munications of South Georgia. The Savannah, Florida and Western Railway, starting at Savannah, the second cotton port in importance in the South, traverses the whole of Southern Georgia to Bainbridge on the Flint river, 237 miles, with an Albany branch from Thomasville, 58 miles, a Florida division from DuPont, Ga., to Live Oak, Fla., 48 miles, and a division from Waycross, Ga.j to Jackson ville, Fla., 74 miles long, making a total of 417 miles under its management. The Florida division will soon be extended south through the whole length of the Peninsula of Florida to a port on the Gulf coast, some 260 miles, and the main line will also soon be ex tended across the Chattahoochee river to western connections with New Orleans and other points. This road has long had the greater portion of the Western travel of pleasure-seekers and invalids to Florida, and offers them the coming season, through its Waycross division, not only the shortest route, but rapid traveling in the finest coaches that modern skill has devised, to Jacksonville, the terminus of the Waycross division, the Metropo lis of Florida, situated upon the lovely St. Johns river, famed far and wide for its ample and excellent hotels, rapidly growing in commercial importance and population, the key to the vast ter ritory drained by the St. Johns and Indian rivers, and contain ing in city and suburbs a population of 13,500. The Macon and Brunswick Railroad, now a part of the Cole* Seney syndicates vast system of roads, some 2,400 miles in length, starting at Brunswick, traverses Southern Georgia to Macon, 189 miles, with a branch from Cochrane to Hawkinsville, 10 miles long, and is now rapidly being completed to Rome, Ga., where it will connect with the Cole-Seney system of roads to Memphis, 6 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. Selma, Knoxville. Chattanooga, Cincinnati, the Shenandoah Valley, Norfolk and the vast West and Northwest. A large num ber of branch lines as feeders, it is expected, will soon be built in Georgia. The Brunswick and Albany Railroad, now the property of the Erlanger-Seligman syndicates vast system of roads, which have been purchased and welded into a system through the exertions of Fred. Wolffe, Esq., who occupies the same relation to this system that Col. Cole occupies toward the Cole-Seney syndicate, and Major Haines occupies toward the Savannah, Florida and Western system, the organizing genius of each having made these vast systems of roads a reality. Starting at Brunswick, traverses South Georgia to Albany, Ga., 171 miles, with charter privileges to the Chattahoochee river, and will soon be completed west to Selma, Ala., becoming part of an uninterrupted through line to Vicksburg, thence to the Texas and Southern Pacific system, making nearly an air line to the Pacific coast, the gaps in which are rapidly being constructed, with branches to Memphis, New Orleans, Chattanooga, Cincinnati and other points, with projected branches in Georgia, especially from Albany to Colum bus, Ga? These three companies control vast amounts of American and foreign capital, and will all build branches as feeders of their main lines whenever the development of the country warrants, and are prepared to aid in hastening such development by active co-operation with the people in any well considered plan for a comprehensive system of immigration. The rates of freight from the North and West by the Green Line, and the steam and packet communication at Savannah and Brunswick, compare favorably with Northern rates. Local pas senger and freight rates are low also. The roads are never blockaded by ice or snow, seldom obstructed by floods, have easier grades, consequent increased hauling capacity, and have fast mails, ample post office facilities, and an express system admirably conducted by the Southern Express Company, of which H. B. Plant is President, equal to the best express service of the North and West. The Savannah, Florida and Western Railway Com pany, in connection with the Southern Express Company, steamers on the St. Johns river and steamships at Savannah and Charleston, and rail communication North and West, through SOUTHERN GEORGIA. 7 Savannah, Jesup and Albany, makes a specialty of transportation of fruits, vegetables and all classes of perishable agricultural pro ducts to Northern and Western markets, in cars specially adapted to the purpose, by fast passenger trains. Savannah and Brunswick have regular and ample steamship and packet com munication with New York and other Northern cities, and the extension of these lines West, as detailed in a description of these roads, will within the next eighteen months add to the facilities already detailed tenfold. CHAPTER II. General Description of South Georgia. Southern Georgia is almost entirely comprised within the Pine belt, a vast forest of pine one hundred and fifty miles deep, and in Georgia alone, from the Savannah to the Chattahoochee rivers, two hundred and forty miles in length. The timber, lumber and naval stores manufactured from these vast forests are eagerly sought by all the great markets of the world. The land is flat near the coast; rolling, even hilly, in the interior. A chain of islands extends along the coast, described elsewhere, and very fertile. The land on the rivers is very rich ; elsewhere it is a sandy loam, in most sections with a clay subsoil, is easily worked, responds readily to enrichment, and while some portions, especially those on the water courses of the southwest and the red lands are very rich, nearly the whole is tillable, and, with occasional light manuring, continue to produce good crops from year to year. It is, as a general rule, sparsely settled, and the lands are the cheapest in the State. The leading field products are cotton, sugar cane, corn, rice, oats, potatoes and field peas. The country being open, and the pasturage good throughout the year, large numbers of beef cattle and sheep are raised annually for market, at a cost purely nominal, as they require neither to be fed nor sheltered. See elsewhere article on sheep husbandry. 8 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. Cotton is produced generally throughout the section the sea island, or long staple variety, in the counties bordering on Florida and along the coast. This class of cotton is used in the manu facture of the finer fabrics, and in combination with silk, but is less cultivated than in former years, the demand for it having been lessened by the improvement in the staple and quality of the common cotton, and in the machinery for its manufacture. The rice lands lie chiefly on the tide water, and are among the most valuable and productive on the southern coast. Consider able rice is also grown, chiefly for home consumption, on inland swamps and low lands in Middle as well as in Lower Georgia, though the rice that enters into commerce comes chiefly from the country along the coast. Upland rice is also grown with profit on the pine lands. Sugar cane is also an important crop of Southern Georgia, and could be made among the most profitable. It grows luxuriantly, an9 yields profitable returns in sugar and syrup. Yet, but little sugar is made for market, the planters usually confining them selves to a sufficiency for home demand, and relying chiefly upon the syrup as a marketable crop. To show the capacity of the soil under high culture, we mention one instance among the many of equal production that are well vouched for. In 1874, Mr. John J. Parker, of Thomas county, produced, on one acre, 694^ gallons of cane syrup, worth seventy-five cents per gallon, or $520 87. The total cost of production was $77 50, leaving a net profit of $443 37. This section of the State also produces an excellent quality of light tobacco, such as is manufactured into cigars, though the plant will eventually run into the heavy leaf unless the seed are renewed annually from the West Indies. Except on the Alapaha river where an extraordinarily fine quality of tobacco has been grown for more than a generation from the seed raised on the soil, without deterioration of the quality of the product. South Georgia is well watered by numerous rivers and creeks, and water is found in inexhaustible quantities everywhere by dig ging a depth of ten to twenty feet. By early planting in January, February and March, which the exceedingly mild climate makes practicable, droughts can be avoided, and a fall crop can always be raised after the hot season of summer with profit. During the SOUTHERN GEORGIA. 9 drought of the past summer, when whole sections of the south and west have been scorched and dried up and their crops ruined, South Georgia has raised fair crops and has been less affected by the drought than other portions of the State. The timber, lumber and naval stores interests, which are gigantic in their proportions, furnish a home market for the products of the soil. There is ample timber, not fit for lumber, left upon the lands cut over by the lumber manufacturers. There are, in-addition to the yellow pine, the chief timber of the country, as many as twenty-five varieties of wood, valuable in the manufacture of furniture, wagons, carriages and other articles of use. CHAPTER III. Stations and Points of Interest on the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway. SAVANNAH, GA Savannah, Chatham, county, Georgia, the eastern terminus of the road, is the principal city of the State, situated on river of same name, eighteen miles from the sea, with a capacious and well protected harbor, with from seventeen to twenty-one feet of water at high and low tide. Improvements are now being "made in the river with a view to obtaining depth sufficient for any vessel. Savannah has a population of from 32,000 to 35,000 inhabitants. It is the second largest cotton port in the United States, while its shipments of rice, lumber and naval stores are immense. It is un questionably the handsomest city in the South. Laid out with broad streets, closely shaded by beautiful trees that are green the year round, it has justly obtained the soubriquet of the "Forest City." The city has ample transportation facilities; the Charleston & Savannah Railroad connecting Charleston and the North; the Central (Georgia) to Augusta, Atlanta and the Northwest, 10 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. while the Savannah Florida & Western Railway opens up the rich and growing sections of South Georgia and the whole State of Florida. The magnificent steamships of the Ocean Steamship Company make semi-weekly trips to New York, while Philadel phia, Baltimore and Boston are connected by weekly lines steam ships of great capacity and elegant accommodations. It has some manufacturing interests, viz: a cotton factory, cotton batting mill,* paper mill, rice mills, foundries, machine shops and cotton seed oil mills. The free school system is admirably arranged. Especial atten tion has been given to its sanitary condition. Comparative state ments show it to be one of the healthiest cities in the South. The climate is better suited to some invalids than points further South. With its excellent hotel accommodations, travelers will always find a sojourn here pleasant. Forsyth Park, twenty acres in area, is an attractive resort; the shade trees in it, composed mostly of pines, are of the natural growth of the forest. In the center is a beautiful fountain, after the style of those in the Place de la Concordie, in Paris. The walks are prettily arranged, and covered with shell. In the rear of the Park is a large enclosure, known as the Parade Ground, or Park Extension, which has been somewhat improved by planting shade trees, laying out walks, etc. The Confederate Monument recently erected here by the Ladies' Memorial Association, in point of beauty of design and finish, compares favorably with any in the South. The corner-stone was laid on June i6th, 1874, with Masonic ceremonies, Grand Master-Irwin, officiating, all the military force of the city being present. The monument was built after a design furnished by Mr. R. Reid, of Montreal, Canada, It stands about fifty feet in height, from base to crown of bronze figure on top. On the base are appropriate mottoes. The front panel has a figure in relief, representing the South mourning. The rear panel shows another figure of military character. The side panels bear in scription : one is "To the Confederate Dead:" on the other, "Come from the four winds, O Breath, and breathe upon these slain, that may they live."--EZEK. xxxiirg. The whole is sur mounted by an elegant bronze statue of a Confederate soldier, in the attitude of parade rest. The whole beautifully carved, and cost, when completed, $25,000, exclusive of the cost of the bronze SOUTHERN GEORGIA. II statue, which latter is the gift of a munificent, wealthy citizen of Savannah. Bonaventure Cemetery, three miles from the city, only fifteen minutes ride by the Coast Line Railroad, is one of the loveliest spots in the country; long avenues, arched by the branches of great live oak trees, from which an immense quantity of gray moss sweeps, adding much to the solemnity of the place. Bona venture derives its name from the original tract of which it formed a part, and which was settled about 1670 by Col. John Mulryne. By the marriage of his daughter, in 1761, to Josiah Tattnall, "of Charleston, it came in possession of the latter family. This mar riage is said to have been the occasion of the planting of the trees which adorn the place. It is said that they were planted in the forms of the letters M and T, the initials of the brides and grooms respective family names. Thunderbolt, the terminus of the Coast Line Railroad, four miles from the city, the Scheutzen Platz, on the same line, Isle of Hope and Montgomery, on the Savannah Skidaway and Sea board Railroad, distant seven and ten miles respectively, are pleasant places of resort, much frequented by the citizens of *Savannah. Tybee Island, at the mouth of the Savannah river, and Beach Hammock, several miles south, are becoming very prominent as seaside resorts. Fort Pulaski, on Cockspur Island, near the mouth of Savan nah river, was the scene of a weary siege during the late war. The fort was badly battered up by the Federal guns from Tybee Island. Since the war it has been thoroughly repaired. Millers, No. i, Chatham county, Georgia; 10 miles from Savan nah, 2 miles west of the Little Ogeechee river; post office. Ways Station, No. i^, Bryan county, Georgia ; 16 miles from Savannah; post office. Just east of this station the road crosses the Great Ogeechee river, on which are situated many of the largest rice fields in the State. At Genesis Point, below the railroad bridge, Fort McAllister is situated, which the Federal fleet made several unsuccessful attempts to pass, to capture the blockade runner "Rattlesnake," formerly the steamship Nashville, which was lying above. They finally succeeded in sinking it with guns. Fort McAllister was stormed from the rear, and captured by a portion of Shermans army, December 20, 1864. 