New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-10-15
NEW ORLEANS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER Is l873
Farming ia Louisiana.

Ii twenty or thirty Thousand grain-rais
ing farmers in the Northwest would pul
up stakes and migrate to Louisiana. Mis-
sssippi and Arkansas, and 90 10 raisina
cotton and sugar cane, they would be an
Invaluable acquisition to those States, and
| the change would be scarcely less bene-
| ticlal to them. There is, Iadeed. q great
deal OF Ihisgovernment in the South. and 4
great lack of those school advantages
which Northern farmers ara accustomed
| to; but heavy migration of North western
| farmers would BOON correct these evils.
They would have something to say about
| public matters themselves. and i, would
not be great while before their influence
! and counsel would be exhibited in a more
orderly government and more liberal in
stltutisns. There are too many grain raisers
| in the Northwest, and there are 700 few
cotton and sugar raisers in the Southwest
Il takes One-half an Iowa farmers grain
crop, sometimes, to pay the cost of getting
the other half TO market, and for this reason.
if he is . man Of small means, who had to
mortgage his farm to raise the means 70
equip it with. he finds that the payment of
the mortgage is e slow process On the
contrary, the demand for cotton and sugar
Is increasing every year more rapidly than
the supply, and tor this reason the price,
OF these articles are al ways good. 1t takes
. very small fraction Of cotton or cane
crop to pay for getting the whole crop to
market. 1t costs thirty to forty cents q
bushel to carry grain from Illinois and Iowa
to New iork-the charge being twenty i've
TO one hundred per cent Of its value. But
it costs only s. a bale TO send cotton from
Memphis TO New Orleans, the charge being
only four to five per cent of its value.
It is easily seen from this that the same
labor and care which an Iowa farmer be-
slows on the grain crop which yields him
t4OO net, would, it bestowed on = cotton or
sugar crop in the South, yield him $500 net.
Farmers in the South do not work harder.
certainly, than farmers in the Northwest:
the general impression is that they do not
work as hard: and yet, an industr good
managing cotton raiser in Mississippi or
Louisiana makes 92 where an industrious
good managing grain grower in Iowa makes
81. There 10 no complaint about transport
alton in the SOuth-na 0utcry against rail
roads for charging one third to one half the
cost OF = crop for carrying it TO market
The prices of cotton and sugar are 20 re-
munerative a. to make the cost of carriage
Insignificant. Besides. the chief carriage in
the south is by water, and in this respect
tho planters have great advantage over
the Northwestern farmers.
1t costs thirty 10 forty cents . hundred
to carry cotton. worth fourteen cents a
pound, TO market; and i: costs seventv-fva
cents hundred 10 carry wheat. worth only
two cents pound, to market. 1t is . COM
mon thing for an industrious man in Lou
isiana. with no other help than that which
his own family affords. to make ten TO
fifteen bales of cotton, worth $50 q bale,
besides corn and potatoes enough to do
him: and it is a very uncommon thing for
Northwestern farmer of moderate means to
make showing equal to this in grain
raising.
Migration from north 20 south is not in
accordance with the established rules Of
popular movements in this country: but
there is good reason fer believing that such
a migration as We suggest would, neverthe-
less. be highly advantageous, since i. would
not only De changing rigorous climate for
mild one, but it would. also, be ex.
changing an unremunerative species of
agriculture for very profitable one.-St
LS.'s Republican.