Resolved, That we cordially endorse the movement for immigration as outlined by Commissioner Lane, and pledge him our hearty co-operation, both as real estate men and as citizens of Birmingham and of Alabama.
At Atlanta, Ga., a $500,000 company has been formed to engage in establishing country banks wherever good openings are found.
A large party of prominent coal operators of Chicago and other Western cities have been examining Kentucky coal fields with a view to handling Kentucky coal on a large scale, and also of investing in coal properties.
A new water-power cotton mill will be built in South Carolina on Penny-Shoals, Tiger river, near Wellford, by a company recently incorporated as the Tuscapan Mills Co. Mr. C. E. Fleming, of Spartanburg, is at the head of the enterprise.
The public lands in Arkansas, government, State and railroad, aggregate more than 7,000,000 acres. There are over 4,000,000 acres of government lands subject to homestead entry. Any male citizen of the United States who is the head of a family, or over twenty-one years of age, is entitled to enter 160 acres of land by paying the following fees: For forty acres, $6; for eighty acres, $7; for 120 acres, $13; for 160 acres, $14. The State has also 1,200,000 acres which it will sell at $1.25 per acre, or any citizen over the age of twenty-one years, or the head of a family, can secure a donation of 160 acres by paying a fee of $10. In addition to this the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. has over 2,000,000 acres which it will sell on five years’ time at from $2 to $5 per acre, receiving notes in payment therefor, bearing 6 per cent. interest. During the last two years there have been donated to settlers 166,940 acres of land, and deeds made to 131,957 acres to settlers who had fulfilled the requirements of the law.
It is not generally known that nearly the whole of the extreme western part of Texas is fenced in and divided up into enormous pastures. There is one pasture, for instance, traversed by the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad, that it takes a fast express train four hours and a quarter to cross. Another, in Dickens, Crosby and Emma counties, belonging to the Espinella Cattle Co., contains over 1,500,000 acres. If this pasture were in the shape of a square it would be about fifty miles each way, requiring therefore, 200 miles of fencing.
The Empire Plaid Mill, at High Point, N. C., is crowded with orders. The plant has been running on double time for some months until very recently.
From the annual report of the Board of Trade of Eufaula, Ala., of which Mr. C. B. Goetchius is secretary, it is learned that Eufaula has had a very active business year in spite of the hard times. The residences and stores that have been built during the year aggregate in cost about $50,000. As an indication of the comparative business done in 1892 and 1893, it is stated that the cash receipts at the railroad office were $8500 greater in 1893 than in 1892. During the recent period of financial and business disasters and failures there was not a single failure in Eufaula, and not a business house closed with the exception of one case of temporary embarrassment, which was quickly arranged.
The Liberty Woolen Manufacturing Co., of Bedford City, Va., has secured another contract from the government to make goods for the army. This time the order calls for 7000 broad yards at a cost of over $8000.
The last annual message of the mayor of Augusta, Ga., which has been printed in pamphlet form, is a very comprehensive review of the city’s affairs for 1893.