The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1873-12-02
Fin grafton 10 Louisiana.


mcnts to immigration not one which
will not most bitterly need it if the pres
ent perturbed political condition contiu-
ues, for it is driving the original inhabi
tants from their homes, Closely following
upon the bloodshed in Grant parish,
came hurried, voluminous emigration to
Texas on the part Of citizens Of the par
ish. They hocked into the new Eden in
the greatest terror, and seemed deter
mined to leave their homes behind them
for ever. But the troubles must some
day have an end, while there is no end
save in the final disruption Of the world
to the fairy beauty and fertility Of the
bayou lands aud the vast plains covered
with luxuriant vegetation. The parishes
bordering on the Red River are especial
ly adapted to the staples, sugar, cotton,
wheat, corn, rye, and oats, and are ac-
cessiblc at all seasons of the year, the
river in their vicinity remaining naviga
BILE. These parishes, six in number,
comprise more than eight thousand five
hundred square miles Of rich alluvial
land, and some Of the largest towns are
situated in them. Shreveport. on the
west bank of the river, is likely to be the
second city in the State. 1t is now the
great center Of emigration into eastern
and northern Texas, and line Of railway
to it from Vicksburg is projected, which
will give it increased commercial import
ance. In the parishes which comprise
south western Louisiana, there are more
than three millions of acres Of land of
almost inoxhaustible fertility. The for
ests are composed OF oak, ash, locust,
pine, gum. maple, cypress, elm, willow,
hickory. pecan, persimmon, dogwood, ,mul.
berry, and magnolia trees. The giant
Expresses on the lakes and bayous are
numerous enough to last for century,
though some of their number be constant
ly taken away. Employment to hundreds
of mills and thousands of workmen could
readily be furnished. The lumber could
easily be hoated down the innumerablc
bayous and along the abundant lakes to
market. BY the borders of the great
desolate sea.marshes of ST Mary aud
Iberia, runs q grand belt of timber from
one to two miles wide A western editor
once said that if the Teche lands of
Louisiana were in Illinois, they would
bring from three hundred to five hundred
dollars per acre. And they could be
made worth that sum in their present
situation in FIVE years from this writing
by the introduction of intelligent and la
borious emigrants, and by the amplfca.
tion of the States railway system. The
"Attakapas" region, as the five parishes
or counties Of St. Mary, Iberia, Vermil-
ion, St. Martin, and Lafayette were
originally called from the name of tribe
Of Indians, is certainly seductive enough
to tempt the most fastidious of emigrants
The cattle-grazing regions are as ex.
tensive as remarkable. There are sever
great prairies, respectively named Great
Choiseuil, Attakapas, Opolousas, Grand
Prairie, Mamon, Calcasieu, and Aubinc
all covered with rich pasturage. Thous
aDds of cattle roam over these prairies
the populations are pastoral and uncuti
waited to certain extent. There ar,
Frenchmen and women among them VIII,
are as remote from any active participa
tion in the politics of the State or tho
country at large, as if they were il
France In the marshes even cattle anC
horses subsist, and Craze the year rounC
upon treacherous surface, which hors,
bred on soldier ground will instantly snl
! and founder in. | am not willing tt
vouch for the Louisianian statement tina
these marsh. bred cattle and horses ar,
web-footed, but such is the affirmation
and one informant assures me that
proper system Of transportation from th'
! marshes to New Orleans would develol
this now almost useless section immense
ly Thousands Of cattle might be turnet
. in to grow fat and bde the time whel
their owners should seek them for tn
New Orleans market. They would nc
! even need cowherd's care. All th
, prairies in Western Louisiana are per
. ennially green and upon them were one
= located the largest vacheries in the Unit
? ed vacheries whose owners some
T times branded five thousand calves apiec
. yearly. Sheep by thousands were ais
: raised, but both these important indus
3 tries seem to have largely fallen off sine
r the war. The French paid great atteu
t tion to the cattle and sheep husbandry j
n this section Of Louisiana early in the las
: century, and it has been estimated by
}. competent authority that, allowing on
J animal to be produced to every five acres
: more than two hundred and twent
o thousand cattle could annually be reare
# and transported from one single prairi
that Of Opelousas-a vast expanse {
5 natural meadow. 1t was not uncommo
r for stock raiser to possess from thirt
h to forty thousand head of cattle, and tn
l. stock raisers of one parish in that sectio
+ owned, twenty-five years before the wa
n one hundred thousand cattle and thirt
y thousand horses. There is no good re,
y son why Louisiana should not be know
If in future as an extensive cattle. raisin
n State as her neighbor, Texas She ha
l. nothing to fear from the dangers incurre
b by proximity to foreign frontier, an
l. there are no Indians to manifest their vi
g conquerable love for the illicit acquisitic
II of horse-hesh.
't But when you wish once again to flo
1t the lost gate of Eden, when you wish
!, gain the promised land, when you wis
r to see in this rude practical America {
n ours an "earthly paradise" where life
a.? good because of the delicious investing {
h it by Nature with everything that is iai
e est when you wish to see plantations 1
y the height of culture, lawns as fragran
4. as clean. shaven,a las nobly shaded by grac,
j ful trees, as any sovereign's-then see
a the Teche country. 1t is the Pearl I
IF Louisiana it is the perfection of Il
'f South.-Edieard King IN "The Gree
ir South :" Scribner's for ID, cember.