7 ii 12 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. Fleming, No. 2, Liberty county, Georgia; 24< miles~from Savan nah; post and telegraph offices. Sunbury, 15 miles from here, on the coast, is one of the oldest settlements in the State. Melntosh, No. 3, Liberty county, Georgia; 31 miles from Savannah; post office. This is the nearest station to Flemington, distant 2% miles, Hinesville, the county site, 5 miles, and Riceboro, 10 miles. Walthourville, No. 4, Liberty county, Georgia; 38 miles from Savannah; post office. The village of same name, ij4 miles from the station; is pleasantly located, and was formerly the home of many of the wealthy planters from the coast, and was noted for the intelligence and refinement of its society; there are a few of the old families still residing there. Johnstoil, No. 4^, Liberty county, Georgia; 46 miles from Savannah; post office. Six and a half miles from this station, the road crosses the Altamaha river, on a lattice bridge with four spans. This river is one of the largest in the State. It is formed by the junction of the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers; the former is navigable for steamers to Dublin, and the latter to Macon. Large quantities of lumber, etc., are shipped by this river to Darien, Ga., at its mouth, on the coast. Doetortown, No. 5, Wayne county, Georgia; 53 miles from Savannah; post office. This station is the site of an old Indian town, and the former abode of a celebrated "medicine man;" hence the name of the place. Jesnp, No. 6, Wayne county, Georgia; 57 miles from Savannah: county seat; telegraph office and junction of the Macon and Brunswick Railroad; 411 miles from B-iunswick and 146 from Macon. The new and commodious "Altamaha Hotel" here will accommodate 100 guests. The hotel is also the eating house for passengers via the Macon and Brunswick Railroad; trains stop 20 minutes for meals. . A weekly paper, the Jesup Sentinel, is published here. The pi ice is growing rapidly; population 750. Scpcyen, No. 7, Wayne county, Georgia; 68 miles from Savannah; post and express offices. Patterson, No. 7^, Pierce county, Georgia; 78 miles from Savannah; post office. On the line of the road in vicinity of this place are located a number of steam saw mills for cutting yellow pine lumber. Blaekshear, No. 8, Pierce county, Georgia; 86 miles from 1 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. 13 Savannah; population about 1,200. This point offers many inducements to those seeking health and winter homes in the South. The society is good, and many evidences are presented of steady, permanent growth. It is situated in the great pine belt of Georgia; land in this, section is slightly rolling, hence is well drained; climate is delightful and healthy the year round ; land is cheap and the inhabitants kindly disposed to settlers. Browns Hotel, recently built, will accommodate 40 to 50. Knowles House will accommodate about 30. Board, per day, $1.50; per week, $6.00; per month, $15 to $20." Waycross, Ware county, Georgia; 96 miles from Savannah ; county seat; post office; population, 600; junction of Brunswick and Albany Railroad. This town was laid out in 1872. It stands on a sandy ridge, with clay subsoil, and a clear, bold stream of running water on the south. From its advantageous position, it bids fair to become a place of some note, and has already attracted the notice of a colony from New Jersey, many of whom have recently made their homes here, attracted by the advantages of good land, cheap homesteads, and the general thrifty appearance of the town. Tebeauville, No. 9, Ware county, Georgia; 97 miles from Savannah; post and telegraph offices. This is a place near the * northern portion of the celebrated Okefenokee Swamp, which abounds with game of all descriptions. Glenmore, No. 10, Ware county, Georgia; 108 miles from Savannah; post office. Argyle, No. 10%, Clinch county, Georgia; 116 miles from Savannah. Homerville, No. n, Clinch county, Georgia; 122 miles from Savannah; post office; county seat; population, 350; academy . Methodist and Baptist churches. DnPont, No. 12, Clinch county, Georgia; 131 miles from Savannah; telegraph and post offices; junction with the Florida division of the Savannah, Florida and Western Railroad. Located on heavy timbered pine lands. The health of DuPont and surrounding country is unparalleled; no typhoid or other miasmatic sickness. As a farming country, it is pronounced by experienced planters to be superior to Virginia or Carolina; the range is good for cattle and hogs. Cheap lands in abundance for emigrants, much of it from fifty cents to one dollar per acre. 14 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. . No. 13, Clinch county, Georgia; 138 miles from Savannah; post office; population, 150. The village is pleasandy located in an elevated pine region. There is a pottery located here, which makes a superior article of earthen ware for domestic use. Savior. No. 14, Lowndes county, Georgia ; 144 miles from Savannah ; population, 100 ; post office, one church, one hotel, one academy, one saw mill, and three stores ; healthy locality. Lands sell from $1.00 to $5.00 per acre. The productions of surrounding country are long and short cotton, corn, rice, oats, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, and all kinds of vegetables. The Alapaha river, two miles distant, abounds in fish. Milltown, a village ten miles distant, and near the famous Banks Mill Pond ; area of pond ten square miles ; water sufficient to drive a large amount of machinery. Nashville, county seat of Berrien county, 27 miles distant ; excellent section for farming, hog, sheep and cattle raising. Yaldosta. No. 15, Lowndes county, Georgia: 157 miles from Savannah ; post and telegraph offices ; county seat ; population about 2,000. This is a place of considerable importance in this section. Surrounded by a very fertile country, entirely free from malaria, it offers many inducements to settlers. Cotton, grain of all kinds, (especially corn, wheat and oats,) sugar cane, potatoes, and the products of this section are abundantly produced. The winters are mild and pleasant, and the invalid may here find a cheap and comfortable home. The town is finely situated and neatly laid off, containing many brick store houses, and a new brick court house. There are four churches Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and Christian several schools, a well-kept hotel, and a bank. The Valdosta Times, a weekly newspaper, is pub lished here. The trade of the place supports some 26 stores. Good farming lands in the vicinity can be bought at from $i .00 to $5.00 per acre, depending upon improvement. At this point the "cotton belt" of Georgia begins. To parties seeking invest ment in lands, or permanent homes in the South, or a place to spend a winter pleasantly, Valdosta presents many inducements. Name of hotel Stuarts Railroad House, C. T. Stuart, pro prietor; accommodation for fifty; opposite Savannah, Florida and Western Railway depot. Rates of board, $2.00 per day ; $18.00 to $25.00 per month. Board can be had in private houses SOUTHERN GEORGIA. 15 at $10.00 to $15.00 per month. There are three livery stables here, which furnish good teams at moderate rates. Onsley, No. 15^, Lowndes county, Georgia; 166 miles from Savannah; post office. One and a half miles west of this station the road crosses the Withlacoochee river, near which is the Boston or Blue Springs. These Springs have quite a reputation, and are much frequented by the people of the adjacent country. Qnitman, No. 16, Brooks county, Georgia; 174 miles from Savannah; post office, money order and telegraph offices ; county seat; population about 2,000. This town is situated in the midst of one of the finest farming sections of Southwestern Georgia. The principal productions of the county are corn, cotton, oats, rye^ ground-peas, field-peas, sugar cane, potatoes, Irish and sweet, and rice. Some wheat has been raised in the county, but has not been generally sown, owing to the want of flouring mills. Almost all kinds of vegetables are grown here. Peas, beets, squashes, cucumbers, onions, radishes, cabbages, tomatoes, strawberries, etc., are grown in great quantities. Watermelons, muskmelons, cantelopes and pumpkins do remarkably well. In fact, every and all kinds of common products for which the human family find a relish are grown here in bountiful supply. Some of these products can be made to yield two and three times a year, such as Irish potatoes and field-peas. ./ The average yield of corn is 10 bushels per acre, though it has been increased to 90 bushels per acre. Improved farming has increased the yield, in very many instances, to 30 and 40 bushels to the acre. The average yield of oats is 15 bushels per acre, cotton a bale of soopouuds to three acres, rye 8 to 12 bushels, ground-peas 20 to 30 bushels. Sugar cane yields from 300 to to 55 gallons syrup per acre, and other things in the same pro- portion. Attention is now being directed to fruit, and vegetable market gardening, and whenever it has been tried,. success has been the result, the railroads offering every facility for shipping these early products. Taxes are exceeding moderate the average aggregate State and county tax being about 7^ mills. Land is readily purchased in desirable quantities, and at prices varying from $1.00 to $20.00 per acre, according to quality. The climate is delightful, and free from malarial diseases. The in habitants of this section are progressive and intelligent, and alive to the importance of immigration. The town of Quitman is 16 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. eligibly situated, and contains five churches three white and two colored; also, a flourishing school. Seven miles east from Quitman, in said county, is a large, bold, limestone spring, about one hundred feet in circumference, and fifteen feet in its deepest part. This is quite a resort as a watering place, there being near just across the county line, but within a few hundred yards a fine sulphur spring of efficacious medicinal qualities. Dixie, No. 17, Brooks county, Georgia; 181 miles from Savannah; post and express offices. Grooverville is 6 miles distant. Boston, No. 18, Thomas county, Georgia; 188 miles from Savannah; 9 miles from the Florida line; i mile from the Aucilla creek; 2 miles from Piscola creek; population 500; post and express offices, and Masonic Lodge and Patrons of Husbandry. Five churches in this place, Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodist, and colored Baptist and Methodist; also, good male and female schools. Boston is pleasantly situated, and extremely healthy. Water good, in wells, and plenty of spring water in the incorpo rate limits. Boston is entirely surrounded by the best average farming lands in the State; very productive of corn, peas, potatoes, oats, highland rice, sugar cane and cotton, and ad mirably adapted to fruit, when cultivated, especially grapes, pears, peaches, plums, apples and tropical fruits. The very finest water melons abound in all parts of the country, in their season. These lands can be bought at prices ranging from $5.00 to $8.00 per acre for improved, and from $1.00 to $4.00 per acre for grazing. SOUTHERN GEORGIA. (Contributed by JOHN TRIPLET, Editor Thomasville Times.) THOMAS COUNTY, GA. A Fair Sample of the Interior Counties of South Georgia. The natural advantages for mans sustenance and enjoyment are more equally distributed throughout the earth than is generally supposed; but when the climate, the seasons, the water courses, the soil and its varied productions, the proximity to the great highways of commerce, and the topography of THOMAS COUNTY, GEORGIA, are duly considered and compared with the advantages of other sections, nature will be found to have expended here more than an average share of her blessing. LOCALITY. Thomas county lies in the southwestern portion of the State, being bounded on the south by Florida, and having only one county (Decatur) on the west between it and Alabama. The Savannah, Florida and Western Railway, from Savannah to Bainbridge, runs through from east to west, dividing the county into two nearly equal sections, and touching its county site, Thomasville, exactly two hundred miles westward from Savannah. The South Georgia and Florida Railroad, fifty-eight miles long, starts at Thomasville and connects at Albany with the South western Railroad, and the entire railway system of the State, and of Alabama by way of Eufaula and Montgomery. Arrangements are being made to extend the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway so as to make an direct connection with New Orleans. Thus this section will be on the great high way between New Orleans and the nearest Atlantic pert. 'Over this route will, necessarily and naturally, flow a large portion of the productions of the Mississippi ^valley. SOUTHERN GEORGIA. THE CLIMATE. Lying, as it does, but a few degrees north of the tropics, snow is seen only about once or twice hi an ordinary liletime,and the ground never freezes enough to prevent the entrance of the plow; while in summer, the heat of an almost vertical sun is tempered by breezes from the Gulf and the Atlantic that the thermometer rarely ever registers more than ninety degrees in the shade, and the nights are never oppressively, nor even uncomfortably warm. The disagreeable "Northers" of the western plains in the same latitude are never known in this section, nor the sudden changes from heat to cold so common in the Atlantic States a few degrees north of this section. Laboring men can work twelve months in the year in this county and have perfect health at the same time. It is as free from malaria and all climatic diseases as any portion of the west or northwest. ITS SALUBRITY is in fact not surpassed by that of any section of the whole country. Those dreadful scourges, cholera and yellow fever, have never yet penetrated to this section; lung diseases are very rare, and usually of a mild type; and typhoid fevers are com paratively unknown and much less severe than in more northern and elevated regions. THE SEASONS. As there are no extremes of heat or cold, so there is an exemption of such floods or droughts as sometimes visit the northern and western sections of the Union. No such thing as a general failure of crops has ever been known in Thomas county. Small grain may be sown whenever convenient, from September to February. Potatoes will produce good crops planted any time during the first six months of the year, and two crops are often made on the same ground. Sweet potatoes are planted from February to July and from May to July; the "draws" or cuttings from the vines already growing "being set out" instead of planting the seed potatoes. Turnips are sown in July, August and Septmeber, and also in February and March for spring crop. Corn is planted from February to June, cotton, generally in April; sugar cane, in February and March. SOUTHERN GEORGIA. There is not a month in the year that a farmer may not plant some crop and gather some other. WATER COURSES. The Ocklockonee River in the west, and the Aucilla in the eastern portion of the county, with their numerous tributaries from4iving springs, furnish an abundance of good, pure freestone water for all purposes. Good freestone water can also be had from wells in any part of the county at an average depth of twenty-five feet. THE SOIL. 4 The surface of the county is undulating with a variety of soil adapted to almost any and all kinds of agricultural and horticul tural products. Cotton and corn are the principal productions, but rice, sugar-cane, oats, rye, pindars, and peas are as profitably grown. From ten to fifty bushels of corn are produced to the acre; from ten to fifty bushels of rice, from fifty to two hundred bushels of Irish potatoes, from one to three hundred bushels of sweet potatoes, from one to three hundred bushels of turnips, from two to four hundred gallons of good syrup from sugar-cane, and from one bale of cotton to five acres, to one bale per acre. Under the intensive system of farming, the soil is capable of * producing very large crops. One hundred and nineteen bushels of corn, ninety-five bushels of oats, seven hundred and five gal lons of syrup, eighty-four bushels of rice, each, have been