The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1886-10-02
lake CHARLES CACASEU PARISH LOUISIANA

1t may surprise many TO know Lha6
we have this same grass with us. We
did not know it until some years ago,
and brought some seed from Kansas
and sowed them in East Mississippi.
But since then we have sesn it fire.
quently in the South in various States,
certainly in Tennessee, Mississippi,
and Louisiana.
So if the rigorous climate of Mlnne-.
sofa permitted cattle raising, the pau
city of the sod lin our opinion) would
debar. And then there is an awful
proueness to weed in the plains. We
saw immense areas where there was
nothing else, demonstrated by the
fact that the moving machines had
left them to glorify the landscape,
which they certainly did, making up
for their uselessness, materially consid-
cred by their beauty. But as corn
raising las business) is out of the
question in much of Minnesota, we
think that settles the question of raj
sing beef, as it does of hog raising.
What struck US was that all the
FRUIT IN WESTERN ILLINOIS
seems dying out. This means of
course the apple, for there is practical
ly nothing else. If there was a good
apple orchard in that area on our line
of travel we failed to observe it. In
most instances no trees. Here and
there fast disappearing remnant of
an orchard
Years ago in a travel over much of
our late route, we failed to find any
fruit, except small fruits, after we went
a little west of the Mississippi river in
Iowa. They said then that the high
winds whipped the trees to death.
We rather thought that the ingenuity
of man might have devised some ame-
Iteration in "wind-break," so varieties
hardy enough from some friged cline
one or both-but the further West
one goes, the less one sees of fruit, and
without asserting that there are not,
we did not see any orchards Of any
fruit in much of Iowa and most of
Minnesota and Dakota. This is an
unspeakable deprivation. And life
seems so cold and inhospitable with
out it. 1t only shows to what triged,
cherries conditions human nature
can ad Just itself, and not only be hap
py but excellent. Still,it is a striking
Illustration of the bounty of our eli
mate, of which, to our shame, we take
almost no advantage. Some day
though all these things will impress
the heart of these Northwesterners,
and they will come down and show
US better how to utilize our climate.
Another matter that impresses the
traveller is the general
ABSENCE OF FORESTS
in the West, and the very indifferent
character of the trees in the few for
ests existing. Even only as far West
as Western Illinois one sees no noble
trees. They are stunted, scraggy, un-
graceful They look pinched and
starved, and as though they lived on
probation. and wind fight. Instead of
gIaddening they pain the eye, Instead
of adorning they ssdden the landscape.
They do not suggest life and freedom,
but decay and constraint and struggle.
They seem born to defy the bowling
blast and to lash the wind in pure re-
sentiment. To shade and beauty and
ornament they do not aspire, They
seem as different from the proud beau
ty of the lawn as an elegant knight
does from Scared, deformed, drudg-
ing churl slave in an early page of En-
glish history, The sumptuousness, the
splendor, the glory of our Southern for
ests is a blessing past all due estlma-
tion, when compared with these West
ern travesties. There is an expansion
of the heart in contemplating the for
mer, such as one feels as he slips an
chor in wide sea, exclaiming:
"o'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea
Our thoughts as boundless and our souls as
free,
Far as the breeze can bear, the blllows foam"
How very different that, from the
feeling in pushing your Pungy out
into the midst of slimy mud-puddle !
A Western forest makes me sad
and often disappointed; there is not
line or even suggestion of grace
about it. The innumerable graces of
branch aud limb, twig and leaf in our
Southern forests are not to be seen in
the Western, Who that has ever sat,
half entranced, at rustic of leaf, and
play of movement of Southern trees
In forests where breeze swung, but
knows their multifariousness Of grace
from the dignity of the stately nod
of astere limb to the dancing ecstacy
of nimble twig, | verify believe the
Western leaves do not rustic, ,bnt CRATE.
The hearts OF the trees are tired at
the worry of the wind 1t is not
there a suitor, as at the South, but a
hideous ravisher,
But even these forests are seaul
aud only to be found on the unfre
quent streams of the West (Of course
we except the pine forests, whicl
however, are never found in tn
prairie Fegion,)
However,
THE wIND-RREAKs
are quite common in much Of Illinoi
and Iowa, These are built (or grown
generally Of Lombardy poplar or tn
osier; at least | think II must be this
! In Minnesota they have not yet com
! into vogue, These wind breaks az
three sides Of paFallelogFam, SUI
rounding the houses, barn aud stable
with the southern side left open
Commonly long line Of trees project
north and northwest, 70 break the fore orc