The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1885-06-27
Along the CaIcasieII.

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| wish to tell the readers of the
Home Journal something about the
largest farm in the United States-a
farm, moreover which has the advan-
tage of not yet having been "written
up" by swarm of tourists.
Does the reader know where the
CaIcasleu river isl | did not know a
year ago. If the name had ever en-
tered my ear it had been filtered
through my consciousness and dropped
out like the ten thousand other names
that everybody hears and forgets for
lack of interest.
The regions of the Bayou Teehe
and "the fair OpeIousas" had been
given terrestrial reality by the boys in
blue, who went soldering down there
with Gen. Banks almost quarter of
a century ago, and "got out cotton"
for the government And when | was
travelling in Nova Scotia year ago,
visiting "Acadie, the home of the hap
py," where Evangeline and Gabriel
lived and loved, and whence they were
driven, | read over again Longfellow's
poem.picture of the Louisiana to which
the harrassed cxiIes retreated.
All this poetry one sees repeated in
a hundred elfn forms as he journeys
from New Orleans straight westward.
But this mammoth farm is still fur
ther west, beyond the bayous where
the Union soldiers struggled, beyond
the country which was the retreat of
EyangeIne, in the very southwestern
corner of Louisiana, and in extent it is
about one-third larger than the whole
State of Rhode Island. Many of the
important principalities of Europe
could be hidden within its boundaries.
This broad river, the Calcasieu, flows
through it, nayigable for $50 miles,
and here are to be found Grand Lake,
Lake Michael, Lake Charles, and other
inland seas, containing hundreds of
square miles. Some of these sheets of
water are famous for their beauty,
with high banks, pebbly shores and
sandy bottoms, and frlnged with heavy
forests of dark evergreens, draped and
festooped with trailing Spanish moss
and "mystic mistIetoe,"
The way to the great farm is easy,
as a railroad traVerses it from end to
end Taking the Morgan Railroad at
New Orleans and transferring to the
Western Louisiana at Lafayette, the
traveller flies over a rather monoto-
nous region, broken here and there by |
picturesque undulations and live oak
and cottonwood forests, and, at the |
end of 220 miles, arrives at Lake |
Charles, town Of $500 inhabitants,
overlooking large and beautiful lake |
of the same name. This is in the mid |
die of the big farm.
Who is the farmer2 About two |
years ago there suddenly appeared in
the vicinity q quiet, unassuming, |
plainly ly-dressed man, weighing not
more than 1876 pounds, with keen,
shrewd eyes and grave and thought |
full business air. He hired boat and
sailed down the lake and the river,
bought horses and made an elaborate
tour Of inspection, He was puzzle.
Some thought be was an invalid in
search of health; Others that be was a
crank who wanted to start an alligator
farm and raise those insects for their |
now valuable hides, He silently in
spected and disappeared Then it be-
gan to be whispered around that bis
name was ] B. Watkins, and that be
bad bought Of the State and Federal
a farm--pearly J ,250,000 |
acres! He had purchased The land |
stretching along the Gnlf Of Mexico |
for 100 miles and reaching thirty miles |
inland
OF course the first thing the natives |
did was to deDounce him as a Gland |
grabber.R But their indignation was |
appeased when they learned that he |
had bought The land, not 70 keep idle
as an extortiopate speculation, but y |
hold and work and improve op tire.
mendous scale. Three quarters Of the |
purchase was marsh lands, subject to
iidal overflow, and be straightway took |
ia hand scheme for reclaiming this
worthless swamp and giving u to pas
tnrage and tillage. u has q deep allu-
vial soil, with stiff yellow clay sub
soil, and ip its wild state is covered
with dense vegetable growth, reveal
ipg q gorgeous coloripg IF aowers.
The plan for reclamation is somc-
ding Ike tbat of which I saw two
years ago TIC benefcent results ID
Holland ii Is 10 dig canals and
diteles, using the dirt to build leYees;
then, with automatic gates and steam
pumps, food or dry the land % will,
making II admiralty adapted q riee,
sugar, cotton and grass. The canals