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

and six feet deep. Those running
from the river back into the interio
are a half mile apart, and others a
right angles to these are three and
half miles apart. This cuts the marsl
up into parallelograms of about on
thousand acres each.
Thus Holland, with its dykes ant
fertile gardens, is being reproduced il
Louisiana. Thirty or forty miles o
canals have already been dug, anc
these are progressing at the rate of ST,
hundred yards every twenty-four hours
No less than three thousand acre
have been seeded to rice this spring
Thirty-two boats have been built, in
Guiding steamboats,, tugs and yachts
and steam plows, harrows, ditchers
and monster dredges have been brought
from England.
The method of blowing is unique
and original. The land is cultivated
as well as reclaimed entirely by steam
power foated in these canals. Not a
man or beast is to set foot on it fol
the purpose of working it. The plow,
ing is done by monster gang-plows,
turning five furrows, aggregating eight
feet wide. They are drawn back and
forth across the field with wire cables
by engines stationed in boats on the
canals, Some fifty acres are plowed
in ten hours by each machine. The
narrowing, sowing, harvesting and
threshing are done in tho same way,
and with incredible rapidity. In Or
der to have fresh water for flooding
the rice fields, no water is admitted
to the canals at high tide except far
up the river, where the water is
always fresh and to relieve the fields
of this water or the rainfall, at high
tide steam pumps are provided, throw
ing a million GALLONS an hour,
Steam-ditchers are also at work,
each of which cuts a ditch three feet
wide at top, foot at bottom and
three feet deep, and the ditch is
opened at the rate Of two miles an
hour. THIS reclamation is a sort of
work new to oAmerieans, and its pros
gress is watched by Americans with
great interest. Congressman Moody
Boynton, of Massachusetts, tells me
that he believes that within five years
land enough for State, now utterly
worthless, will be redeemed to the
varied uses of Southern agriculture
and transformed into the richest Of
gardens. should add that none of
it is for sale, though on its northern
border is a vast belt Of prairie and
arabic land belonging to the State and
the nation open to free presumption,
and every actual settler who will raise
timber according to the requirement
of law can get $40 acres under the
homestead act.
inquired something about the un-
known man who has exhibited so
much audacity in plucking a farm of
unequaled magnitude from the jaws
of The salt sea. The North American
Land and Timber Company is the de-
signation of the agent at work ; but,
of course, there is the man at the bot
tom of the company. ! have never
heard Watkins name before. In fact
at the St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans,
where he had been a frequent guest
for two years, they knew nothing Of
him. At last | found man who had
known him. 1t was the old story,
Left penniloss orphan at the age of
seven, he had to make his own future.
He worked on farms, and worked
hard, at So month. He earned his
schooling. Fifteen years ago now he
left college without dollar in his
pocket. He made his way silently
and swiftly, To-day, less than forty,
be owns lands in every county Of
Kansas, and is at the head of bank
ing and loan company at Lawrence,
having branches at Dallas, Texas, Lake
La, New York and London.
w. A. CRoFFUT.