made to the acre. STOCK. and poultry, of almost every kind, are easily raised here. Of the former, horses, cattle, hogs, sheep and goats, with proper at tention, can be ruade very profitable; the large area of unculti vated lands being specially adapted to the purpose. MELONS AND FRUIT. Melons of every variety and of superior size and quality arc grown throughout the county, while fruits, such as peaches apples, pears, figs and plums, grow luxuriously and bear bounti- 20 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. fully. Among the small fruits, such as raspberries, strawberries, etc., as fine specimens may be seen here as can be found any where. Here may be seen some of the finest orchards in existence of the famous LeConte pear. It is one of the most rapid growers of the pear family, yields largely and compares in size and flavor with the standard varieties. Thomas county and the whole of South Georgia is the home of this prolific fruit. A specimen of the trees a five-year-old will be set out on the Exposition grounds. GRAPES. Recent experiments have fully demonstrated the fact that the growing of the grape, both for table use and the manufacture of wine, is a complete success, and promises, ere long, to become a source of considerable profit. All die leading varieties, Scuppernong, Hartford, Concord, Delaware, etc., etc., are grown in the highest perfection in the vineyard, while the woodlands abound with the wild varieties. THE MORALS of the people of Thomas county are decidedly good. Schools and churches are well attended, and are so numerous as to afford every community the advantage of both. In addition to the usual number of private schools, there are several public schools in successful operation. LABOR is plentiful, cheap and easily controlled. Field hands command usually from $7 to $10 per month, and, when properly directed, pay a handsome profit to the employer. PRICE OF LANDS. Lands can be bought at from $i to $10 per acre, according to quality and location, and are accessible to the county site (Thomasville) and the railroad depots, over public roads that can not be surpassed in the Southern country. SOUTHERN GEORGIA. THOMASVILLE, GA. Having gone over, in brief, some of the Agricultural resources and advantages of the County, we now come to the fast growing town of Thomasville, the metropolis of Southern Georgia. The town is situated within ten hours run of Georgias Great Atlantic seaport towns, Savannah and Brunswick, and within sixty miles of the Gulf of Mexico, from whose broad expanse of waters come wafted to us a sea breeze robbed of its humidity by its passage inland and laden with the rich aroma of the vast pine forests lying between this and the coast. *. To the stranger seeking a home, health is one of his first and highest objects. We can not throw more light upon this subject than by incorporating herewith the report of one of Georgias most distinguished physicians to the late Medical Association of the State of Georgia at their last annual meeting. This body is distinguished alike for the high professional standard attained by its members stnd the wisdom of its deliberations as a body. In reference to Thomasville as a winter resort for invalids, we quote the following from the report of Doctor T. S. Hopkins, Chairman of the Committee on the practice of Medicine, second Congressional District, on " The Pine Forests of Southern Geor gia, its Climate and Adaptability to the Consumptive," read be fore the Medical Association of Georgia, at its twenty-fifth an nual convocation, on the second day of April, 1874, at Thomas ville, Georgia: ,. " A professional experience of nearly thirty years in that portion of the Pine Belt of our State, lying between the Flint and Alta- maha rivers, has afforded me ample evidence of its peculiar adaptability to the consumptive. It is of rare occurrence, in our travels through that entire district, to find a case of consumption, and when found, it can be, in almost every instance, traced to hereditary transmission. I doubt if there is on the globe any region of country, of the same extent, more exempt from all dis eases of the respiratory organs. I have often been surprised, at the rapid improvement in my consumptive cases, after removal 22 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. from the seaboard into that region. I have never seen a case of Pulmonary Tuberculocis in that section of country that could be attributed to climatic influence. While I do not hestitate to rec ommend the entire district as a safe resort for the consumptive, I must admit that certain localities therein possess advantages superior to others. With my knowledge of the country, if an invalid, seeking a winter resort, I would select Thomas County, and preferably the town of Thomasville, on account of its elevavation, its thorough natural drainage, its pure and delightful free stone waters, its dryness, its equability of temperature, and its remotenessfrom the sea. This town, with a population of three thousand, is situated in latitude 30 deg. 40 north, and longitude 8 degi 40 east. It occupies the greatest elevation of any town between the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, at the dividing point of the waters flowing into them two hundred miles from the former, and sixty miles to the nearest point on the latter, in the midst of a vast pine forest of almost unlimited extent. Thus sit uated the winds from the ocean reach it sifted of all saline vapor and moisture, comparatively warm and innoxious. The natural drainage of the town is excellent, fully adequate to the speedy removal of all the water that falls, fn a few hours after the heaviest fall of rain the streets are dry and the atmosphere as clear and balmy as though no rain had fallen. In consequence of the rapidity with which the water is carried off, there is but lit tle absorption, hence but little evaporation, and,- as a conse quence, less moisture than at other points less favorably situated* There are no bodies of water within eighteen miles of the town, and the nearest river is four miles distant Fogs, which are the rule on the coast, are the exceptions here. During the past win ter the mercury was at the freezing point but three times, and then only for a few days. "Some months since I addressed a circular letter to all the physicians with whom I was acquainted, as well as to those whose names were furnished me, practicing in the district of country referred to in this report, requesting them to furnish ine the number of cases of Phthisis Pulmonalis coming to their knowledge in their respective counties during the year 1873. Twenty physicians were kind enough to respond: The total number of cases reported is three, two of which are attributed to hereditary transmission; cause of the other not given. Thus, in a popula- SOUTHERN GEORGIA. tion of fifty thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven, we have but three cases of consumption reported for the year 1873. I am satisfied that no other section of country can make a more favor able report. Surely, a climate where consumption so rarely "oc curs must be a safe climate for those in whom that disease exists/ Immediately after the reading of the report, Dr. H. V. M. Miller, of Atlanta, offered the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted by the association: :....-,- "Resolved, That this association earnestly and folly endorse the opinions and statements contained in the paper just read by Dr. T. S; Hopkins, and in view of its importance to the whole country, desire to give to it the widest possible publicity." -'"' As an evidence that the facts set forth above are true, and are being widely disseminated and appreciated, it is only necessary to refer to the hundreds from the North and West, who have for several winters past sought this place as an asylum from the rigors of a Northern climate. The Mitchell House, erected with a special view of accommodating Northern visitors, is one of the largest, most modern and well arranged hotels in the South. It was first opened in 1876, and has been crowded every season since. Although large and extensive in its original construction, the proprietor has found it necessary to add over sixty rooms, in order to accommodate the increasing patronage. The hotel has been leased for a term of years by M. A. Bower, who is run ning the house in a style which will compare favorably with any first-class hotel North or South. Col. J. E. Bradford, one of the most popular and well known hotel men in the North, is general manager of the house. In addition to the Mitchell House, there is the Gulf House, situated near the depot, also well kept and weir conducted. Another new hotel, near the center of the town, is being erected, and will be ready for guests the coming winter. Besides these there are many boarding houses, both public and private, where board can be obtained at reasonable rates. Thomasville is fast growing into an educational center. The Young Female College, and the South Georgia Agricultural Col lege (male) are located here. The latter is a branch of the Uni versity of Georgia, and the tuition is free. Both institutions are ably officered and well conducted. The following denominations are represented in the place: Methodists, Baptists, Presbyteri- 24 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. ads, Episcopalians, Christians and Catholics. The latter two have no church, but hold regular services in commodious build ings. The society of the town is equal to any in the State. The place is noted for its morality, and the reputation of its citizens for attending to their own business. Strangers who come here to settle, or upon pleasure, are treated kindly and cordially. The people gladly welcome any who come for the purpose of locating and developing the coun try. They want good citizens, come they from whatever section they may. . The citizens of Thomasville are liberal in their views. Con scientiously holding and practicing their own views, religious and political, they accord the same right to others. They are always ready and willing to grant that to others which they daim for themselves. In no section of the South are visitors met with more genuine Southern hospitality. To complete the foregoing sketch the following letter is appended. It was written by a Northern gentleman who settled in Thomasville: * Thomasville, Georgia, May 30,1876. H. S. L. MORSE ESQ., Boston, Mass, Dear Sir: In reply to yours of the 22nd inst, making enquiries about this place, and asking my advice in relation to coming here to live, per mit me to say that I do not like to advise you about your business affairs, but I will freely give you the benefit of my experience and im pressions after nearly two years residence in this place. I traveled through nearly every Southern State, including Florida, in search of a pleasant home in a mild climate, more especially on account of my health, and this place suited my ideas, as a Massachusetts man, more perfectly than any other one that I saw. First of all on account of its healthful advantages and locality, next in the intelligence and public spirit of the people, also its religious and educational advantages. We have here six churches in all, a female college, and a boys seminary, both of a high order, and several superior private schools, and one or more supported by public funds. Thomasville is a lively thriving town, handsomely laid out, containing a city hall, court house, and jail, a large hotel that would be a credit to any city, wide streets, beautifully shaded with evergreen oaks, mag nolias, etc. To me the climate is charming, the summers are long but no warmer tha* the wannest weather of New England; the winters are the crowning glory of all, with week after week of bright sunshine, and bat a few days tha make a fire necessary, particularly adapted to the SOUTHERN GEORGIA. comfort of invalids. This town is becoming a favorite resort to such persons during the winter. The water is good and plentiful. The soil is very generous in its productions with only moderately good cultiva tion ; the staple products are rice, cotton, sugar-cane, corn, oats, sweet potatoes and pea-nuts; almost all of the Northern fruits and vegetables do well here; two crops a year are easily produced; in fact one can plow, plant, hoe, and harvest every month in the year; there is no rest for the farmer. The semi-tropical fruits and flowers are almost indig enous. Oranges, lemons, figs, bananas, pomegranates are easily pro duced with a little protection against an occasional frost, Grapes and small fruits are cultivated very successfully. Sheep husbandry might be carried on with great profit; cows, hogs, and sheep sustain them selves in vast numbers on forest grass all winter. I think a little care and feeding would add to the profits. Land can be purchased for one dollar an acre, and upwards, according to location and quality; the lim ber is yellow pine, oak, hickory, poplar, cypress, bay, beech, maple, mag nolia, etc., etc. Northern people are treated with much respect and cour- tesy.and welcomed as citizens; and contrary to a too prevalent Northern notion, ladies will be welcomed into good society. Georgia ladies are not excelled by any others in politeness, a kind disposition and ability to do the agreeable. We have most excellent neighbors, kind and social as could be desired. To satisfy yourself on these points come here and judge for yourself; you will find everything new to you, all very diner- ent trom New England life. I like Georgia, her government and her people, and only regret that*! did not come here at an earlier date. Truly yours, WM. P. HOMER. Cairo, No. 20, Thomas county, Georgia; 214 miles from Sa vannah ; post office. Widgham, No. 21, Decatur county, Georgia; 221 miles west of Savannah; is very pleasantly situated on high, rolling land. The healthfulness is unsurpassed, being almost entirely exempt from the malarial diseases which infest many Southern localities. The water in this section is unequaled, both for abundance and quality. A never-failing spring, equal in its character to the farfamed water of the hill country, is near the depot, discharging daily ten thousand gallons of pure cold water. The town is regularly laid out and incorporated) containing two good board ing houses, six stores, two churches, a good academy, post office and express office. Two miles west is a large turpentine distill ery. The land around this place is well adapted to agricultural purposes both pine and hammock Kes well, and is of full average grade of fertility. It surpasses any region around as a fruit growing section. Price of land ranges in price from $1.00 26 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. to $S.oo per acre. Six miles north is a remarkable natural curi osity, known as the " Lime Sink," where a creek suddenly fells over a perpendicular precipice, descending into the bowels of the earth about 100 feet. It then disappears mysteriously under ground. This channel has been explored for a distance of 200 yards from the point of its wonderful disappearance. Further exploration was prevented by a large river. About two miles from the " Lime Sink " is. another remarkable natural curiosity, called the " Blowing Cave." Through an opening hi the earth, nearly twelve inches in diameter, a strong current of air is ever passing. During the morning, or first half of the day, the air es capes from the opening, but throughout the afternoon, or latter part of the day, the direction of the current is reversed, and is drawn into the opening by some unseen power of suction, said to be sufficiently strong to draw into the cave a