The Opelousas courier., 1893-01-07

owners, rs furnishing ranges OR vast
focks of sheep. The hammock OF
bottom lands of this section produce
well, not only vegetables and 0he sta
pie crops, but some day, when they
become accessible to lines of transpor
~tation, which must in the future ira
verse this country, they must con
tribute to the worlds supply an i'm
mense quota of fruit of such v~arietis as
the fig, peach, pear, ounce, several va
rieties of the apple, plums straWber-
ries and grapes, all of which do we'll
here under intelligent management.
The prices of these lands are to-day al
most nominal, but we opine that it will
not be far in the distant future when
they will rival those of California as a
grape-producing district,
Products.
The staple field products are cotton,
corn, rice, sugar cane, oats, and pota-
toes, both Irish and sweet, though 9th
er things might be profitably raised.
jute and ramie and barley and tobac-
co grow we'll here, as we'll as such va
rieties of the domestic grasses as clio
yer, red-top, millet alfalfa, lespedeza
or Japan clover, and no doubt in the
future will be cultivated to a consider
able extent, when the people of this
country recognize more fully the ne
cessity for diversified agriculture, All
of the esculents grow here to perfec-
ton, and could be raised with
profit, if enough people would engage
in trnck farming to justify the railroads
in making special preparations, as is
done on the Illinois Central railroad,
for handling that species of traffic, and
thereby enable them to offer a freight
rate that would stimulate and encour-
age investment in this line of business.
Cotton, sugar-cane and rice are our
most important money producing crops,
but they are affected by several draw
backs, viz The overproduction of cot
ton and the low prices consequent
thereon an insuficiency of sugar re-
fineries, and the uncertainty and diff
Guilty of disposing of the crop at re.
munerative prices after the corr is
raised, and the absence of rice mills in
the territory where this cereal is pro
duced. The subject though is now un-
dergoing some agitation, and the pros
poets are that sugar r%efineries will be
multiplied and placed in greater prox-
unity to each other, thereby affording
the cane raiser the benefits of a health
fnl competition for his produce, and
presenting to him ample opportunities
for its disposal. The spirit of resent
ment engendered in the rice producer
and the local merchant against the &C
ton ofthe proposed recent. zee trust will
terminate in a healthy state of affairs
locally, and eventually result in the
erection, by home capital, of rice
mills in the country, at SCI eral impor-
tant points, which will relieve the rice
grower from the manipulations and
extortions of the city mill men.
1t is a question with some as to which
is the most profitable crop, rice or su-
gar-cane, but to one conyersant with
the cultivation and average yield of
both, all doubt soon becomes dispelled
and the general verdict is in favor of
cane, where the proper facilities exist
for its disposal. 1t is not an overes-
innate to assert that at least $50 will
result to the cane-grower as a net
profit on his average production,
while with rice neither his gross sales
nor his average profit would be quite
SO large. The average yield Of cane
per acre is about 90 tons, while that
of rice is about IL barrels. Cane is
81 per ton f. o. b., and rice
ranges in price from SO to 81 per bar
so We may fairly estimate So as
about the average price. Now basing
Dur estimate on the above figures,
which we consider about fair, it will
be seen that the profit from
cane growing will exceed by ] that
which proceeds from rice-growing.
the last six years the pro-
1uction Of rice in Southwestern
has increased from $500
10 an estimated crop of 700 900 barrels
Of ISL lbs eachin 1892, and the pros,
peet nov is that the crop of 1892 will
double that of 1891.
There are men in this section of the
country who have engaged in the cnl-
5ivation of rice and sugar within the
asst 5 years, who when they began had
comparatively nothing and COM
nenced their operations on the credit
system, but who are now independent,
amassed a handsome compe-
5ency, and who have invested it in
good homes, surrounded with all the
comforts and pleasures of rural life,
md who live there under their own
vine and fig tree, a life of prosperous
peace and contented ease. They have
the wolf away from the door
md established themselves on a solid
basis.
Schools and Churches.
We are not blessed here with as
rood a system of schools as is to be
ound in the Northern, Western and
ONE of the Southern States, but we
ave good school laws and a spirit to-
Yards intellectual and moral advance
aent seems to be awakening, and as
lew people flow in and the country
more thickly settled, and it's
better developed we may
ook forward to marked progress in the
ray of education and the more gene
dissemination of knowledge. !
Nearly all the Christian religious /
ects are represented among us, and in |
he town of Opelousas, the county site +
f st. Landry parish, the Roman Cath '
lies, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyte- e
ians and Episeopalians have churches. c
Politics.
Our State and local governments are {
enerally Democratic, owing to the Il
lct that a preponderance of The intel a
gent people here are of that political b
nth, but were it not for ones politi G
affiliations. n~enaaaarilr ON a~ccnnnt :