Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

The Douglas Weekly Breeze. FOR OUR COUNTRY AND HER PEOPLE, FIRST AND ALL THE TIME VOL 15, No. 23 DOUGLAS, THE CAPITAL Magnificent Resources and Bright Prospects of the Queen City of the Wiregrass. i Geographically speaking, Coffee us Georgia’s biggest county —phys- ically it is second to none says the Macon Telegraph. Its soil is ex 'Ceedingly productive and the cli mate is salubrious, fanned by the health-giving breezes from the gulf to the west and the Atlantic to the east, tempering the summer heat as well as the winter cold.. Sun strokes afe unknown, and even in the hottest summer days one may keep comfortable in the shade, while in the winter it is never too ■cold for outdoor work. Coffee ■county’s soil is of the red pebble variety with a strong clay subsoil, nauturally productive, responding readily to fertilizers and suscepti ble of a high state of fertility and •cultivation, rendering intensive farming very profitable. The topography of the county is most favorable for agricultural, horticultural, and stock raising purposes. The land is rolling enough for natural- drainage, yet not hilly efiQU.3df *° require terrac ing the fiV* s - \ The fc ounty gen erally is ’Veil watered bj numerous branches and lar\ge crelks. Fish kinds,, inducing the Aout, the bream, \ the pe-ch, the pike, the jack, etc.,,abound in the streams, affording fine piscatorial sport. The farms of Coffeie county pro duce from a half to a\bale of cot ton to the acre and frofp fifteen to twenty-five bushels of porn under the ordinary method. JJnder the intensive system, much larger re sults, of course, are obtained. No finer oats grow anywhere than the hinds of Coffee county produce. Wheat can be raised, but little is planted owing to the lack of flour mills. The velvet bean growfe here ■to perfection and is growing in popular favor as a splendid feed for stock and the best known ,en richer of the soil. It is claimed, in fact, has been demonstrated Ly actual experiments in Florida anV.l Alabama, that the velvet bean will, build up worn out soil without the' aid of fertilizers within two or three years, and at the same time furnish large crops of the best for age for cattle. The casava plant, another valu able food for hogs and cattle, can be grown in Coffee county. It is an inexpensive product, containing over So per cent of starch, and is extensively used for the manufac ture of starch in some section. To enumerate everything the soil of Coffee county *vi 11 produce would require much space. Prac tically everything can be raised here. For horticultural products Coffee •county’s soil ranks among the best. Peaches, grapes, pears, plums, etc. of the finest varieties grow to per fection. Watermelons and canta loupes that would command the highest prices in the Northern markets can be raised in great plenty. Strawberries second to none and vegetables in endless va riety can be abundantly produced. Is there another section so fav ored by nature with so many mag nificent resources and advantages lying in juxtaposition, needing only the development of progres sive men to transform it into the veritable garden spot. And this splendid work will not be long de layed. It staggers comprehension to undertake to figure out the possi bilities of this section. In area Coffee count} 7 is 1123 square miles, its territory being nearly 160 square miles larger than the state of Rhode Island, and the productive power of the soil is immensely greater. Rhode Is land’s soil mav be richer, but its products are limited and its soil frozen up a considerable portion of the year, while in Coffee county practically everything can be rais ed, in some cases two crops in a season. In Coffee county too, a larger percentage of the land is available for agricultural and hor ticultural purposes. Yet a com parison of the two sections, leav ing out the large manufacturing centers of Rhode Island would be ridiculous. In 1900 Rhode Island had a total population of 428,556; taking from that the large cities of Providence and Newport, leaves suurban and village population of 185,524, as compared with 16,169 for Coffee county in the same year. This will give some idea of the possibilities of Coffee county as well as the entire wiregrass belt. Coffee is not behind her sister counties in the good roads move ment. Much interest is manifest in the importance of better roads and first class highways through out the county will not be long de layed. Most of the soil being of the hard pebbly kind, requires but little work to make them easy for travel, while in the sandy parts, ample material, clay and sand, lie in juxtaposition, so that good roads can be constructed at small cost. Few towns in the state have more flattering prospects for future substantial growth and importance than Douglas. With ample rail road facilities, healthy climate, central location and the permanent county seat, surrounded by a ter ritory covering many sections which is just beginning an era of development that will greatly sur pass any previous growth, Doug las’s prospects are certianly invit ing. Its solid advantages are sur passed by few towns. It is already the natural market of the large prosperous territory described and as that section fills up with thrifty farmers, the trade and population of Douglas will