The Meridional. (Abbeville, La.) 1856-1906, 1900-09-15
Another Rice Mill.

| plCSluCHt VI OlS DOdIu VI lTdSlG u6F0
but now the manager of the Abbevillt
rice mill, was to-day circulating
among his many friends and former
associates on change, telling them OF
the wonderful possibilities of the rice
section of Southwest Louisiana, a
theme of which he never grows tired.
He has become thoroughly inoculated
with the rice fever, like all those who
once settle down in Louisiana S
beautiful rice prairies.
/ The Abbeville rice mill, the con-
struction of which was begun last
spring, will soon be ready for business
and will have capacity of 1000
sacks per day.
Mr.. Marchesseau was in the rice
business in this city for twenty-five
years and knows as well as any
other man the ins and outs of that
business. AT one time he owned and
operated the American mill, of this
city. The Abbevilles mill is largely
the property of Lichtenstein &
Gumble and the men who own the
Peoples mill, of Crowley, the Guey-
dan mill, of Gueydan and the Eureka
mill, of Estherwood.
There are at this time thirteen rice
mills in the city of New Orleans, with
combined daily capacity of Is, ZOO
sacks of rough rice. Outside of New
Orleans and in the state of Louisiana
there are twenty rice mills with a
combined daily capacity Of 18,5oo
sacks of rough rice. Four of these
mills, however, are only now beginn-
ing operation for the first time. They
are the Calcasieu mill, at Welsh the
Louisiana mill, at Jennings the Star
mill. at Crowley, and the Abbeville
mill, at Abbeville.
In commenting on the development
of rice lands of the southwestern por-
ton of the State, he said that it was
almost impossible to conceive of the
rapidity with which they were being
opened up to rice cultivation.
providence rice farming is becom-
ing back number, and now when a
farmer wishes to engage in the busi-
ness of raising rice he first sees to il
that he gets the use of some splendid |
irrigation ditch and then crop is
always assured and splendid profits
made. Mr.. Marchesseau believes
that before the first decade of the new
century has passed away there will
not be a single foot of available rice
land lying idle in all Southwest
Louisiana. Western and northern
farmers have come to realize that in
farming they not only have sure
crop and one Of. large profit, but a
crop that is raised with only very
small portion of the labor required
for the raising of wheat, which at
best is very uncertain crop on the
western prairies, subject to every
caprice of She season-hot winds,
drought, rust and chintz bugs.
The Abbeville mill is tending
strictly to the milling business and is
not in anyway interested in the rails
ing of rice. The section of country
imediately adjacent to Abbeville,
which is located on the Iberia and
Vermilion branch of the Southern
Pacific road, however, raises all the
rice that the mill can handle. AS
for markets there never has been,
and in the opinion of@all the best rice
experts, including Mr.. Marchessean,
never will be, more rice raised in this
country than the demand will read
lily call for.
Mr.. Marchesseau viii soon move
bis family from this city to Abbeville,
where a splendid new residence is