St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-03-02

| one pair or oxen. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 4uut
| Three mich COWS. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 45Ut
| Tbirry-Siy sheen at 81, so ...,....... 81 0C
One OK cart NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 400C
| Farm tools .......... ................. 5000
one SOW. ....-..............'..... oW
| Chickens Observation-Disclosures. SOC
Six months provisions Observation-Disclosures. 5000
Hire of hand three months ............. COCO
Corn for team. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 25.OO
Lumber and nails for door, floor and
windows ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 1000
Seeds NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. $500
$4,000
"This is statement of the needs of an
immigrant to Louisiana who is determined
to get all the good of the benign State and
United States land laws, with the least pos
sible expenditure of money.
with the assistance of hired man
three months, he can build his cabin, dig
a we'll Fifteen feet deep, fence in twenty
acres, plant rice, corn, potatoes, peas,
pumpkins and five acres in cotton, and a
patch of sugar cane for the children.
"The immigrants farm house is built
very quickly and with little cost, of the
trunks of small, straight pines or cypress
cut close by. The body of the house is
made of the logs, like pen-the ends
notched so as to IT. and the openings be
tween the logs plastered with clay. The
rafters are made of green poles and the
roof covered with clap board split from
oak, cypress or pine. A temporary chin
ney may be made by plastering a skeleton
wooden frame with clay mixed with moss.
Lumber for floor, doors and shutters may
be split from cypress or bought at the
nearest saw mill, ard bricks may be bought
| or made.
"Milk, butter and eggs, with the vegeta-
bles which grow quickly, will add mate
rally to the fare of the family; fish and
game will also help to feed the family.
Potatoes will be ready for the table in
April; mustard, radishes, peas and corn six
weeks after planting.
"Rice will be harvested in August, and
cotton picking will commence. This crop
can be picked by the good wife and chill
dren, and the yield will probably be three
bales to five acres, worth $135. Ten acres
of rice would yield an average of 12a bar
rels, worth 81 per barrel, amounting to
$500 net, which, together with the pro-
ceeds of his cotton, would give the settler
a larger capital than that expended to OBJ
tain home and 800 acres of land. The
rice straw is also valuable forage, and
with the cotton seed saved will keep the
sheep in good order during the winter.
1.-THE wool and lambs and calves will
also add to the profits of the year. The
farmer finds himself in a good position to
enlarge his fields and extend his operations
for another year. Thus, from year to
year, with the natural increase of stock,
and with industry, prudence and economy
added to the growing value of his farm,
comforts gather around his home~luxuries
are added, and it does not require pro-
phet to foreten that in twenty years time
the poor immigrant will become rich and
prosperous farmer.
FENCING IN THE PRAIRIEs.
ssThe prairies of Louisiana are divided
from one another by many streams, large
and small, bordered with heavy growth
of timber and the traveller is never out of
sight of forests; thus the problem of fenc
ing large tracts is not so difficult as in the
boundless, naked prairies of the west.
Many new corners use the barbed wire on
posts, or plant Cherokee rose hedge; the
rose hedge can be contracted for at the
rate of sixteen dollars per mile. 1t will
turn stock in three years. The material
for double wire fence will cost about 800
per mile Five cypress pickets will make
nine feet of fence; they can be bought for
four dollars per hundred, and will last for
fifty years. IN,
THE ADVANTAGES OF THE PRAIRIEs OF LOU
IsIANA OVER THE WESTERN PRAIRIEs.
''The farmer here can work every day
in the year. In the west he can only work
six months of the year.
The season is so long that meadows
may be cut four times year. The eli
mate is so mild that it does not require
IL a. 1o$h
houses as in the west.
''Stock requires no shelter, and will
thrive on the wild range of natural grasses,
giving greater and more regular increase
than in colder climates.
vegetables are in season every month
in the year.
"The Louisiana prairie is not subject to
"northers" in winter, drought in summer,
nor to the devastation of grasshoppers, po-
tato bugs or chintz bugs.
"There is ample forest growth near at
hand for building, fencing and fire wood,
and frequent navigable streams competing
with the railroads and keeping down the
cost of transportation of produce to market
WHAT MAN CAN MAKE ON A LOUISIANA
FARM.
tAfter farm has been fenced and i'm
proved and machinery bought, it is almost
Incredible what q man can make off agri
cultural products in this state.
Zone hand with screw pulverizer and
sower attached can put in two hundred
acres of rice. At 124 bbls. per acre, this
would yield $500 hundred barrels, worth
81 per barrel. Total value, $4,000. OF
course this crop could not be harvested by
one man, but the headers and binders are
now being adapted to the harvesting of
rice. and it need not cost more to harvest
and prepare for market than wheat. Nearly
all of the state lands being low, are emf
nently suitable for the cultivation of rice.
Where convenient to water, rice fields are
irrigated, and no cultivation is required.
ga farmer with the aid of new improved |
machinery might easily put in one hundred
acres in rice, ten acres in corn and five
acres L. cotton. without having the Guilt
vation and harvesting interfere with one
another"
GENERAL EXPENSES.
New Orleans is as cheap market in
which to make purchases of all kinds as |
there is in the United States.
The following are quotations from re-
liable wholesale grocers, February l, 1897:
Flour, best Minnesota patent, per bbl.... s5.a5
Extra Fancy. ....................... 4.75 |
Second Fancy. Observation-Disclosures. 4.50 |
Sugar. GRADUATED. ................-.... .6A GEMS
Choice open Kettle pure sugar. ~ cents
Cofes, Rlo, 10 Genus
PRICES OF STOCK.
Prairie Cows, wild ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. $1,000
gentle. eoo IN 70 a ao0o
Family COWS. SSUo0 W oo.uO
Creole Ponies, unbroken .. $1,000 to 1900
!" broken ........ 900 to 1000
Oxen per yoke 900 to 600