Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1867-09-05
Editorial Correspondence.
PARISH OF IBERvILLE, Sept. Sd, IS

| stage from Summer, 10 suggestive OF fact
which has occupied the minds Of many,
and that is, that no year within the mem
DRY Of "the Oldest inhabitant," has exhib-
tied q greater display Of weather phenom-
ena, attended with backwardness in the
seasons, than this. In the early Spring, as
in March, we had winter lingering with a
vengeance, cutting down the incipient
vesetation, destroying the fruit prospects,
retarding the operations in planting and
battling the calculations Of everybody.
The Spring continuing cool, even to chilli
ness, at times, germ ination was slow and
difficult, and even the Summer, with O
few exceptional days, and nights, failed to
impart that steady tropical temperature
necessary to full and rapid development
Of field products. For the most part
the prevalent winds have been from the
North, and Northeast, giving to the Sum-
| mer an ais more autumnal than symmetry
| preparing us very naturally for that facilss
desconsus style of gliding almost uncor-
| sciously from one season into another
which we have but just experienced.
Some persons have affected to discover
in these eccentric deviations of Nature, o
gradual transposition of the poles and 9
consequent notification Of the polaric in
| fuences upon the seasons; while others
with optics KEEN" ascribe them to certain
dark specks which, they allege, are to be
| seen upon the face Of old Sol, and which
tend to diminish, to certain extent, the
amount of heat reflected by that old and
respected luminary upon "Mother Earth
The phenomena leading to all such hypo-
thetical speculations, however, are, and
doubtless will forever continue to remain,
inexplicab,e.
Conversing with an old French planter
q few days since, upon the above subject,
he called my attention to q fact recorded
in one of the early histories of honisiana,
that during the possession Of this State by
the French, a year almost precisely similar
to the present one, in respect to atmos-
phericai and meteorological peculiarities,
backwardness of seasons, crops, &C., was
| experienced. Herein we have another in
stance of "History repeating ITSELF" and
going to show that "what is, has been, and
shall be again, and there is no new thing
under the SUM-
No one during "cropping time" is ex-
pected to touch pen to paper to shape q
correspondence or s.body 70 rth'' his obser-
vations for the columns of newspaper,
without having his say on the matters re-
lating to the "staples." To omit so i'm
portant point, would be in the estimation
of some persons, like enacting the play Of
Ham let with the character Of Hamlet left
out. And yet, feel like owning up to q
delinquency and crying peccaos! when at
tempting to renew q topic which crop
croakers and wiseacres together have al
ready worn so threadbare. However,
being "hald up'' for an item and confess
ing to penchant for custom which for
all the good it does, oftentimes might be
honored "more in the breach than in the
observance" may be excused for ventur-
ing few remarks on what seems never
to tire the public interest, and about which
every one appears to have something to
say, albeit contrary-wise and perplexing
to the minds and understandings of"the
rest Of mankind.",
Ever since my arrival in this parish, /
have been hearing almost daily, reports
more or less exaggerated and contradict
ing concerning the cotton worm. The
'"fy," the "egg," the "chrysalis," the
caterpillar" the webbing up" and the
"unwebbing" of the embryo cotton pest,
are matters glibly discoursed about and
coupled with "portents dire" to the uni
verssl cotton crop. Now, so far as my
personal observation goes, (and l have
visited and closely inspected the cotton on
various plantations in this region), must
say, that very few Of any such alarming
signs have appeared to my feeble vision.
The cotton every where is mostly small
and very backward, but is doing as well as
could be expected under those drawbacks.
Picking has commenced aud is progressing
apace upon few CT the plantations. On
others, picking will hardly commence
under ten or twelve days. Aside from the
damage apprehended from the worm, the
crop, on both sides of the river, is bound
to be very light one, owing to the gen
eral unthriftiness of the plant. The cane
is now pro6ting from recent fine showers
of rain, which it had stood greatly in need
of for several weeks previous. 1t is COM
mencipg to look more vigorous, the stalks
have taken to growing more, and the cool
nights and mornings are tending rapidly
to ssoeeten the joints. On places where
labor has been brought to bear in any
thing like systematic form, o thing very
difficult to accomplish in these times), the
crops Of cane, as we'll as cotton and corn,
look well, considering the unpropitious