Of course it is beyond question that the enormous resources and capabilities of Florida would in time have brought railroads, with the development that accompanies them, but it is also true that but for this timely intervention and help from Mr. Disston, the beginning of this period of growth and prosperity would have been delayed, possibly many years.
Following this timely succor, Mr. Disston has now put the State under further obligation to him for one of the most stupendous and one of the most successful works of general improvement ever undertaken in this country. As was briefly told in the February number of the Southern States, he has reclaimed for the State many millions of acres of land that but for his enterprise would have been permanently a waste. True, he has himself reaped large rewards, as it is proper that he should have done, but this does not lessen the benefits the State receives, and moreover, the risk has been all his own, since the only return the State was to make to him for the millions of dollars spent in his drainage works was a share of the lands reclaimed from overflow.
The value of the services that Mr. Disston has rendered Florida are beyond estimate.
How to Do It.
The News, of Birmingham, Ala., very correctly maintains that reduced railroad rates will not accomplish much in the way of inducing immigration, unless the measure be accompanied by liberal advertising. The News says:
Ten good settlers can be brought down from the effects of good advertising, without any half rates, where one can be brought down from the mere effects of half rates, and as a rule those who come solely on account of low rates never become settlers, but combined, the two do good service, reaching the better class.
The Southern States is the channel through which to reach the attention of the North and Northwest. It is the only Southern immigration journal; the only publication that can be looked to for information about the soil, climate, agricultural capabilities, etc., of the whole South. It is alone in this field. There has never been a time when there was such eagerness for facts about the South. From New England, the Middle States, the West, and notably from the Northwest, requests for sample copies and letters of inquiry about the South are pouring in upon us.
Advertisements in the Southern States will be read every month by many thousands of people all over the North and Northwest, who are eagerly seeking such information as will enable them to determine what part of the South is most likely to suit them.