Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1900-03-01

whose fire Of color leaps the Louisiana
red bird; its pale green prairies. its
intense sunlight, orange sunsets. swift
twilight and brilliant moonlight, is
weird and enchanting.
1t looks as if it had been borrowed
from fairy book and did not belong to
geography at all.
1t Is midwinter, yet the door yards of
Acadia, st. Landry and Calcasieu par
ishes, are abloom with roses. Christ
mas trees of live oak or holly or mis-
tletone, still bright in the little farm
houses, were dressed on Christmas
day with the fresh flowers gathered
out of doors.
The umbrella tree Is common. Ev-
cry farmer has half dozen to lend
1t is easy to borrow the use of one on
a rainy day, and as it is chained to
the ground by its roots no one ever
forgets to return it. Its branches radi-
ate from the trunk like umbrella stays.
Its foliage forms a waterproof cover
ing like an umbrella top. Its trunk
Is the handle. 1t will keep on entirely
dry in a subtropical storm. In sum
mer it affords perfect shade from the
sun. A tramp once explained his wan
derings through Louisiana by saying
that he was travelling tinker, mend
ing umbrella trees.
The green rose, the only one | have
ever seen, is not as large as the red
rose, nor does it display it's petals as
fully, but 1t is distinctly a rose If
some northern floriculturist would de-
velop this green rose FIJI Ter it might
become priced and Unique bloom in
the beautiful sisterhood of flowers.
Boutonniers and bouquets of green
roses might become a feature of st.
Patrick's day in New York.
White blackberries are much e1teem-
ed in Acadia and Calcasieu, because
they are superior in flavor to the black
kind. Some regard them as a conces-
sion of nature to the color prejudice
They differ from the black blackberries
mainly in complexion.
IN Louisiana is what popularity IS
known as the "dishcloth plant" 1t
produces a green pod, which yields.
when opened, large piece of cellular
vegetable tissue, often used in kitchens
as a "dishcloth."
The native horses and cattle in this
part of the state formerly lived on
sweet potatoes, grass and hay. When
northern farmers came here to settle
they found that the Creole ponies
would not eat corn or oats. Both re-
NAMED untouched in their feed boxes.
In some cases the native horses had to
be starved for days before they would
touch either.
A northern farmer threw an ear of
corn among a herd of wild cattle. They
came up to it, looked at it. shifted It.,
and walked away again. Not a steer
would eat it. The colonists from the
north inferred that to the horses and
cattle of these parishes corn and oats
we're an acquired taste.
The bread fruit Of Louisiana Is the
sweet potato. 1t will grow anywhere
in any kind of soil. The varieties OF
sweet potatoes are almost innumer-
able. They yield from 200 to 500 bush
els to the acre, and usually sell for
fifty cents a barrel or twenty cents a
bushel, though in seasons of scarcity
they are thirty and even forty cents a
blshel. They are the daily food of the
farmers, and are fed to horses. cattle,
swine and poultry. The Louisiana
sweet potatoes are wholesome, but lack
the fine flavor of those raised in Vir-
ginia. Irish potatoes are regarded here
as luxury, and the people have them
on Sundays and holidays.
1t is supposed generally in the north
that Louisiana is a swamp country, a
network of morass and bayou, and that
there is little ground in its limits that
is firm beneath ones feet. This is a
mistake.
North of the Red river, in the north
western part of the state. lies the ia
nous hill country Of Louisiana. Here
the land is upheaved in in1lnerable