expand and grow us never before. Douglas’s commercial advantage is not all that makes its future prospects bright and substantial. Its social and moral standing and splendid progressive educational advantage makes it a desirable ■ home for investors of means and \ntellectural attainments. COFFEE COUNTY THE PLACE- ,T‘ t Founder of the Fitzgerald Colony locate a Colony in This County copy the following from the Co\rde\p Sentinel: “Mr. P. H. Fitzgerald, the promoter of the old 1 itzgrerald colony, is arranging to build' another colony in South Georgia. He has been at work for about a year or this move, and has secured options on several tracts of land, but has not yet de cided where the co*ony will be located. This will be decided by those engaged with hit,-, j n the en terprise early in ne>t month, when they will at once l*y off the city and proceed to selling Jots. The stockholders of- the colony will be entitled to a business lot for $20.00, a residence lot fer $lO., a five acre tract for $50.00 i n d a forty acre tract for SIOO.OO. This is less than the land will cost the company, but by their plan of re serving every other lot they th. n k that the reserved lots, which they will put on the market to outsider-, will bring big prices. Mr. Fitzgerald says that he will start a city of 10,000 at once, most j of whom will come from the north ! and west. Ii is believed that this! colony will be planted in Coffee county, which is just below Fitz gerald—their idea being to locate as near that point as possible on account of the success of that colony. Mr. Fitzgerald sftys that this part of Georgia is the most favored spot in the union for building a colony of small fai mers.” Douglas, Ga., October Bth, 1904. UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES Fortunes in Raising and Planting Fruits and Berries- Editor Douglas Breeze—Allow me space in your paper to have a little talk on the wonderful advan tages we have as~ a people in this highly favored section of our country, South Georgia. The sub jects are so numerous that it is hard to select anything that is not inter esting and full of promise to our people. I hope to touch on the following subjects in future letters in your paper for the benefit of ourselves and others. First, Fruits: second, Truck-farming; third, Industries; fourth General Prospects of our South lands. Now, as this letter is intended to touch on our capabilities in making money from our wild and cultivat ed fruits it will be surprising to many why we do not turn our at tention to what can be done by forethought, push and energy in this line. I think lean see a smile on the face of many of out friends when we talk of making money on our wild fruits, but, dear reader, this world of ours is quite a- big place and sell almost any thing if properly put up. Let me carry the minds of our readers to a place in .Scotland, called Dundee, and take a look at one of the lar gest fruit preserving factories in the world. That is Keelers, of Dundee, known all over the world for the purity of its products. The factory has been in operation over one hundred years, and when it first started it was a small, one horse affair, but to-day it covers more than twenty acres, and they have something like a dozen steamers of the fastest build carry ing sour oranges and other fruits from up the Medeteranean sea from Italy, Spain and Portugal, you will find that factory a busy bee hive of men, women, boys and girls, all packing, working and preparing for market those famous preserves, consisting of various kinds of Jellies, and forms of straw berries, black berries, cur rants, &c. This immense business had a very humble beginning. They buy the most of their small fruits from farmers, of the sur rounding country, thus distributing enormous sums of money. Those fruits are mostly raised in odd corners on the farms, and do not interfere with the general crops. Now what can South Georgia do on tliis line. It is something surprising to ourself that some one has not started such a business here. Just think of the vast quantities of fruits we can raise here Take the scuppernoung grape, which make the finest kind of jellies and jams as well as wines, then there are other grapes that grow in an abundance ail over the country, also good for wine making, jams and preserves. Besides these grapes, just think of the enormous quan tities of black berries that you will ( find growing .wild, and they can joe cultivated and made to produce jl*rger crops, selling readily at five I cents per quart, any time, jtyhile j ihe-e is no finer jelly ma • N an 'black berry jelly. TIIOI [ ; dolla-s worth of these be ,me and j waste every year in * udoi P n c ; Whott'e or huckelberr." This m,„ey crop will tfi to lo , saven kind in < The Georgia peach red to j ] r. 1 | a future there is in store for the peach, and the amount of money to be gotten out of it as a fruit for the world’s use, for preserving pur poses, &c., and can you think of the delicious, juicy brandy peach without having fits to get a hold on a jar of them. I ask if they will sell in the markets of the world, and answer by pointing to the State of California that you may see the vast amount of money that goes in to that State every year for preserved fruits Don’t run away with the idea that they have a monopoly of that kind of a business. It