handkerchief or any other light body. This village offers to the immigrant seek ing a desirable location many inducements. (Jlinax, No. 22, 227 miles from Savannah, in Decatur county, Georgia; post office. Bainbridge, No. 23, Decatur county, Georgia; the present terminus of the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad; telegraph, post and express offices; county seat; population, 1,800. Situated on the east bank of the Flint river, about fifty feet above the stream, beautifully shaded with oaks; average annual temperature, 65, healthful, and climate in winter particularly favorable to the Northern invalid. This place does a thriving business with the various landings on Flint, Chattahoochee, and Apalachicola rivers. Steamboats, making semi-weekly trips on these rivers, bring a large amount of cotton to Bainbridge, for shipment to Savannah. The Weekly Democrat is published here. . Hotel, Sharon House; accommodations for 75; rates $2.00 per day, $8.00 per week, $25,00 per month; reduced rates to families. Oekloeknee, Thomas county, Georgia; 211 miles from Savan nah ; post and express offices. Within 2^ miles is the finest water-power in Southwest Georgia, amply sufficient for a cotton factory. Within five miles is a fine mineral spring; it is large and perfectly transparent, beautifully situated, and with a small outlay of capital could be made a popular summer resort; it is situated opposite the 216 mile post, and about 500 yards from r the line of road. The health of this place cannot be surpassed. SOUTHERN GEORGIA. Pelham, Mitchell county, Georgia; 224 miles from Savannah. This section of country offers superior inducements to manufac turers of naval stores. Timber plentiful and convenient to line of railroad. Only one man engaged in the business here. Plenty of room for more. Hands are easily had that understand work ing the trees, such such as cutting boxes, hacking, etc. Camilla, Mitchell county, Georgia; 232 miles from Savannah; telegraph office; county seat. This is a pleasant little village, well located in a fine cotton growing country. Population, 800. Baconton, Mitchell county, Georgia; 242 miles from Savan nah ; post office. Hardaway, Dougherty county, Georgia; 250 miles from Sa vannah ; post office. Albany, Dougherty county, Georgia; 258 miles from Savan nah ; terminus of the Albany division of the Savannah, Florida & Western Railway, and connected with Macon, Ga., by a branch railroad from Smithville to Arlington, 106 miles from Macon ; with Brunswick by the Brunswick and Albany Railroad. Telegraph office, county seat. Population, 3,500. From the central location of this town, it bids fair to become a prosperous city. Surrounded by the best cotton lands of the State, quite a trade is done in this staple. From 25,000 to 30,000 bales cotton are shipped from this point annually. There are several foun dries and mills here, and large warehouses for the storage :arid sale of cotton. Hotels: Albany House and Bogen House; rates per day, $2.00; per week, $u.oo; per month, $3 .00. Albany possesses in the Flint river a source of unlimited water-power, which, when utilized in the establishment of cotton and other factories, must prove a source of wealth and prosperity, while its transportation facilities, in being a junction point of three rail roads, makes it a competitive commercial center, from which it derives considerable advantages. 28 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. CHAPTER IV. Stations and Points of Interest on the Macon and Bruns wick Railroad. BRUNSWICK, GA. An incorporated city the eastern terminus of the Macon and Brunswick and Brunswick and Albany Railroads 189 miles from Macon, 171 from Albany, and 97 by rail from Savannah. It is situated on a peninsula running north and south, sur rounded on all sides but the north, which joins the main land, by salt water. To the south and west lie the waters of Brunswick harbor, a magnificent roadstead, with depth and capacity to safely accommodate the largest fleets. To the eastward is St. Simons Sound and the entrance from the Atlantic ocean. The distance from the light-house at the entrance to the eastern side of the city is only seven miles. The bar and harbor of Brunswick are unsurpassed by any other port south of the Chesapeake. The entrance is between the two islands, St. Simons and Jekyle, and forms a wide, deep chan nel, easy of approach in any weather, day or night; having no sharp points, eddies, or dangerous currents, and presenting not the slightest difficulty of navigation even without the assistance of a pilot and vessels often dispense with the services of one. The distance across the bar is about one-fourth of a mile, and the channel is of sufficient width for a vessel to beat over it if the wind should be adverse. After several thorough surveys by the United States Grvernmentat different periods, of the entire coast, an admirable site for a Navy Yard was purchased in Brunswick harbor. The average rise of the tide is seven feet, which gives at high water on the bar 24.feet. The place is unusually healthy, and vessels visit it at any season with impunity. No case of yellow fever is known to have ever originated in Brunswick, and the absence of fresh water streams and morasses exempts it from miasmatic fevers they pro- SOUTHERN GEORGIA. duce in so low a latitude. The temperature is very equable; the mercury seldom rises to 94 or falls below 30 , the mean temper ature being 67 Fahrenheit. The sea-breeze from the ocean tempers the heat of summer, and renders the atmosphere more cool and pleasant than in interior towns of higher latitudes. In winter the weather is mild, the air soft, and the climate considered by visitors as unsurpassed. The whole peninsula is healthy, has beautiful sites for residences, and excellent water. It is high and dry, and the entire plateau covered with a beautiful and luxuriant growth of live-oak and cedar. The walks and drives along the salts and through the woods are very attractive. On the eastern side of the city and beyond is a beautiful drive for miles near the water, in full view of St. Simons and Jekyle islands, the light-house on the former, and between these islands out to the ocean. To those fond of yachting and hunting, the inducements offered by the beautiful rivers, adjacent sounds and ocean and numerous islands in the immediate vicinity, are unequaled. The greatest abundance of finest varieties of fish, oysters and other shell-fish are to be found in the surrounding waters. There is scarcely any difference in the productions of this neighborhood and those of Florida. The soil is light, easily worked and very productive of fruits and vegetables, and one may usually have strawberries and green peas at Christmas in a well-tended garden. The olive grows readily, and with sufficient attention might prove of great value. The oil it yields is so superior that there is a demand for it at $8.00 per gallon. Oats, peas, corn, cotton, rice, sweet potatoes and sugar-cane are the main farming products of this section. There is no reason why the orange should not be successfully cultivated,, as was the case before the war; and there still exists a valuable and productive orange grove on Butlers Island, some fifteen miles to the north. Property can be had in the city and adjoining country at very low figures, and much below the prices in Florida. The pirncipal business of the place is in lumber and naval stores, and has increased rapidly within a few years. The wharf room available is sufficient for any city in the Union, and the railroads extend to the wharves, allowing transfer of freight from car to ship at minimum cost. Brunswick is admirably situated for a great cotton mart, by 30 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. reason of its shorter lines of communication with the cottongrowing districts, and superior advantages as a port of shipment, but the place as yet has not had sufficient capital to attract busi ness in that staple. By the two railroads terminating at Brunswick, daily commu nication is had with all points north and west and to Florida. A line of ocean steamers for New York touch at the port weekly, and, by an inland passage between the chain of beautiful coast islands and main land, communication is had by steamboat with Florida or Savannah. Great advantages are offered for the location of manufactories and other industries. Among them are the fine climate, the cheapness with which all needful supplies can be furnished, and the accessibility to other points, including the extensive coal and mineral beds that are being developed in Georgia and Alabama. Hardly any other point along the Atlantic, from Maine to Florida, affords such facilities for ship building, with an unlimited supply of the finest material at hand. The place is regularly and tastefully laid out witfi alternate squares, and the walks and streets are shaded with beautiful liveoaks, festooned with draperies of hanging moss. The whites have five churches, and the colored people fully as many. Some of the edifices are well built and attractive. Hotel accommodations are limited, there being but two small ones; but these are supplemented by several private boarding houses, which furnish comfortable and pleasant quarters. Population about 3,500. . SOUTHERN GEORGIA. EASTM/N, DODGE COUNTY, GEORGIA, . STATION No. 13, MACON & BRUNSWICK R. R. A Sample of what may be done on the Pine Lands of South Georgia. A pretty town of some six hundred inhabitants, and growing more rapidly than any other place upon the line of the road. In the center of- a vast tract of lands, one-half of which has been owned by Northern capitalists since the days of the Indian pos session, fifty years ago, and held by them for investment. Thus, for half a century, one of the most prominent parts of the State has been largely closed to the farmers of this and other States, and its true development retarded by the value of the pine lim ber growing on these lands. The building of the Macon & Brunswick Railroad for fifty miles through this most attractive region has opened a market for the pine timber, and arrangements have been made to rapidly clear and open the lands to intending settlers. .Eastman is the county town of Dodge county, and has a promising basis for future growth. For ten miles east and west up. and down the railroad, and for fifteen miles north to the Oconee river, and fifteen miles south to the Ocmulgee river, lies a region of beauti fully undulating or rolling prairie land, well watered with springs and small clear streams, embracing several hundred thousand acres, all of which is commercially tributary to this rising town. Within the next ten years one-half of this territory should be under the control of the farmer, and furnish traffic enough to support a town of several thousand inhabitants. The location of the town from a*sanitary point of view is probably unsur passed by any town in jfce Southern States. Situated from 500 to 600 feet above the level of the sea, on ground marked by in equalities of surface sufficient to provide ample drainage without being either hilly or level, with water unusually pure and good, and a climate free from sudden changes of moisture and temper- SOUTHERN GEORGIA. 32 attire, it is especially adapted for those who are suffering from bronchial or pulmonary affections, and is considered one of the healthiest places for residence in the United States. By the advice of distinguished physicians and well-known hotel proprietors, a company of gentlemen have here located one of the most attractive hotels in the South, with accommodations for over 100 guests, and an addition soon to be made to accom modate as many more. The beautiful grounds, containing about 10 acres, are divided by the railroad from the city park; on which, embowered in trees, stands the stately court-house, built at a cost of some $20,000, and a gift to the county from the Hon. William E. Dodge, of New York city. These grounds united form a fitting center to the town. Avenues to the number of eight are laid out at right angles from the railroad, while parallel with the rail road are other streets, named from the native forest trees. The village already contains a dozen or more stores, a wagonfactory, turpentine-still, two considerable saw-mills, and two or three well-kept boarding-houses, where invalids and other comers may secure cheaper board than at the hotel. The Eastman High School building is prettily situated on the fifth avenue, and has from 50 to 70 scholars. Mr. Harrison, a teacher of some note in the State, of liberal education and cul ture, and a Christian gentleman, has charge of the school, and it is all one could desire for a new place. The Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian denominations have regular services, and a Union Sunday School, with over 100 on its rolls, is one of the principal attractions on Sunday. The village is governed by a mayor and four aldermen. The authorities have planted trees along some of the principal avenues, and efforts are made to keep the streets in good order. The land for a mile in each di rection from the court-house square has been laid out under the supervision of Mr. Ayres, of Macon, and the utmost advantage has been taken of all the natural beauties of the landscape. The main roads from the town wind around the: elevations, furnishing large numbers of desirable sites for villas and cottages. Village lots, or plots of from i to 5 acres, can be purchased at reasona ble prices, as shown upon the map of the town. The west end of the town is beautified by the residences, of Judge Bishop, Wright Harrel, Esq., and others, and by the ele- SOUTHERN GEORGIA. 33 gant residence of Hon. William Pitt Eastman, from whom, the town takes its name. The last, situated upon a rising knoll, in the midst of 60 acres of grounds, .with ample lawn, flower gar dens, fruit and shade trees, and with extensive outbuildings, would be considered a beautiful home anywhere on the Hudson or in New England. ; , .,.' "/ For particulars as to the hotel, etc., we refer to article below. :; .. The country about Eastman is slightly rolling, with plenty of drainage. The soil is a sandy loam, and with proper cultivation and treatment, is susceptible of great fertility. The subsoil is clay, strongly impregnated with lime. Experiment has proved that by gradually mixing this subsoil with the top soil, the crops are greatly benefited. Mr. Eastman has produced a bale of cot-^ ton or 62 bushels of corn to the acre. He has experimented with sugar-cane, and had a crop of 1,500 gallons of syrup. .Fruits, vegetables and flowers are raised to perfection. Numer ous farms in the county can be shown intending settlers, which will this year average from 30 to 50 bushels of corn per acre, afcd a bale of cotton to the acre; from 200 to 500 bushels of sweet potatoes (the delicious yam of the South, far more palatable and nutritious than the Irish potato), and from 50 to 100 bushels of the Irish potato have been raised to the acre. Turnips yield several hundred bushels per acre, and hundreds of gallons .of syrup are frequently made from an acre of sugar-cane. Field- peas, the clover of the South, oats, rye, and various kinds of millet are certain and most prolific crops. ni The railroad company is offering unusual facilities and encour agement in freights for the production of early vegetables and melons, and market gardeners can compete successfully with Florida and other points in shipments to the West ., ; . Strawberries, raspberries and currants grow well, and in* the season blackberries and whortleberries are daily brought to the village market by the children, affording an abundant supply.