St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-10-26
Western Deserts and Southern Fer
tilitY

There is no method of instruction so eff
ficient, none that appeals so readily to the
mind as that conveyed by means of the
visible forms known as object lessons. 1t
has been said that people who will not take
time to read print will stop long enough to
look at picture which can tell its story.
The Honorable Secretary of the Interior
has hit upon just such a plan to convey
some valuable information concerning
lands and agriculture in the United States.
By series of coored diagrams laid upon
maps of the Union he shows on successive
pages, the character of the lands
and the areas devoted to various staple
crops.
The work in which this interesting mat
ter is embodied is styled an album of Ag-
ricultural Statistics" and is handsomely
gotten up in quarto form like school
atlas.
In looking over it's brilliantly colored
maps, we find one which gives by means of
diagrams the relative proportions in each
State and Territory of the tillable and
unproductive land. The tillable lands
include those in cultivation and those in
grass and those in forest, while the un
productive area embraces swamps, rocky
lodges, arid wastes and high plains in
regions almost rainless and out of present
reach of irrigation. 1t will be of interest
to examine these diagrams as to the amount
of unproductive and barren lands in the
newer States of the West that are counting
immigration, and contrast them with those
States of the South that are offering advan-
tages to immigrants.
Foremost in the ranks of the regions
that are unproductive and unfit to sustain
an agricultural population comes Dakota,
recently cut into two States. Of its total
area 67b per cent, or largely more than
half it's entire area is barren and dry as
desert, while only 2 per cent is woodland.
Most of the country is vast open plain,
destitute of trees, and swept by the arc
tic storms. 1t is the home of the bliz-
zard.
After Dakota come the following Ariz-
ons, with As per cent of desert; Kansas, with
As per cent Of dry plains and 4! per cent
of timber; Colorado with 43 per cent of
arid plain and mountain, and per cent OF
timber. Nebraska, with Al per cent of
dry plains and per cent of timber land,
while Idaho, Minnesota Montana, Nevada,
Utah, New Mexico, Washington and
Wyoming each possess more than one
third Of an area which is unfit to furnish
subsistence either for men or domestic
animals.
Let us contrast that desert region with
the chief States of our own section. Lou
isiana has only - per cent of unproductive
area, which is swamp, bearing cypress
timber, while all the other So per cent is
tillable, more than half the State being in
forest. Alabama has II per cent of unpro-
ductive land and 55 per cent of timber
Arkansas has 10 per cent of swamp and
40 per cent of forest Georgia with 10 per
cent of swamp and 50 of forest; Mississippi
with per cent of bad land and IS per cent
of forest North Carolina with 8 per cent
of uncultivable land and South Carolina
with half as much more, show each more
than half their joint area in timber, while
Texas, Tennessee and Virginia also make
as good showings. We do not include
mineral wealth in this statement, but in all
but the precious metals the South is far
ahead in that.
Thus it will be seen that the South IN
every point of productiveneness is idnltely
~ u r>recS--o1 Iaec~- Us FL w est as the
home of civilized man. No country can
support as dense population as can our
Gulf States, no region has a climate more
delightful or salubrious.-N 0. Picay,tzae.