is simply push and go a head among the people that does it. Don’t every body know that the Georgia peach is pushing all others out of the market? And what is the matter with Coffee county that her people cannot catch on? Now, take our plum, and it is simply surprising, the amount of money that can be made on plums. I dont mean particulary any little wild plum. There is money in them, but I refer to the cultivated plum, and the Prince and Damson. Around Tifton they are in the plum business to stay. Coffee joins Berrien and Irwin, and those coun ties produce a plum that sells be fore it is grown, that is, there is a demand for the fruit all the time, and right here in Douglas there a few trees scattered about that lives and thrives as if they were natives of the soil. I ask the people of Coffee county if these are not facts. Then why is it we do not push our advantages? We must be a little lazy. In my next letter 1 will go a lit tle deeper into the subject, with the view of working up our ener gies to take advantage of our op portunities. J. M. Jardine. Broughton’s Mistake- The Albany Herald makes this statement in regard to the closing of the Westbrook case in that city : “ In summing up yesterday af ternoon, Col. Wooten took occa sion to caustically denounce Rev. Len G. Broughton, tlie Atlanta divine, who first made the charges against Chief Westbrook last June and who was cowhided in conse quence thereof, Dr. Brnughton stated when he made the charges that he had affidavits lo sustain them, but all afTorts of Chief Westbrook and his friends to have the documents produced were without effect. During the entire hearing no evidence was furnished to snow that Dr. Broughton really had these affidavits, and Col. Wooten’s charge that the evange list did not have the affidavits when he stated that they were act ually in his possession, was not controverted or disputed.” A South Georgia Farm for Sale. Our north Georgia friend- who are “looking this way,” and there are many we hope, will find in this number an advertisement of a good farm for sale, consisting of one half lot of land, 245 acres. Sev enty acres are cieaedand in cultiva tion. The place is not old and yorn out, but has been cleared /f enough to be easily cultivated. Light . . lii’t me? ant to move to this section But he at. house keeping at once nd, as he v uer girl any way Air. W. P. Ward, jrald. Douglas, Ga. SI.OO per Annuli* A NOTABLE AMUSEMENT EVENT. Solomon, His Temple and the Queen of Sheba The Grand and Colossal Biblical Spectacle by John Robinson. John Robinson’s ever popular and ever welcome i*hows come to us this year with such important accessions and augmentations as to overshadow all contemporary amusement ventures. They have not only materially strengthened their ring and hippodrome perfor mances, and largely added to their already vast menagerie, but are producing an astonishing new feature, which cannot but commend itself to all classes of patrons. We allude to the grand Biblical specta cle of “Solomon, Ilis Temple and the Queen of Sheba.” Unerring in historical accuracy, faithful in scenic delineation, realistic in de piction of incidents and events, im pressively grand in pageantic ef fects, magnificent in costumes and appointments, entrancing in musi cal features, bewitching in beauti ful ballets and exciting in games and chariot races, this unprecedent ly sublime spectacle will commend itself to every visitor. The show will exhibit at Douglas, Tuesday, October 18th. Should Be Picking Cotton. Seldom has there been seen so many negroes at one place, as there was gathered at the Union depot this morning just before the excur sion train on the Georgia Southern and Florida left for Jacksonville, It was estimated that there were crowded in the depot and the vi cinity not less than from 1,500 to 2,000 neg.ioes. So mans were present that those who were not allowed in the depot, there being no room for them, crowded against the fence and looked jealously over at their more fortunate companions who were going to leave on the excursion. Among the onlookers at the de pot was Alderman Happ, who had come down to see his son off on a trip. As the Alderman was look ing on the throng of negroes which appeared like a black cloud, he said : “I was just thinking how much cotton that crowd could pick if they were in the fields now, in stead of going off on this excur sion to loaf and get into trouble. 1 judge that in that crowd there are not less than 2,000 negroes. At the rate of 150 pounds a day, they would be able to pick about 600 bales of cotton a day. But they do not want to do that now a-days. It seems they had rather come to the citv and keep out of the sunshine. It would be much better for them if they were pick ing cotfon.”—Macon News. In regard to the above the Ilawkinsville Dispatch and News adds : A strict enforcement of the va grancy law would land many a would-be negro excursionist in the cotton patch or on the public works. And the is no better time to enforce this law than just now, while the fields are white with the fleecy staple and work is plentiful for all who desire it. Put the loafers to work. For Sale-Mules. We have fifty head of good draft mules for sale. Will sell all in a lump at a bargin. For par ticulars address W. O. McGowin. Gen’l Supt., Soutnern Pine Co. of Ga , Offerman, Ga.