-; < , Grapes grow wild in great abundance throughout this region, and the prediction is often made, that in time, this sunny land will vie with the best portions of France and Italy, in grape-cult ture. This region has long been known as favorable for stockt raising, on account of the universal profusion of native grass throughout the pine forest lands. In the spring and early sura* mer, the miles of English-park-like land, free from undergrowth, 34 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. is covered with a young and tender grass, and as far as the eye can reach, presents a beautiful appearance, and affords the most desirable pasturage for cattle and sheep. Hundreds of thousands of stock are now owned in this ; - - : ; ^ Plant .rice! Plant it in rows two feet and a half apart; plant a great many rows; plant the big field and the little field, and dont neglect to encourage the seed or cultivate the plants. There is money in it < CHAPTER VIII. Islands on the Southern Coast of Georgia. The coast of Georgia is lined by a succession of islands, inter sected by numerous navigable channels, which afford good inland navigation all along shore. They are generally separated from each other by wide bays or sounds which bear their names. The principal islands, beginning on the northern extremity of the coast of Georgia are St. Catherines, Sapelo, St. Simons, Jekyle, and Cumberland. They were once covered with rich plantations which produced the valuable long staple cotton, called from1 the place of its growth, sea-island cotton. - r These islands, like the neighboring mainland, are cbvered (when not cleared for cultivation) with forests of live-oak, water- oak, pine, cedar and palmetto. As the traveler glides by these shores in a steamboat, he is enchanted by the prospect of their lively verdure, interspersed with their thick forests. The live-oak, which is so called on account of its being an evergreen, is a noble tree, with a trunk sometimes twelve feet in girth; its long branches are spread horizontally, and festoons of moss hang from them, almost sweeping the ground. The magnolia is here seen, covered with large white blossoms shaped like a lily, and a foot incir cumference; and the cabbage palmetto scattered throughout these forests gives to them a truly tropical appearance. \ 64 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. These islands offer to the emigrant every inducement that can be asked for in climate and soil. Having the ocean for an eastern boundary, the never-failing sea breeze renders the summer tem perature delightful and invigorating, the thermometer seldom reaching 90; from the same cause the winters are moderate and mild, and 25 of cold is of very rare occurrence. They have a gray, sandy soil, easy to cultivate, producing cot ton, corn, peas, potatoes, cane, oats, rye, etc. Among the fruits that thrive well, especially on the islands of St. Simon's and Cumberland, are peaches, pears, figs, oranges and bananas. Other tropical fruits which have been acclimatized grow to great perfec tion. Olives are successfully cultivated, and oil made from the olives grown on St. Simon's Island has been pronounced by competent judges not inferior to the best productions of France or Spain. The suitableness of the soil and climate of this portion of the coast of Georgia to the olive tree admits of no doubt. The experment has been successfully made, and trees have yielded regular crops since 1835, and during all that time have never been injured by cold. It thrives on every soil that is not wet. That the sandy lands of our seaboard are adapted to the olive tree needs no better proof than the luxuriant growth of the trees on St. Simon's and Cumberland Islands. The oil crop from these islands is annually sold at from $6 to $8 per gallon. The scuppernong grape thrives as well as in its native State. The soil and climate of the islands are peculiarly adapted to its perfect development. White, in his description of this grape* says: " We consider this very peculiar grape one of the greatest boons to the South. It has very little resemblance to any of the grapes of the other sorts. It is a rampant grower and requires little, if any, cultivation. It blooms from the i5th to the last of June, and ripens its fruit the last of September or beginning of October. It has no disease in wood, leaf or fruit, and rarely, if ever, fails to produce a heavy crap. We have never known it to fail. Neither birds nor insects ever attack the fruit. "It will produce a greater weight of fruit than any other variety in the world. The clusters vary in size from two to twenty ber ries, and the berries in size from three-fourths to one inch and a quarter in diameter. SOUTHERN GEORGIA. 65" "Vines, six years transplanted, have this year given an average of three bushels to each vine. We are credibly informed that a vine of this variety is growing near Mobile which has produced .two hundred and fifty bushels of grapes in a year, and we know that vines ten years old have given and will give thirty bushels per vine. A bushel of these grapes will give from three to three and a half gallons of juice, according to ripeness. "It is the sweetest and most luscious of any grape we have ever seen or tasted; makes a fine, heavy, high-flavored, fruity wine, and is peculiarly adapted to making foaming wines. " We do not hesitate to recommend this variety to our friends at the South, and pledge our reputation as a pomologist that he who plants it will never regret having done so." On the Island of St. Simons, truck-forming for the Northern and Western markets has grown rapidly in the last three years, and it is on this branch of agriculture, in connection with fruit growing and a pleasure resort, that the future development of the island will depend. The cheap and quick transportation now offered by the railroads and steamships removes the only obsta cle in the way to a steady and rapid increase in this.branch of industry. Crops can be continually grown both winter and sum mer. Two and even three crops may be gathered from the same land in the course of the year. The facilities for heavy manur ing, such as is required for truck-farms, can be had in abund ance from the salt marshes that form the western boundary, lying between the island and mainland. The vast quantities of vege table matter and muck from these marshes, composted with oyster-shell lime, form a never-failing and cheap supply of fer tilizers. These marshes are drained by numerous rivers and creeks, which abound in fish, oysters, dams, shrimps, crabs, and other products of the salt water. Desirable locations on these islands can be procured, either by purchase or lease, on favorable terms. Large estates that were formerly devoted to the culture of sea-island cotton can now be cut up into truck farms, and used to better advantage than could be done in cultivating cotton. The uncultivated lands afford excellent pasturage for cattle and hogs, both summer and winter, and there can be no doubt that sheep would thrive well. On the southern end of St. Simons Island are extensive saw mills, giving employment to over one hundred and fifty hands, 66 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. and affording to the surrounding country an abundant supply of lumber for building, fencing, etc. To the tourist in search of pleasure or health, these islands will be found both pleasant and healthy. During the summer months the atmosphere is kept cool and at an even temperature by the never-felling sea-breeze. This breeze is looked for with almost as much certainty as the sunrise*; and seldom or never fails. Cumberland has a sea-beach of sixteen miles; St. Simon's, of five miles. They afford delightful drives, being hard and smooth. Sea-bathing is attended with no risk, and can be enjoyed without the fear of accident from the under-tow, which is so often the cause of accidents at the Northern watering places. Nothing of the kind is known on this coast. Fishing and hunting afford ample amusement to the sportsman. The rivers and woods afford abundance of game. The mild and even temperature of the winters of St. Simon's and Cumberland Islands renders these islands desirable localities for those suffering from pulmonary complaints, and persons so affected visiting Florida would find these islands pleasant stop ping places on the long route from the Northern or Western States to Florida. The proximity to the sea, with its refreshing breezes, makes them most healthy and agreeable residences in summer; and in winter the same influence is felt in the reduction of the frigidity of the atmosphere, coming in contact with the warmer winds of the ocean. In no place hi the whole State can there be found a more salubrious climate than is to be found on the sea islands of Georgia. SOUTHERN GEORGIA. 67 CHAPTER IX. Letters from Northern Settlers on Lines of Road in Southern Georgia, and from Natives of South Georgia. From Letters to Commissioner of Agriculture of Georgia in 1878-79. From Letters to H. M. Drane, Macon and Brunswick Railroad, in 1876. Andfrom Letters to Waycross Reporter in 1881. Eastman, Dodge Co., Ga., July 10, 1876. COL. H. M. DRANE, M. & B. R. R., Macon, Ga. . DEAR SIR : In reply to your request to give you a statement in regard to this section of Georgia, generally known as the " piney woods" or " wiregrass" country, I beg to submit the fol lowing: I have been acquainted with the counties of Telfair, Montgomery, Pulaski, and Dodge since 1861, and have lived in this section and traveled over the above-named counties and Laurens since the first of 1868. I have run a farm in Dodge county for three years, and am now farming. In the year 1874 I kept an account of all expenses and proceeds. Had upon the farm four mules, but did not use them more than two-thirds of the time, consequently had more expense than was necessary in surplus stock; hired three regular hands, and hired day labor to bring the cotton to4 a stand, replant corn, pull fodder, and pick cotton. Expenses for guano, labor, rations for mules and hands, and all other expenses, with interest added at the end of the year, amounted to nearly $2,000. Had about 120 acres hi cultivation, and raised from this 30 bales of cotton averaging over 500 pounds, which netted a little over $2,200; 1,200 bushels of corn, worth $1.25 per bushel, making, $1,500; fodder, worth by sales $150; 1,000 bushels cotton seed, worth as fertilizer 25 cents per bushel, making $250; 450 bushels potatoes, worth 50 cents per bushel, making $225; also a fine crop of peas among the corn, 68 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. worth at least $150, besides oats, etc. Whole product of farm, $4,475. These facts can be substantiated by reference to the sale-bills, etc. I had employed a negro farmer, and was most of the time absent from the farm, and did not work a day on it, but hired all the labor done. This year I am cultivating 75 acres in corn and cotton, and SPacres in sugar cane and potatoes, with two mules; have plowed the entire crop over four times, and have a better prospect for a crop than any year previous, although I have only spent $75 for guano to put to corn and cotton. There is a market right at the door for everything that the farm raises, as over half the people are engaged in sawing lumber or cutting timber from the fine yellow-pine forest, which is equaled by none in the United States. The land is easy to clear; nothing to do but to chop around the trees, cut up, pile, and burn the logs, build a fence, and go to plowing. The land is well adapted to raising corn, cotton, sugar cane, oats, potatoes, peanuts, and all kinds of vegetables; and all it lacks is plenty of good, industri ous, honest people, to make it the best poor mans country in the world, as they can get houses here so very cheap that any industrious man can soon pay for it and make a good living and to spare. While there is a good chance for capitalists to invest in pine-timbered lands and develop the same, it is also a good stock raising country, especially for sheep, as they do well all winter without being fed at all. Colts do Veil most of the year, and keep pretty fat upon the range, and will live through the winter without being fed at all, but get very poor. Hogs can be raised here as cheap as anywhere, but have to be fed if they grow large. Very respectfully, etc., JOHN W. GRIFFIN. The following letter from Mr. Clemens written for other par ties is the more important, as he used no fertilizers. In truth, with improved plows and tools, good seeds, and improved modes of cultivation, this land could be made to do much better. LETTER OF JACOB A. CLEMENS, ESQ. Lot No. 135, 8th District, Telfair Co., Ga., Dec. 13, 1869. DEAR SIR : In reply to your questions relating to the quality of soil and the products of my plantation, I will make the following state- SOUTHERN GEORGIA. ment. It has no better soil than the average quality of the pine wood soil of this part of Georgia. My average crops are as follows: Corn, shelled, . . . . . . . 20 to 30 bushels per acre. Sweet potatoes, ...... 200 to 300 " " Ginned cotton, ...... 400 to 500 pounds " Peanuts, ............ 20 bushels " Cane syrup, .......... 400 gallons " One man and a boy, with a mule, usually cultivate thirty acres of this land. I also raise as fine Irish potatoes, turnips, beets, peas, and oats as I ever saw grown anywhere; in fact, this is just the place for all kinds of garden vegetables, and a great variety of fruits. I herewith send samples of corn, cotton, and potatoes raised this year. Respectfully yours, * JACOB A. CLEMENS. Near Douglas, Coffee Co., Ga., August 7, 1876. MR. H. M. DRAKE, G. T. & P. Agent. Dear Sir: Yours of July 17, asking information in regard to sheep-raising in this section of Georgia, is to hand. Will answer: First, we clip about 3^ pounds per head of wool, per sheep; price of ewes is $2, the lambs $1.50 per head; mutton sheep, $2 per head. As for the produce from the fold, we realize nothing, as we never put them in fold at all only while we are shearing, as we let them roam at large over a large section of country. A dry, hilly, broken country suits them best. Very seldom there is any dis ease among sheep in this country. Sometimes a few have sore heads, which is easily cured by the use of tar, grease and sulphur. The cost to maintain sheep is nothing as to feeding. We use large woods pasture. Sometimes we fence the ewes and lambs when very young, to protect the lambs from the ravages of hogs. I have about 2,000 head, the profit of which is about $2,500 a year. The greatest trouble is gathering to shear and mark the lambs. Any other information will be given at any time. Very respectfully, 1 HENRY PETERSON. 