The weekly echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1868-1876, 1875-08-12
The New Era.

There is much In the outlook Of
the country to encourage the peo-
pie of Louisiana. In limited sec
tions, the drouth has cut short the
corn crop, but generally, the pros
pect for larger yield than we
have had for many years, is very
favorable. Indeed, it begins to
look as though the planters will
not be required next year to draw
largely on the West for corn. IT
is gratifying to notice, too, the
newly awakened interest, among
the farming people, in stock rails.
ing. This important and wealth
creating industry has not yet taken
practical shape, but we believe it
will, in a few years, assume large
portions amongst us.
In Texas a large oat and wheat
crop has been harvested, and oats
from Texas are now selling for
considerably less in this market
than Western oats are quoted at
in ST. Louis.
These are very important and
encouraging facts. For when
these States shall raise their own
meat and grain, and manufacture
their own flour, Lhoy will become
the most powerful section of the
American Union. For the cotton
crop of 1884 alone the Southern
States received $209, ,1O9,456. But
the larger portion of this immense
sum has been sent West to buy
corn and pork, and North and
East, to buy all the necessaries of
life ; and little or nothing has been
retained at home to improve our
lands and methods of agriculture,
or to invest in manufactures and
other wealth creating industries.
When we shall produce the corn
and pork we use at home, a large
proportion of the price of our cot
ton crop, as we'll as of our sugar,
rice and tobacco crops. will se-
main amongst us and the South
will then begin to recover its for
mer prosperity and wealth. There
is certainly a growing purpose on
the part of the people of this coun-
try to accomplish this result, and
it certainly will be accomplished.
The current of public thought and
effort once turned vigorously in
the direction of practical and ben
efoont ends, will not be likely to
retrograde.
The growth of cane and the
manufacture of sugar, now scarcely
thought Of in estimates Of the re-
sources of the South, is attracting
the attention of far seeing men,
and promises to increase the value
of the exports OF Louisiana and
Texas, in the course of a decade,
TO an enormous extent. The war
iD Cuba has largely decreased the
sugar and molasses product Of
that island, and in the end viii
literally destroy it. Already more
than one hundred magnificent su-
gar estates have been devastated
and their mills and machinery re-
duced to ashes and destroyed.
These ravages will never be re-
paired, and those acquainted with
the results Of free labor in the
tropics fully comprehend that a
peace which brings with it emanci-
patton, win be far more destruct-
i've and rapid in its work, than
even the fercest interneoine war.
The cane growing regions of
Louisiana and Texas are capable
of fully supplying the place of
those Of Cuba, which are being
rapidly eliminated from the areas
of production. Our imports OF
sugar and molasses from Cuba
have heretofore amounted to mp
wards Of sixty-fiye millions Of dol
lars. The ruin Of Cuba will not
check the demand for commodity
which has become one Of the neeas-
saries Of life, but win transfer tie
seat Of its production to more fa-