The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-11-14
NOVEMBER.

ers, mud, and slush, and all things un-
comfortable is upon us. November is q
kind of debateable month lying midway
between the ripeness of the autumn
and the shrinkage of winter and be-
longing to neither. It is the season
when we usually square up Il accounts
with the year, what it has given us,
what it has withheld, and look our fail
ures in the face. In fact they have q
very disagreeable habit of pushing
themselves forward about this time in
a very noticeable manner -.s*s
This special November does not give
us cause for much qualification. Her
horn of plenty has not scattered any of
it's treasures hitherward. We have
made Indifferent crops, and the wonder
| full railroad which was to bear them to
market this year, and sweep us on full
tide of prosperity, has shrunken to the
mere ghost of a railroad, only putting
in its shadowy appearance when it is
invoked more Justify than usual. AL
together the outlook is not so cheering,
though we presume it would have been
worse had we had the Shreveport cpl
demic among us.
1t needs no spirit Of prophecy to say
it CiU be worse another year unless u
people decide to change their agricul-
tural habits and raise more corn and
other cereals for the wants of the COM
munity. ..@'''
A planter must always be poor, and
at the mercy of mere chances who does
not make his living from the soil he
cultivates. The glamour of the olden
time is upon the old staples, and our
people cannot resolve to cut themselves
loose from the bondage. But yet they
must see that for most of them, cotton
is too uncertain, and cane too expensive
a crop to rely upon, in these days OF
high priced labor, and f%uctuatins
prices. .J ...a s.
Until our people resolutely resolve tc
work out other veins of wealth, Oul
chronicles will read like an eternal de
cIension of bad, worse, worst.
, We have often heard Of pulling WOO
over peoples eyes. For wool, read cot
!, ton, for nowhere are people more will
fully blind to the evils around them, ant
blind too to the remedy for them, THAI
:, the agrieulturists of Louisiana. Yet w
n havea wonderfully adaptive climate ant
soil. Fruit Of both Northern and tropi
: cal ATTITUDES do we'll with us. Cereal
. bear abundantly. Yet, with all thes
/ advantages year after year We stake on
It all ON crops of cotton and cane, Blu.
n our meat, and grain, and eitherdo with
out fruit save of an inferior kind, o
d seek it in some other market.
Of course, under these circumstance
n our stock is not very fine. FOrone ma
. who attends properly to it, there al
n twenty, nay fifty, who neglect it alto
e gether. The whole agricultural soul c
10 Louisiana is fixed upon the disappoint
! ing staples, which in the very best {
re times, were like the fairy treasure
70 making mp a vast aggregate of Wealt
at when summed up by the Imagination {
4 the lucky holders, but turning into dea
rs leaves when necessity required their us
re We are dealing to-day with an old sui
Ia ject which we yearly commend to IL
.. attention of our readers. Nomonth ca
be more seasonable for these remarl
mr. than this hating place between Il
old year and the new. From tt
v. vantage ground it gives, we can 81
fs clearly the errors of the past, and no
we have gone stumbling in the old ru
r. when fresh smooth ground invites 0,
tn steps. .,s
We grow tired of everything after
r; time, why not then tired of repeat,
ie- and continuous failures? Like the il
nd beetle old woman who would persist
av spinning weak thread, because she sa
ID. her wheel tflad got the hang Of it,"
as we have got the hang Of wrong thin
and refuse to amend.
his Less cotton planted, and more co
ed next year will make us more comfol
lev able and independent.
III - -EE