The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-06-17
'seiai Correspondence Of the New Orleans crsso.n.l
PolSrE CoUPEE PARISH, June 10, 1868

Special Correspondence Of the New Orleans Crsscsntl
PoIsrE COUPE PARISH. June 10, 1868.
There is a general complaint OF the confirm
ance of the drought, and many predict that II has
seriously injured the corn crop. Corn does
require rain, but. as yet, we need not apprehend
any material diminution Of the crop because Of q
dry season. Such seasons cause the farmer I'M
easiness, but when the crop Is gathered he gen.
orally finds that, upon the whole, he has done bet
Of the condition Of the main crops of the State
must be to the effect that they were never more
promising in this month. Not seeing the cotton
worm, livery few persons have seen them since
last year, we have ceased to talk about that pest.
How little is accurately known OF the origin and
habits Of that destructive insect Those who
have observed 1t closely differ widely in the re-
suit of their observations, and no systematic, gen.
era effort has been made to resist its invasion. 1t
IL deemed probable by many that thorough
cleaning up Of the fields as soon as the crops viii
permit, SO as to subject the surface Of the soil
TO full heat and frost, might prove efficacious.
Have the officials Of the agricultural department
of the patent Office given the subject the atten-
ton which its importance to the whole country
demands?
Because of the successful cultivation this year
Of the Irish potatoe, some Of US are indulgng in
visions of the wealth that tuber is to bring to the
South. And these hopes are based, too, upon
actual trial, and substantated by all sorts OF fg
uripg upon paper. neighbor gave eleven dol
lars for two barrels Of :" Jackson whites " for
seeQ, ana pldnteQ ABOUT nau an acre. n y estl-
mated all other expenses attending the expert
ment at fourteen dollars more, and be has sold on
his place some forty-two barrels of potatoes, re-
ceivipg over sl26. He figures out fortune thus:
If about half an acre gives clear profit OF 500,
what profit would one hundred acres give, and
how many years will it take to make all the
money wsnti Others are said TO have done
much better, and all who have raised potatoes are
gratfied with the result With more experience
and more careful cultivation, there can be no
doubt but that this root can be made sure and
profitable crop, and a market found for 1t north
of the Ohio, six weeks or two months earlier than
it can be raised in that latitude.
The driving Of cattle from Texas and shipping
them from points in this parish to the West is an
extensive business. Many thousand head are SO
shipped. to be returned, many Of them, when fat
tened, to Louisiana. ....s
Necessity has developed other resources by
which many an honest penny has been made to
yield reliefto our impoverished people. Extern
sve shipment of canes to be sold for fishing rods
have been made to the West and North. Men
have caught many tons weight of catfish, and
found ready and profitable sale In the city, where
beef is from fifteen to twenty five cents pound.
Everybody has q small patch Of tobacco, which
he expects to use himself or give TO his friends,
the revenue tax prohibiting his manufacturing or
selling it. The tax is said to be forty cents q
pound. II its collection Is enforced, tobacco can
not be proftably raised for market 10 this section.
II requires great and constant attention to
cure good article, but the plant itself grows as
vigorously as any indigenous weed.
From the day the water flowed through Grand
Levee crevasse it has not fallen sufficiently to re-
lieve the overlooked portion of the parish. We
have at times been cheered by reports from Vicks.
burg and st. Louis, and have imagined at other
times that the water was actually falling, or at
least on stand, but il is high to-day as II has
been this year. Recently. too, has added to the
number of those it has afflicted, some OF the int
rior levees having yielded TO its long sontnned
pressure. The most important and extensive Of
those levees in this parish which have SO yielded
is that on Crosse Tete and Fordoche, and we fear
that many crops which it protected, and which
bat yesterday were most promising, are now ire
parably lost. We now, with forced resignation,
wait the unchecked movements Of the river, trust
ing but with little faith, that the evees will be
structed ard so constructed that In future years,
the "waters be gathered together unto one
place. and let the dry land appear; and il was
so before the war. T.