On February 16th a party of sixty persons from Iowa and Nebraska reached Fort Worth, Texas, on the way to the Gulf Coast to investigate the fruit-growing capabilities of that region. Most of the party are descendants of the people who built up Nebraska, and made that State take a front rank among the wealth-producing States of the Union. While most of them are doing well at home, they are anxious to live in a more congenial climate, and have had their eyes on Texas for a long time.
In consequence of numerous inquiries from the Northwestern States, Mr. M. V. Richards, of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co., has arranged a number of special rate land excursions, as they are called, from Chicago and points west of the Ohio river to Baltimore & Ohio points in the Shenandoah Valley, in order to induce settlers to come to this region. Mr. Richards intends to make the most of the reduction in rates allowed by the Southern Passenger Association on certain dates in February, March and April for the purpose of aiding Southern immigration.
A large number of land seekers recently visited Crowley, La., and most of them bought property. Indiana and Nebraska were among the States represented. The visitors report great dissatisfaction among the farmers of their States, and say that Louisiana will receive many immigrants this year.
Messrs. Sappington & Howell, Little Rock, Ark., are working on a plan to combine the State and railway lands in Arkansas, aggregating 7,000,000 acres, and offer them for sale at nominal prices on an opening day, to be fixed.
A dispatch from Rockford, Ill., says that quite a company of Rockford’s Swedish population are planning to move down to Mississippi this spring.
The Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville, Ala., is in receipt of many letters from the West asking about farm lands in the neighborhood. Huntsville is one of the most delightful towns in the South. It is surrounded by a splendid farming country.
Norwegian prospectors are going into Lawrence county, Tenn., every day and the majority of them buy homes. There are over 100 families here. They are good farmers and make good citizens.
A movement is on foot to locate upon the rich prairie and timbered lands adjacent to and just west of Charlotte Harbor, Fla., a colony of Bohemian agriculturists.
It is reported that a tract of land aggregating about 12,500 acres, at Wilson Station, Ala., on the Louisville & Nashville railroad, has been bought for a German colony. The first settlement will be named “Milton Grove,” in honor of Mr. Milton H. Smith, president of the Louisville & Nashville railroad.