70 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. Copy of Letter WrittenbyJ. W.Sheldon to Friends in New York. Eastman, Dodge Co., Ga., January 9,1876. Dear Sir: On the isth of December, 1875,1 started with my family from Rockland, county, New York, for Augusta, Ga., but on the steamer Magnolia, en route for Savannah, I made the acquaintance of Mr. Henry Niemann, a German gentleman, going to Eastman, Dodge county, Ga., to make arrangements for settling a colony upon a tract of land lying mostly in that county, and known as the lands of the Georgia Land and Lumber Company. The lands are em braced by the Ocmulgee andOconee rivers, and is nearly bisected by the Macon and Brunswick Railroad. This tract of land, Mr. Niemann assured me, upon good Authority, was fine rolling land, and covered mostly with the long-leaf yellow pine; was in as healthy a location as could be found in Georgia, and possessed as many advantages for the settlers as any location to be found any where in the State. He told me that if I would go with him to Eastman, he would guarantee me a house to live in and good society, with every advantage he could render me when there. After consulting my family, we concluded to go, and so became the first family in his colony. We arrived in Eastman December 24th, and got our house, and found everything as good as it had been recommended to us, and many better than we looked for. The country about Eastman lies as fine for agricultural pur poses as any land could, just rolling enough for natural drainage and not enough to be broken. The soil, like most yellow pine lands, is sandy, and at first view appears to be too much so, but the whole region is underlaid with a day subsoil, rendering it impossible for the land to leach, and enabling the farmer to bring his land to a high state of cultivation, while the sand renders the soil light and warm, also easily cultivated at once after rain with out injuring it, as in clay soil. Cotton, sugar-cane, corn, oats, sweet potatoes, and melons grow here luxuriantly. The water of this region is pure and as soft as warm water, obtained easily by digging from 20 to 30 feet in the clay, and the clay is of that nature that the well requires no walling, as the clay will not cave, but stands for any length of time firm as a brick wall. The climate since I came has been delightful, and I am assured by the people SOUTHERN-GEORGIA. of the place that it is a splendid climate, equal in every way t3 any in the United States. The people here can have their garden vegetables fresh from the garden any day in the year without housing them. The lumber of this region is as good for building purposes as ever need be, and is worth on an average about $9 per thousand feet, thus enabling settlers to build cheap, good buildings. Grass grows all through the woods in this part of the State, and while it is not like the Northern tame grass, it is good for cattle and sheep, and sheep especially can be kept to great profit and in great quantities. Any one wishing to confer with Mr. Henry Niemann can do so by addressing him in person or by letter at 294 Broadway, room 13, New York. I cheerfully recommend him as an honest, careful business man, of good judgment, warm-hearted and sympathetic. J. W. SHELDON, Formerly of Tompkins Cove, N. Y. * Copy of Letter front J. W. Sheldon to Friends in New York. Eastman} Dodge Co., Ga., July 26, 1876. Dear Sir: A little over seven months ago, I came to Dodge county, Ga., and have consequently witnessed a greater part of winter, all of the spring, and am now witnessing the hot season, and can truly say that this is by far the finest climate I have ever found* after having lived in seventeen States of this Union. The winter and spring here are so mild and pleasant and so healthy that both man and beast can fully enjoy life, instead of simply endur ing it, as they do much of this part of the year at the North. The summer or heated term is longer, and in this region the hot weather is more constant than in New York, New Jersey or Penn sylvania, but the degree of heat is not <%o high, and the lassitude produced not so great. There is almost always a breeze which so tempers the heat of the sun that sun-stroke is a thing scarcely known in that region. I have worked constantly in the open air for three months past, exposed to the full heat of the sun, and y can say in truth that I have not experienced any more inconve nience from heat than I have done during the same part of the year in New York, Ohio, Illinois, or Missouri. I am disappointed in the crops of this region, but the disappointment is a happy 72 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. one. I see good crops on land which has had no fertilizing for years and very poorly cultivated, while on lands fertilized and well cultivated the crops are remunerative to a degree I had not expected. The lands in Dodge county are easily worked, and after they are cleared and properly cultivated can be made to pay a better per cent, on the cost of land and cultivation than any other region I know of, either North or West. However, this region is not one where a man may sit down and fare sumptuously on the bread of idleness. Industry and economy are necessary to suc cess here as elsewhere, only they pay a larger per cent, than else where. Finally/to sum up, we have in this part of Georgia as delightful a climate for nine months in~"the year as is had in any part of the United States, and can get a good living for as little wear and tear as can be had in any other part of our country. Come and try it, all who want a good home in a good place. Respectfully, J. W. SHELDON. COL. HENRY M. DRANE, Eastman, Ga., July 19, 1876, G. P. & T. Agent, Macon, Ga. Dear Sir: I have lived in this vicinity for forty-seven years, -and twenty-five of that number have been devoted to the practice of medicine, and, in my opinion, it is one of the healthiest coun tries to be found anywhere. The climate is salubrious, having very few sudden changes. Is free from causes which produce violent and dangerous attacks of sickness. Those who are vic tims of lung or throat disease would be greatly benefited by a residence here, and perhaps our mild climate would afford them a final cure. The types of disease common to this country are mild and easily controlled, and it is entirely free from epidemics of a serious nature. Formerly, little attention was given to agri culture, but of late years it has become an industry of much value. The soil is very productive. Vegetables grow in abund ance both winter and summer. For sheep and cattle raising it is not surpassed in the Southern States. They increase rapidly, and support themselves upon the natural grasses which cover the entire woods. The fleece of the sheep is free from all burs and SOUTHERN GEORGIA. 73 quite large. They receive but little attention, yet yield a hand some profit The water is cool and wholesome free-from lime stone and all other impurities. The people are social and hospi table, showing great kindness to strangers, and generally, the morals of the country are very good. Those who have worked have shown signs of great prosperity, and offer open hands and hearts to any who wish to join them in developing the resources of this favored land. I am, respectfully yours, JAMES M. BUCHAN, M. D. DOUCHE RTY COUNTY. You ask for my experience as an immigrant I must say that it has been very pleasant both socially and politically; and as for health, I could not have found a more favorable climate. I am a farmer, and I think as an agricultural State, Georgia, and particu larly the southern part of it, is more favored both in soil and cli mate than almost any other section of America. One great ad vantage to immigrants is that we have every facility in the way of cheap transportation, by rail and by water. The productions of the soil are almost unlimited in variety and amount. Still, there is room for choice in selecting lands, and one should not be too hasty in selling. The best time to visit this country is from Sep tember to June, for then you see the State at its best and worst. Lands from $3 to $8 per acre. Taxes very low. Stock of all kinds are raised here, and it is a great fruit country. I came from Maine in 1869. F. L. BRIDGE, Albany, Ga. I immigrated from England to Georgia in 1878, and am en gaged as a clerk. My family and I have suffered less from heat than in Massachusetts. The soil is a sandy loam, capable of a high degree of improve ment. Have had better health than in Massachusetts. Society is good, and I consider life and property as safe as in the Northr ern States. The feeling toward immigrants is all that could be desired. The white people gladly welcome settlers from the other States, and give them every assistance in their power. Too much 74 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. praise cannot be awarded them. Land is very low much below its actual value. One or two farms adjoining me are for sale at a price much less than the cost of improvement thereon. The profits in good seasons will almost pay for a farm. A much better opportunity is offered immigrants here than at the West THOS. KIRKE, Albany, Ga. LOWNDES COUNTY. New Jersey is my native State, whence I came to Georgia in 1969, and engaged in farming and lumbering. The climate is healthy, if the diet be suited to the latitude, as is proven by the fact that the people are able to live on corn bread, bacon, coffee, and syrup. It is not so hot as the Middle States in summer. The natural soil is much better, but does not retain manure so well, on account of evaporation in winter. It is easier to work, being free from stones. I have raised i6j bushels of Irish po tatoes on one-twentieth of an acre. The second crop yields well, if of an early variety, furnishing a supply during the year. Not good for fruit, except figs, grapes and pears. Honied cattle can be raised at one-fifth the expense required in the Middle States, requiring but a very small amount of nutritious food in winter, when the grass is tough. Life and property are as safe as in any country of mixed races. Negroes here, as else where, are given to pilfering. Whites are easily angered, but not revengeful. Settlers are treated with kindness, both in social and business circles. Lands worth fe per acre here would sell for $50 in New York, Pennsylvania or New Jersey. L. A. HAYNES, Valdosta, Ga. THOMAS COUNTY. My original profession was that of a confectioner, but for the last ten years I have been engaged in growingfruits, having come to this State in 1860. There is but little inducement for mechan ics to settle here, because everything that can be made abroad is brought here for sale* SOUTHERN GEORGIA. 75 The climate is all that could be desired. The soil is of varied character, light soils predominating, but all produce well with a moderate use of manures. The productions include about all those of the temperate and semi-tropical zones. The health and physical development of the people are specially good, and I find that foreigners here enjoy permanent good health. This is the general rule with all those who retain their old habits of using lighter food and drink than are here commonly used. The con dition of society here is very good. The foreign immigrant would perhaps miss the jovial festivals he had so often enjoyed in his old home. Ten years ago, when I brought here two Swiss families, the head of one, shortly after their arrival, exclaimed: "My God! can you let your hogs run about as they do without their being stolen?" Even my tempting fruits are not trespassed upon by the boys here in town. Taxes are very light compared to elsewhere. Very kind feel ings are manifested towards the immigrant who settles here as a worker and not as an agitator. His standing in society will be equal to his reasonable expectations, here or elsewhere. JOHN STARK, Thomasville, Ga. I am a native of the United States (North); settled in Thomas ville in 1873. Am a minister of the Gospel. The inducements for immigration are reasonably good. The climate is delightful; the soil, though not naturally rich, is easy of improvement. Pro ductions, cotton, corn, oats, wheat, rye, rice, flax, broom-corn, sugar-cane, sweet and Irish potatoes, strawberries, pears, peaches, grapes, etc. General healthfulness excellent. Condition of soci ety and safety to life and property good. There is a great desire for immigrants, and they are kindly treated. Lands are low hi price, and profits of farming remunerative. Wise investments in farming lands, with suitable management, yield a*nandsome profit, despite the expensive transportation, which in some cases is ruinous, and in all a serious drawback. JAMES A. McKEE, ThomasviUe, Ga. [A letter containing substantially the same representations as the foregoing, was received from Mr. Fay Hirshinger, a native of Germany, now merchandising in Thomasville.] 76 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. WORTH COUNTY. My native country is England, whence I came in 1856 to Irwin county. Have followed school teaching and planting. Men with small capital can do more and better here than anwyhere I know of. Good teachers make a living. Climate is good, soil various, but all will remunerate labor properly directed. Productions are corn, cotton, potatoes, etc., etc. Fruits and vegetables in abund ance. Health good, society coarse, but honest. Life and prop erty are safe. Taxes light. Treatment of strangers is very kind and hospitable. Land is cheaper in this section, according to quality, than anywhere else. E. COURTOY, Isabella, Ga, I came from Ohio to Georgia in the month of December, 1872, and have been engaged in farming ever since. I made two crops in Fulton county, and one in Fayette county. From thence I moved to Worth county, where I have purchased a lot of land and established a permanent home, having my second crop about ready to "lay by." I am satisfied that I can make farming prof itable here, simply by leaving off guano and manufacturing my own manure. The climate surpasses that of any other country I ever saw. The winters are mild, and I have suffered much less from heat in the summer season than in Ohio. The soil, in places, is sandy, while other places are pebbly and solid, and pro duces well by using but a trifle of manure. The production of this country is about the same as that of Ohio, with the addition of much that cannot be raised hi that State. This country is very healthy, except malarial diseases about the watercourses; society is about the same as in Ohio; so is the security of life and prop erty. Taxes are no higher here than in any other country. The feeling and treatment manifested towards me, wherever I have lived in tijjp State, have been nothing but friendship and kindness. Lands here rate from 50 cents to $3 per acre. Thousands of acres of unimproved lands in this county can be bought at 50 cents per acre, much better and more profitable to formers than lands in "Ohio and elsewhere for which you have to pay from $40 to $50 per acre. JOHN MYGRANT, Warwick, Ga. SOUTHERN GEORGIA. 