The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1873-10-24
FARMING IN LOUISIANA.

From tho 81, Louis Republican, Oct. llth.l
If twenty or thirty thousand grain
raising farmers iu the n orthwest would
pull up stakes and migrate to Louisi-
ana, Mississippi and Arkansas, and so
to raising cotton and sugar cane, they
would be an invaluable acquisition to
those States, and the change would be
beneficial to them. There is, indeed,
great deal Of mis-government in the
South, and Il great lack of those school
advantages which Northern farmers
are accustomed to; but q heavy migra-
ton of Northwestern farmers would
soon correct these evils. They would
have something to say about public
oo u great while before their influence
and counsel would be exhibited in n
more orderly government and more
liberal institutions.
There are too many grainraisers in
the Northwest, and there arc too few
cotton and Sugar-raiScrS in the South
west. 1t takes one-half an Iowa fHrm-
cr's grain crop, sometimes, TO pay the
cost Of getting the other half to market,
and for this reason, if l,s is N man of
SMALL means, who hnd to mortgage his
farm to raise the means to equip it
with, he finds that the payment Of tho
mortgage is II slow process. On the
contrary, the demand for cotton and
sugar is increasing cvery year more
rapidly than tho supply, and for this
reason the prices of these articles are
always good. It takes Il very small
fraction Of n cotton or cane crop to pay
for getting tho whole crop to market.
It costs 35 to 40 cents bushcl to carry
grain from Illinois and Iowa to Now
York--thc charge being 25 to 100 per
cent. of its value. But it costs only -
u bale to send cotton from Memphis to
New Orlcans-thc charge being only !
to S pcr cent. of its value. It is easily
seen from this that tho same labor and
caro- which an Iowa farmer bcstoWs on
tho grain crop which yields him 800
net, would, if bestowed on a 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 industrious, good managing
cotton-raiser in Louisiana or Mississippi
makes - where an Industrious, good
managing grain-grower in Iowa makes
81. There is no complaint about trans
portation in the South - no outcry
against railroads for charging onc-third
to onc-hnlf the cost of n crop for carry
ing it to market. The prices of cotton
and sugar arc so rcmuncratiVe as to
make the cost of carriage Insignificant.
Besides, the chief carriage in tho South
is by water, and in this respect the
planters have great advantage over
the Northwestern farmers. It costs 30
to 40 cents a hundred to carry cotton,
worth II cents pound, to market; and
it costs Il, cents n hundred to carry
wheat, worth only to 2 cents Il pound,
to market. 1t is Il common thing for
an industrious man in Louisiana, with
no other help than that which his own
family affords, to make ten to fifteen
bales of cotton, worth $50 n bale, besides
corn and potatoes enough to ''do" him !;
and it is Il very uncommon thing for
n Northwestern farmer of moderate
means to make Il showing equal to this
III grain raising.
Migration from north to south IS not
in accordance with the established
rules Of popular movements in this
country: hut there il good reason for
believing that such II migration as we
suggest would, nevertheless, br highly
advantageous, sine" it would not only
be exchanging Il rigorous climate for a
IN i'd one, but IL would, also, he OK
changing an unrcniunerativc species of
agr;cnltIr: :rr q very profitable one.