The Meridional. (Abbeville, La.) 1856-1906, 1902-05-17
Southwestern Louisiana.

In speaking of the wonderful pos
sibilities of Southwest Louisiana, a
recent article in the New Orleans
Times-Democrat says:
"What the people from the west
have done for this prairie country
reads like romance. They found
it bare government land, considered
unfit for any agricultural purpose.
It was worth then about Sl.25 an
acre and man who bought a large
tract was considered foolish. But
the westerner had seen and titled
prairie land. before, and he knew just
exactly what could be done. He
went into the business of raising
rice. From the first he made money.
He found crop surer than wheat or
cotton or cane and staple for which
there is always market. He found
a crop which is not dependent on
hand labor for the gathering or mar
keting, a cereal which only requires
water to MAKE it sure, and then he
found perpetual supply of water.
Opportunities like this cannot be
laid under blanket nor long kept
from general knowledge. The fame
of the Louisiana rice belt reached the
Dakotas and Kansas and Illinois and
Iowa, and all the other grain growing
states and the people came in streams.
They came singly and by the train
load until nearly all the vacant land
was taken up. For miles and miles
it is all under cultivation and the
canals gridiron the face of the earth |
over two parishes. Hundreds and |
hundreds of farm houses are to be
seen all over the country, towns hav |
ing sprung up here and there, busy,
bustling places, the homes of thrift
and industry. From being a desert
section Southwest Louisiana is rapid
ly becoming the most popular as well
as the most prosperous part of the
State. Crowley is the largest rice
point in the world. At no
great distance comes Jennings and
Welsh and Lake Charles. Bricklay-
ers and carpenters are always in de-
mand. Houses are rented before
ground is broken for the place; busi-
ness blocks costing thousands Of dol
lars are no longer curiosities but quite
the proper thing. Twenty-thousand-
dollar school houses, twenty-five
thousand-dollar town halls, sewers,
electric lights, paved streets, good
roads, substantial bridges over all
waterways, big stores, all these have
come to west Louisiana within the
decade. The people are not build
ng for today or tomorrow or next
week. What they are doing they
Ire doing well, and their public
works are not only models of beauty
put the apparent evidence Of perform
ance is not deceptive.
Boys from New England and from
he northwest and Canada are coming
ind casting their lot here. Godfrey,
champion pole vaulter at Harvard,
Who halls from away up IN Maine, is
furnishing water from his canal to the
armers north Of Lake Charles.
Eastman, another man with q degree, t
$ manager for the North American
land and Timber Company which |
furnishes water for vast area. And
)uson is in the same business for all
he sections around Crowley. No
,etter evidence of the cosmopolitan
character Of the population could be
,iven than these. There is no sec
ionalism in business, and common
interests have nearly obliterated /
'olitical differences. They only ,
now that they are all of and for this ,
ouitry that they are interested in
is prosperity and when the country
prosperous they are prosperous. F"
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