77 PULASKI COUNTY. I immigrated from Massachusetts, my native State, to Georgia in 1877, and have been engaged in the mercantile business and in farming, almost exclusively the latter the last year. Although the methods of farming here are different from what I have been accustomed to, yet such information was readily obtained as enabled me to make with three plows 24 bales of cotton, 700 to 800 bushels of corn, and a good crop of peas. Labor the main factor here requires more study than any of the elements of successful farming. My observation, thus far, teaches me that by personal attention to business, by patience and strict justice and fair dealing towards employees, the mutual interests of both white and colored people may be promoted and prosperity se cured. For three months of the year July, August and September the weather is very warm, though tha thermometer seldom rises above 90 or 95 degrees in the shade. During the remaining months the climate is delightful. Although not much of the soil is naturally rich, yet it is easily worked, and by intelligent culti vation, produces profitable crops. It is mostly sandy upon a subsoil of stiff clay. The forest growth is chiefly pine and oak, though there are many other species. The staple products are cotton, corn, oats, sugar carte and sweet potatoes, with a great variety of garden vegetables. Peaches, sand pears, grapes, plums, strawberries, etc., can be raised in abundance. One party here made 1,200 gallons of wine from three acres of Concord and Delaware grapes the fourth season after setting. Any industrious, sober man, with a small capital, by accommo dating himself to the methods of farming suited to this region (a matter not at all difficult), is almost sure to "get on" here; and in a few years, if he proves himself trustworthy, can work him self up to actual ownership and independence. \ B. F. PURSONS, HawkinsviUe, Ga. 78 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. LETTERS FROM ACTUAL SETTLERS. BRYAN COUNTY. I came to this county from the North in 1850. The climate i hero is delightful, and the soil unsurpassed for rice, corn, peas, I cotton, potatoes. As to health, there is some fever on the river, but very healthy away from it. The condition of society is good, and there are few disorderly persons in the part of the county where I live. Taxes are mod erate, and life and property are as secure as anywhere in the Union. I think good immigrants would be very favorably re ceived. The profits of rice culture are large, except when the crop is injured by storms, which are liable to occur in the river bottoms. GEO. LYMAN, Appleton, i^ A. & G. R. R. I am a native of Massachusetts; lived three years in New York State and two in Connecticut; settled in Bryan county, Ga, in 1867. I am a teacher and farmer. If money is the object, school teaching is not a success though we need teachers, but farming pays. Timber Cyprus, black gum, sweet gum, and especially pine is abundant, and might be utilized in the manufacture of boxes and measures. The climate is delightful, and I think I owe my life to it, for I came here a consumptive and am cured with out medicine. The pine land is light and poor, but yields ample returns when fertilizers are applied. A great deal of swamp land not yet under cultivation is very rich, and will be reclaimed in time. The leading farm crops are cotton, rice, sweet potatoes, sugar-cane, corn, oats, peas, chufas. Have been married twelve years; have six children. None of us have been sick for a day had no occasion to call a doctor. The people are moral and gen erally religious; very few atheists, deists or sceptics. A fine opening for preachers and teachers who dont want much money for their services. I believe that life and property are as safe here as anywhere. The people are law-abiding. Taxes very low SOUTHERN GEORGIA. 79 only one per cent, including State and county. The feeling is very kind towards immigrants; the people are more anxious for immigration than the older States. Land will average about $i per acre, and is capable of a high degree of improvement by proper use of fertilizers, at a much less cost than the soil in New York, Massachusetts or Connecticut. CAMDEN COUNTY. I am a native of New York State; did mercantile business for twenty years at Waverly, Tioga county, in that State; came to Georgia for my health in 1869. Since my residence here nearly ten years myself and family have enjoyed uninterrupted health, winter and summer. From my experience and observation, I be lieve the climate of the southern coast of Georgia cannot be sur passed for health and comfort during the entire year. The soil, with proper culture, will produce every variety of veg etables, and is most grateful for kind treatment Even with infe rior cultivation the soil yields a return that could not be realized in the most favored locality in the North, under the same treatment For growing the orange, or any other semi-tropical fruit grown in Florida (north of the frost line), the southern coast of Georgia for sixty miles has advantages over the orange district one hun dred miles south. . The orange tree is more hardy, less liable to injury from cold, and the fruit has a thinner skin and higher flavor. I have 1,500 trees. Not a single year-old seedling killed by the cold last January, while the trees in Central and Middle Florida suffered serious injury. Farm crops successfully grown are cot ton, corn, sugar-cane, sorghum, peas and beans, Irish and sweet potatoes, oats, rye, etc. This region is far more healthy than any section of the North or Westwith which I am acquainted, and we have at St Marys as peaceable and law-abiding class of people white and black as can be found in any section. So far as I have seen, there is less sectional feeling in the South than in the North, and I have never had any fear of personal violence to myself, family or to any Northern man who may desire to settle in Georgia. For nearly ten years that I have lived South, I have, without excep tion, received the kindest treatment and evidences of good will. 80 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. The men who now represent the condition of society at the South to be such as should deter a Northern man from settling here are enemies to the poor white and black North and South. Such men, who still appeal to the passions, were not clothed in blue or gray (during the civil strife) for honest purposes; if wear- .ing either color they were the home guards or men seeking some personal benefit or political position.. I have no doubt the persistent misrepresentations of the Southern people have de terred many good men from seeking homes in the South, who, could they have known the truth, would now be in the posses sion and enjoyment of free and independent homes in the South, freed from the anxieties of their present condition North. Taxes in Pennsylvania and New York where I have real es tate interests are as four to one in Georgia. In Georgia, taxes are low on a low valuation in the North they are high on a high valuation. If all Georgians would work for Georgia as the Floridians work for Florida, the population would be doubled in ten years. In my opinion there is no State in the Union that has the un developed wealth of Georgia. Every variety of fruit and grain grown in the United States can be successfully grown in Georgia; its mineral wealth is very great, and its advantages for manufac turing everything useful are unsurpassed. Every variety of cli mate, from the balmy air of its southern coast, to its mountains and snow of winter in the northern portion. I am proud of my native State, New York, but equally as much interested in the prosperity and full development of my adopted State South. SILAS FORDHAM, St. Marys, Camden county, Ga. [Very interesting letters were also received from Mr. Joseph Sheppard, St. Marys, a native of Pennsylvania; Mr^ Richard Beally, St. Marys, from England; and Mr. W. A. White, St Marys, from Connecticut. The above covers the points fully" and is concurred in by the others.] SOUTHERN GEORGIA. 81 GLYNN COUNTY, I am a lineal decendant of the seventh generation of Elder Wm. Brewster, a native of Connecticut, and have resided here about ten years. I was educated a physician. . Persons of various professions have visited and done business in our county and those adjoining, and are now settled and doing business here, apparently for life. r .* According to my knowledge and information, the inducements for immigration are fully equal to those of any quarter of .the globe, and surpass those of most localities. The social condition is better than it is at the North. Better feeling prevails toward the North than is reciprocated. The South is more humble, which insures Gods blessing. , F. A. BREWSTER, M. D., Brunswick, Ga. Massachusetts is my native State. I came here in 1865, and engaged in the manufacture of yellow pine lumber. My "pro fession" is pretty well filled up now. This section offers induce ments to farmers, and especially to stock growing. The climate is superior to that of Massachusetts, take it the year round. The soil, with care, is very productive of corn, cotton, vegetables and fruits of all kinds bananas, olives, etc., wheat and all cereals. Health is good where the country is properly drained so that no stagnant ponds are near. This low, flat section miist have drain age to insure health. The condition of society is every way satisfactory, and life is secure as anywhere. Taxes (local :city) are moderately heavy owing to extravagance of officials arid unsatisfactory political condition after reconstruction, while under the temporary control of the negroes. The people are very kind to immigrants, and their social treatment is unexceptionable. Land is very cheap, and good farms are readily obtainable. WARREN A. FULLER, Brunswick, Ga. [Reference is also made to Jno. R. Cook, Brunswick, Ga., from whom a letter was received.] 82 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. LIBERTY COUNTY. It gives me pleasure to answer your questions. I was born in Rhode Island, and came here last December with my uncle, Mr. Coe. - Am a farmer, and consider this the best place for a young former with small capital, on account of the cheapness of land small cost of living and good prices for farm produce. The climate is healthy; have never been so well as since I came here. The soil looks good time will tell how good. Rice, corn and cotton are the principal crops. Mine is all rice. Society is refined and agreeable, but very few white people in this section. It is perfectly safe for any honest man, white or black, to live here. I was cordially received, and all express a desire for set tlers to come and "occupy the land." Land is worth from $1.00 to $5.00 per acre. G. A. BAILEY, Dorchester, Ga. Not having been in Georgia a sufficient time to answer all your questions, I will confine myself to those which do not require length of time for solution. I am a farmer, came from New England in 1878. The inducements most noticeable to a new comer are cheap lands for farming and grazing. From my brief experience, I consider the climate very healthy and enjoyable, and my life as safe here as in any place in our country. Think the freedmen are not so well able to withstand the temptation to steal as those who have had better opportunities for moral education. The feeling manifested towards me has been most kind and cordial far more so than I had any right to expect. Found a hearty welcome everywhere. I cannot refrain from saying that, in my estimation, there is no part of our country that possesses superior conditions for suc cessful enterprise in any branch of farming, whether it be stock raising, forming proper or fruit growing. JAS. COE, Dorchester, Ga. SOUTHERN GEORGIA. WAYNE COUNTY. Am a native of New York; came here in i86g,t and engaged in merchandising. If goods are sold strictly for casn, I know of no better opening for well-posted business men than in Southeast Georgia. Little farming done in this immediate neighborhood, .though climate and soil favor the production of cotton, rice, corn, oats, sugar cane, and sweet potatoes. Soil in this county sandy, with clay subsoil. Crops are two or three weeks ahead of those across the river, in Liberty county (which is much lower than Wayne, but the richest and finest county in Southeast Georgia). Fruits grow in profusion and of elegant quality. This is as healthy a section as I ever lived in, and that covers a close acquaintance and sojourn in every State this side of Oregon and California. There are malarial fevers at times, but they readily succumb to ordinary remedies, and there is nothing of malignant type. Of the condition of society, can say nothing in its favor, but the adjoining county of Liberty has a splendid class of people, noted for morality. Life and property are as safe as in any part of the United States. Taxes are unusually small, and we are out of debt, with a balance in the treasury. With a few exceptions among the most ignorant, the great majority of the people, and //the better classes extend a hearty welcome to Northern immigrants who are men of energy and industry. Capital, however, is no dis qualification. With one-fourth the investment ahd one-fourth the labor here, a good farmer can reap ten times the value of the same investment North. Land can be bought at from .25 cents to $3.00 per acre. - During a residence often years, I have failed to see or hear of an instance, in this section, of "intimidation" or "shot-gun policy," to white or black. Perfect freedom, of speech political or religious. We need a fence law (to fence stock) and a dog law for this country is magnificent for sheep-raising. JAMES O. CLARKE, Doctor Town, Ga. [Want of space forbids the insertion of a very interesting letter from Mr. S. S. Moore, who came from Ohio in 1866. His postoffice is Jesup, Ga.] 84 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. LETTERS TO WAYCROSS REPORTER. EDITOR REPORTER: Your enterprising efforts for the development of Southern Georgia, your commendable zeal to convert a large part of our State from the extensive pine barrenness, hitherto valuable only for timber, and in the near, future valueless for that, into gardening and farming purposes should give you a strong hold upon the approval and material support of every Georgian, but especially of those of us living in those counties bordering on the Florida line and the Atlantic coast. These Southern and Southeastern counties are now yielding to the demands of the-world at large a value in building materials of which our fathers forty years ago never dreamed. And now that this element of value will soon be removed under the enterprise and laboring hand of the mill man, shall we, as our fathers did in the past, say of these vast tracts of land: they can never be utilized, they are only valuable for the timber, the last and only value attached to them is gone. We will from henceforth turn them over in fee simple to the wiregrass. Such a conclusion is unjustifiable. These lands can and should support herds of cattle and sheep with a value to their owners, or should be marked up into small lots of seventy acres each and made valuable by contributing to the support and maintenance of thrifty and industrious families. If we turn our attention to the mountainous districts of North ern Georgia and Middle Tennessee, we will there find large num bers of families making decent and substantial support on farms varying in size from seven to fifteen acres at inconvenient dis tances from market, and their small farms frequently washed and marked up by large gullies, or lying along such precipitous hill sides that it is almost impossible to have them traversed by plowhorse or ox. Although these farms are so small and surrounded by many serious inconveniences, yet, when near the towns or cities or along the railroads and rivers, their market value varies from twenty-five to one hundred dollars per acre. The lands lying along the great railroads of Southern Georgia which have been placed at your disposal to be deeded to bona fide immigrants and settlers are far superior to, and more valuable than, the lands SOUTHERN^ GEORGIA. 