St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1890-03-15
IOWA AND THE GULF.
AN INTERESTING LETTER FROM VET
ERAN KANSAS EDITOR, ON THE NEW
ROUTE FROM THIS SECTION
~ TO THE GULF.

AN INTERESTING LETTER FROM WET
ERAN KANSAS EDITOR, ON THE NEW
ROUTE FROM THIS SECTION d
TO THE GULF.
SIOUX CRY, Feb. 15.
The greet question of to-day in the
fruitful. fertile regions far from the sea,
between the Mississippi and the Rocky
mountains, is not how to produce crops,
but how to dispose of them. The intela-
gent, energetic agriculturists of Iowa need
little instruction on the production part OF
their business. But how to get them to
market so as to make them remunerative
is what puzzles alike the brains OF the
producer and the purchaser. Nor are the
markets wanting. The question OF how to
annihilate distance or reduce freight e1-
penses is the vital one. The corn palaces
of Sioux City are the pride of the farmer
and the admiration of all classes, ano
enterprising people from all portions OF
the Union have visited your exhibitions to
compliment you on the fertility OF soil
capable of such productions, and the in
teiligence and industry of the producers.
AS sou look at the golden corn ingeniously
transformed into palaces OF architectural
beauty, you realize that the farmer cannot
subsist on his pride or his admiration.
With corn, at times, as low as 10 cents
at some points, and wheat down to 80
cents, as it has been in Western Kansas, it
become desperate question how to make
ends meet. | have seen IN Kansas paper
a pert statement that ''a farmer with
crib full of corn and Is cent market beats
farmer with an empty crib and a 50cent
market by large majority" But if it
costs 30 cents to produce the. corn, how
much is the man with full crib ahead?
A dispatch from Wichita says that court
has decided that farmer with 1000 bush
els of corn which he proved he was saving
for fuel was exempt from execution under
the law exempting one years fuel from
sale in payment of debts. What every
farmer in the West wants to see is the
price of this necessary of human and ami
NAL subsistence so raised as to reverse the
decision that corn is fuel at all.
The way to accomplish that is to find
nearer markets and thereby cheaper
freights Every intelligent farmer and
business man is now looking alike to COM
petition of routes and nearness of the sea-
board for success In the business of pro-
ducing and of handling the productions of
the great West. Now these productions
60 to the Eastern seaboards. During the
past year great convention was held, the
object being to appeal to Congress to open
up the Gulf of Mexico by creating deep
harbors. The gulf is 600 miles nearer to
these States than the Eastern ports. The
route to it is through an almost level
plain, with an average descent OF but
about foot to the mile-a descent, 1t is
true. impracticable even there-but as true
| is it that nature has made that accomplish
men5 nearer practicable than in any SINH
lar distance on the continent. The prase MT
route East has all the disadvantages added
to that of distance in the, resistance of
transportation across the divides of the
continent and the curvatures and heavy
grades over high mountains.
In looking to these questions, we want
to look also to the best and nearest port
upon the gulf. A powerful influence is
| being exerted to open an exclusive port at
Galveston that is, to expend all efforts
and all appropriations to make deep water
| at that one point, and that point place
| where experiments have been made for
forty FIVE years with an admitted failure
of success. He would be illiberal who
| would deny reasonable appropriations to
city like Calves IN hut he would be q
narrow. minded statesman who would say
that all the contributions for the opening
of this great thoroughfare, one-third
greater in distance than the Atlantic coast
frcm Baltimore to Boston, including New
York, Philadelphia and Intermediate onts,
should be given to one solitary harbor.
What desire to do is to Call attention
to the nearest point on the gulf. The
nearest point is at the mouth of the Calca-
sieu river in Louisiana, directly south of
= = rha-t
| north of any single place between Mexico
and New Orleans. invite the reader to
take down his map and demonstrate the
truth of this proposition. The next nearest
! place is the mouth of the Sabine river.
twenty miles west, on the line of Texas
and Louisiana. This point is 2l7 miles
west of New Orleans.
The next question arises, is it a. good
harbor2 let official reports say, as given
by Engineer Thomas L. Raymond in 1886 !:
.Calcasieu pass, the outlet of Lake Cal
casieu, is something over seven miles in
length, with an average width of 900 feet,
and good channel sixteen feet for the
greater part of this distance, interrupted
by oyster reefs about four miles from the
gulf Neither time nor opportunity was
had for current observation during the ex-
aminations, but in all similarly situated
waters currents of from two and one half
to three miles per hour are produced by
the head of water remaining in the iaks
when the gulf level is suddenly lowered
BY the action of the wind and tidal causes.
These currents. when confined sufficiently
in the pass, have produced depths as great
as twenty FIVE feet. The slope in the gulf
beyond the twelve feet depth is about one
foot in $50, giving depth of eighteen feet
st one and half miles from shore"
have the coast survey, which shows
that at two miles from shore q depth of
more than twenty five feet is attained, and
thence out the fall is abrupt. No other
part examined can show any such advan-
tages. The Calcasieu river is large
stream. From Lake Charles to the sea is
about ffty-6ve miles. Thirty miles of that
distarc e it is very deep, much Of it sixty
feet, where it enters Lake Calcasieu, about
eighteen miles long and eight miles wide.
and thence flows 10 the gulf seven miles as
described by Engineer Raymond.
This river is exempt from the objection
to all other ports of being low and subject
to overflow, the banks of the Calcasieu
along the pass being high. orange groves
prospecting to the very verge of the sea.
The Sabine is the next nearest point, but
the recent report of the government en-
gineers has condemned it as .'marshy and
subject to frequent overflow, the only
suitable places for habitation being upon
small mounds or ridges" believe. how
ever, that it is the next best point to that
of the Calcasieu.
Two railroads are now in process of con-
struction from this point to Kansas City.
The Kansas City, Watkins and Gulf Rail-
way is constructed for fifty miles north of
Lake Charles
The route of this railroad is along and
through for $50 miles the best body of
timber in the United States, almost
or,,cseyfo q