85 lying among the mountains of this or any other State, where thousands of people are living and supporting large families. Those large land owners have shown great wisdom in placing their lands at your disposal, and when the current of immigra tion shall turn in this direction, as it will most certainly do in the near future, they will reap a great harvest in the increased value of the alternate lots retained by them "and thousands will rise up and call them blessed." It is not at all surprising that there should arise opposition to the scheme of immigration, for we have only to reflect for a moment and we are reminded that opposition has always raised its growling head at every reformatory move in church or state. There will always be those who have nothing to do but to lay hold and pull back the car of enterprise and development. There can be in the nature of the case no good reason why the vast tracts of unimproved lands lying immediately on the Savannah, Florida and Western and Brunswick and Al bany Railroads should not be placed in the hands of Northern and- Eastern farmers, and be made cpntributary to the material support of our largely increasing population. Brooks county to-day can furnish homes and farms for a thousand immigrant families and the present holders have their estates increased in value thirty-three and a half per cent. Not long since, in company with an enterprising man from Fall River, Mass., while riding over a part of this county we heard him say of our undeveloped resources and uncleared lands: All you need in this country is men and money." Nature has placed within easy grasp, to the need of the industrious and nugal farmer, a greater variety of wealth producing products in South ern Georgia than can be found in any Northern or Western State, and if it were not taking too much of your space, it would be a pleasing talk to make the comparison: Here we have no inclement season, the farmer can labor every month of the year, he can make two valuable crops on the same and in one year; here he can with almost a certainty produce corn, cotton, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, pinders, field peas in great variety, Irish potatoes, oats, rye, tobacco, jute, hemp, rice on either low or upland; here gardening for market is fast becoming a great source of wealth, here the dairy and poultry yard yield a handsome profit. In a few short years the lines of railroad entering to Savannah and Brunswick will demand a line of steamships connecting these 86 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. ports with Europe, then we shall have a market for the products of the farm, the garden, the dairy and the poultry yard on the continent, as we now have for our yellow pine lumber. Development is the order of the day, the watchword of the hour. The car of material prosperity moves, and we must move with it. Pardon the length of this communication, and believe me in sympathy with your plans and efforts to improve the country and benefit the people. JOHN G. McCALL. QUITMAN, GA., July 28, 1881. [NOTE. There is already steam communication between Sa vannah and Europe during the cotton season, and soon will be regular steam lines between both Brunswick and Savannah to Europe.] JUDGE JOSEPH TILLMAN: , MASS., August 18, 1881. MY DEAR SIR: Your papers have been received weekly and distributed to the best advantage, and I will continue to distribute what you may choose to forward me for distribution. The people here are be ginning to take a lively interest in the South for the last few months, which will aid you greatly in peopling your country. The jfi^^tffer is very highly prized by the people of this country, and you will doubtless get a great many subscribers. Everybody wants to see the Reporter, from the bankers down to the garden farmers. It has awakened a great deal of interest and a lively inquiry about Southeast Georgia, and many excellent families are looking anxiously in that direction for the doors of your pooling scheme to be thrown open and they invited to come in and partake with your people in, as you choose to call it, Gods country. You seem to be doing all within your power to put life into your people, and I hope they will soon wake up to a realizing sense of their situation and invite people to come and help build up their country and become rich in worldly effects together. South eastern Georgia is capable of raising and feeding fifty people where it does one now, and the forty-nine are ready to go if you will hold out any inducements for them to go and share with you. Once get the first half of them and the rest are sure to follow and pay well for the privilege of making a home with you. I hope SOUTHERN GEORGIA. 87 > to see your people come up to the work at once, as it is now the fall of the year, which is the season Northern people should start in, in the South, to become acclimated. Do not let it pass by this season, as it will carry you one year further along, or, in other words, you will be one year behind. Most respectfully yours, C. C SANDERSON. JUDGE TILLMAN: WAYCROSS, GA.,August 17, 1881. DEAR SIR: I read with pleasure your remarks in last weeks issue of the Reporter on grape culture in this section of country. I will say to you and your many readers, that I was raised, or, as we Yankees would say, brought up, in Ulster county, New York, which is considered as good, if not the best grape growing sec tion North, and have, since my youth, traveled in nearly every State in the Union, have lived several years in California, and five years in South America a good portion .of the time in Peru. I now come to what I want to say, and will say it, because I believe it, and that is, that this is, by far, naturally, the best grape grow ing country I have ever seen. I am much interested on this subject, and would like to see the experiment tried here by a dozen or more skilled grape growers from Ulster county, N. Y., for I feel well assured yea, I know it would prove out a grand success. I have weighed bunches of die Concord grape |Jrown in; this town, gathered from the Lott vineyard, which has never received a fourth of the attention given to vineyards at home* which weighed as much as twenty-two ounces -to the bunch, with every grape properly and uniformly matured. Such a thing as a mildew and rot has never been known here. Grapes of different varieties ripen here everyyear, and are very sweet and juicy. I have never known or heard of the vines or fruit being attacked by insects of any kind. I regard this immediate section as being the natural home of the grape, with a congenial soil and climate combined. What I have said on this subject I believe to be true. Yours truly, D. C. TOMPKINS. NOTE. Mr. Tompkins has located permanently at Waycross. CHAPTER X. SAVANNAH. Statement^ by Article's and: Countries) of Commodities^ the Growth) Produce and Manufacture of the United States^ 00' 00' Exported to Foreign Countriesfrom Savannahfor theyear ending August ji) "" COUNTRIES. SEA ISLAND COTTON. UPLAND COTTON. Bales Pounds. Value. Bales. Pounds. Value. Great Britain . . . . . 5,183 1,005,881 $487,870 105,370 703 253,556 72,464 87103 118,283 02,700 Spain ......... 33,500 Italy .......... 15,368 35,348 1,943 SBwrietidshenAamnderiNcaorw. ay. .. 1,800 Central America . . . 94,600,010 17,003,378 66,005,208 30,024,033 15,780,501 7,441,100 17,040,t76 038,326 852,610 $10,180,000 1,072,297 6,014,146 3,342,290 1,804,40) 771,671 1,800,023 107,716 87,412 , Portugal ....... Denmark ...... West Indies ..... ROSIN. TURPENTINB. LUM BKR. TIMBER. Bbls. Value, Gallons. Value. MTFeet Value. Cub.Ft. Value. 73,022 $243,874 932,413 $301,103 000 $12,700 204,000 $40,647 84,013 100,247 7,373 22,400 2,417 6,041 008 7,231 388 146 0,381 112,066 20,040 4,094 3,025 10,710 83,090 35,089 7,030 10,051 10 147 19,316 2,318 1,210 3,315 173 3,292 2,600 301 120 304 72,,110028 1,482 23,649 748 11,859 1,335 3,260 343 5,000 2,001 0.000 2,302 0,351 5 10 83 35 000 18,100 Total ........ 5,836 1,850,430 $600,333 408,501 240,602,200 $20,024,040 185,830 $425,055 1,010,680 $807,333 11,057 $2<3,431 341,027 $47,360 COUNTRIES. COTTON SEED. ILLUMG OIL. HAMS. LARD. PORK. FLOUR. MA ALL TOTAL VAL Lbs. Value. Gals. Value. Lbs. Value. Lbs. Value. Lbs. Value. Bbls. Value. NURES. OTHER ARTICS UE TIC DOMES EXPTS. Great Britain ..... 001,700 $7,347 France ........ Germany ....... Spain ......... 48 BSwriteidshenAamnderiNcaorw. ay. .. Argentine Republic . . Portugal ....... Denmark ....... West Indies ..... 210 $ 0,080 $ 310 $ 11,348,918 480 * 2,046,231 16,200 150 6,030,073 $24 2,389 $292 43,474 $4,441 0,877 $582 1,090 $10,140 00 3,304,760 t 195 1,042,303 771,571 600 * 1,888,787 127,007 90,727 3,683 111 2,279 4,513 * 11,075 , 23,649 150 ... 12,009 8,346 9,0 35 1,274 116 400 29 176 908 i 3,221 6,351 22,522 Total ........ 601,700 $7,347 258 $59 3,003 $407 43,474 $4,441 7,277 $611 1,871 $11,048 $25,360 $8,710 $ 27,716,431 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. . 89 Receipts of Cotton at the Port of Savannah from September i, 1880, to August 31,1881. " . Upland. Sea Island. Centra) RailroalVr"? . ............ .676^707 Savannah, Florida ;ahd Western ......... 155,061 Charleston and Savannah ...;........ 18,517 Augusta steamers. ............... 20,716 Coasters. . .V , .. ..;............ 365 GC**ainrtnsed. .i.n..c ity' ;..--\:; -itI ......:...........;.;.:........,4,,*2.18 Florida steaniers. . . .... ......*... 3,077 Other sources. ................. 1,811 $,?os , - 276 450 35? 2,840 ':' ' : ..' 870,472 Stock on hand September i, 1881 . ........ 11,588 13,839 . 355 .->'['" 892,060 Exports of Cotton, Foreign and Coastwise, from the .Port of .,. Savannah, from,Sept. i, 1880, to August 31,1881, inclusive. , * Foreign-- Upland. Sea island. Liverpool .;........../........ 195,376 &I33 Havre ............ ......... 37,163 703 Ghent ...... ....... ...... , . 1,943 \ Corunna. .;*.. . . .. .. . ........... 628 , ; , Malaga. . . -.-.. ........... ...... 1,500, _. ..-, Barcelona . -, . ^ ................. 29,022. t Passajes ......................... 1,250 Santander ..............."*... 1,100 , Sebastapol ......... ....... .... 5,ooo : / Reyal...;. .; ....... ......... 48,418. Cronstadt. . *.;* ......... ......... 9,372 Bremen . . .-.. ...... ............ 115,283 Geneva ..-. k .................. 3,475 Genoa . . ..-.,..;. ............. 11,883 Rotterdam ....*.......... ...... 5,480 Amsterdam.......... ......... 26,868 Helsingfors i ; t ..................... 1,800 Gothenburg. .._............. ... 3,oo Total. ................... .498,561 **-' *'-"* " x- * t '' - /* - *- -Coastzvisf-* , .. New York ....... , ............. 248,875 Baltimore ... ................. 69,465 Philadelphia. .. ...............: 30,706 Boston .................... . 32,865 5,836 "." " L 5,915 1,823 40 225 Total coastwise. ......... . : . . . .381,911 8,063 Total foreign ... ......; ;*.. . \. . . .498,561 5,836 Total . . . J . ..... . , . . . ... ... .880472 13,839 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. Exports of Lumber and Timber from the Port of Savannah from September ist to date. Coastwise-- Lumber. New York .".................. 16416,281* Philadelphia.................. 6,828,727 Baltimore....... ............ 5,867,506 Boston. . . ...... ....... .... 5,290,587 Marcus Hook................. 193,100 Washington, D. C................ 477,790 Belfast, Me.. ................. 107,672 Portsmouth, N. H . . . ... .......... 168,9^9 Bath, Me.................... 2,221,870 New Haven.................. 623,315 Noank ..... ....... .... .... 11,144 Portland...... ....... ....... 241,634 Cottenville, S. I,................ 162,596 New Bedford................. 129,967 Kennebunk, Me................ 255,000 Fall River....... I ........... 1,056,135 Wilmington, Del................ 193,225 Timber. 3,308,292 116499 315415 120,141 435,573 Total. .................. .40,265,518 Foreign-- Great Britain. ................ 1,305,090 New Brunswick.........'....... 173,278 Spain.. .................... 7,310,705 Portugal ... ...... ....... ... 219,275 Buenos Ayres................. 843,156 Montevideo..... . . . . . ........ 1482,992 Barranquilla.................. 12443 Gaudaloupe.................. 60,000 Greytown......... .......... 120,000 Aspinwall. ....... ........... 179,870 West Indies .................. . 773,358 Santander................... 204474 Germany.... ..... ....... ... 646441 Holland....."...... -,, ........ 10489 Africa..................... 182,962 4,295.920 2,741,651 30,078 312498 ... 11,708 231,783 ... Total foreign ........ ........ 13,524*483 3^27,718 Total coastwise ............... 40,265,518 4,295,920 Grand total................. 53,790,001 7,623,638 Shipments from Darien and Doboy (yellow pine) 85,771,873 . . . Tabular Statement of Receipts of Naval Stores at Savannah from September i, 1874, to September i, 1881. September i, 1874, to September September i, 1875, to September September i, 1876, to September September i, 1877, to September September i^ 1878, to September September i, 1879, to September September i, 1880, to September Spirits Turpentine. Rosin. 1875 ...... 9,55^5 41,707 1876 ...... 15,521 59,792 1877 ...... 19,984 98,888 1878 ...... 31,138 177,104 1879 ...... 14^68 177447 1880 ...... 46,321 231421 1881 ...... 5470 282,38$ SOUTHERN GEORGIA. Stock of Spirits Turpentine on hand September ist% i88it " Actual Count. Barrels. On Shipboard not cleared .................... 300 Savannah, Florida and Western Railway wharf......... 3,582 Savannah, Florida and Western Railway, depot......... 246 Central Railroad .......... ; ............. 168 Plants wharf .... *................... 40 Katies wharf .......... ^ .............. 50 Jacksons wharf. ....................... 30 Total. . .\ ........................ 4^16 Comparative Table of Receipts from September I, i88o9 to September I,1881. Turpentine. 1879-80 188081 Wilmington .... .... ... 95,584 82,194 Savannah . . ........ . . 46,321 54,703 Charleston ............ 59,865 51,113 Mobile.............. 25,109 19,622 Brunswick ...... ...... 8,661 13,490 Rosin. 1879-80 1880-81 507,702 231,420 250,940 158,482 36,495 435,290 282,386 231,384 133,816 67,562 Totals ............. 235,540 221,122 1,185,039 1,150,438 An analysis of this statement shows that Wilmington has fallen off in spirits turpentine 14 per cent., and in rosin 14 per cent. Charleston has fallen off hi spirits turpentine 14^ per cent., and rosin per cent. .. Mobile has fallen off in spirits turpentine 22^ per cent, rosin i8# per cent. While the only increase has been at the Georgia ports Savannah gaining 18 per cent, in spirits turpentine, and 22 per cent hi rosin; Brunswick 55 per cent, in spirits turpentine, and 85 per cent in rosin. Tonnage of the Port of Savannah from September I, 1880, to August jz, 1881. No. American vessels entered ........... 23 American vessels cleared ........... 32 Foreign vessels entered ....... ..... 292 Foreign vessels cleared . .......... .270 Tons. 13,452 18,728 205,602 191,344 Men. 266 867 4,224 8,977 Total foreign ................ 617 Coastwise arrivals ......... ..... 344 Coastwise clearances. ............ 333 429,126 8,884 469,953 10,432 467,019 10,489 Total coastwise. .............. 677 936,972 20,871 Total foreign ................ 617 429,126 8,834 Qrand total.... ............ 1,294 1,366,098 29,705 SOUTHERN GEORGIA. Statement of Wool received at Savannah,from August, 1874, to August, 1881, inclusive: 1874. ..... . 405,165 pounds. 1875. . . ! . . .413,912 1876. ..... .367,582 1877. ..... .419.446 " 1878 ....... 676,602 pounds. 1879. ..... .644,169 " 1880. ..... .810,983 . . ;. . .. Sav.annah, " E. E. Byrd, . r ...... .Blackshear, " " Warren Lott, . . . .. . . . * Waycross, " Camden County Hon. R. N. King, -_...", . .St. Marys, " " Silas Fordham, . . ...., . . St. Marys, " -- !, *.. " Hon. Joseph Shepard, . - . - . . St. Marys, " W. A. White, . . ..... .St. Marys, " James Bailey, . . ... / '. Baileys Mills, " INDEX TO CHAPTERS. CHAPTER - PAGE I. The Railroad System of South Georgia ......... 5-7 II. General Description of South Georgia .......... 7-9 III. Stations, To\vns and Points of Interest on S., F. c \V. Ry. 9-27 IV. " i; " M. & B. R. R . . 28-37 V. - " " " B. & A. R. R . . 38-44 VI. Description of Pierce County, as a sample of South Georgia Counties ..................... 45-52 VII. Articles upon Special Industries in South Georgia Sheep Husbandry, etc. .................. 53-63 VIII. Islands on Southern Coast of Georgia ......... .63-66 I.. Letters from Northern Settlers and others ........ 67-87 X. Statement of Exports, Imports and Tonnage, Savannah and Brunswick ................... . 88-94 XL List of Persons \vho may be Addressed at Points on Lines of Road ...................... 95-96 V3^- If. ^2*&-f*"*