The National tribune., 1903-08-27

the level of the Gulf, seems to be ~
ing TRANQUILITY on top of much Of the
ground.
SUGAR CANE REGION.
Here begins the wonderful sugar-cane
region of which New Iberia is the center.
Whatever may be said of .'commeTci;ii.sn;'
and trusts. they certainly have some re-
deeming features. The sugar plantations
employ great number of people. and the
sugarhOuses are not only weli-bult, we'll
painted. trim-lookins ediices. but they are
surrounded by villages of AS neat, COM
Portable houses as can be found in any
town in the country. Every little house
is well-buit, well-painted and entirely
heme-like. each with a great biz wooden
cistern standing above ground to catch all
the water that falls upon the roof The
proximity of the Gulf is liable ut any time
TO make the water around salty, and there
fore everybody has to use ram water. IN
each of these settlements there are quite
pretentious homes for the managers, fore
men and clerks, with neat churches and
school houses. Even the lowest of the
employees seem to be housed in Il very
satisfactory way. This is in gratifying
contrast with the poverty and sGualof of
the section where the people are LETT to
their own devices.
At Crowley we enter still more Won
Gerfui rice region. Louisiana Is not only
the greatest rice station in the Union, but
she is actively competing in the markets of
the world with her product. 1t seems
strange that rice raised in Louisiana
should compete with that of the pauper
labor of China and Japan, but such is the
fact and Louisiana rice brings Il better
price than any. while its cultivation is eX-
ceedingly profitable TO those engaged in
it. though they have to pump water by
steam power. raising it sometimes as high
as :ii5 feet to irrigate the fields. The oil
fields furnish very cheap fuel fer the
pumps. and everybody who has a rica field
is making money. The average product is
about 10 barrels of rough" rice per acre.
which averages about no pounds of clean
rice to the, barrel, or 800 pounds to the
acre. This readily brings three and a half
cents Il pound. or 1.50 to the acre. 1t is
rs easily planted as corn, wheat, oats. or
any other grain. and after it is planted
the water does the work of cultivation by
keeping down the grass and weeds. so
that there is no expense in that direction.
With irrigation the rice planters are in
dependent of the usual accidents that i'll
terfere with other crops. The main dan-
ger they fear is an unusually dry season,
which will lower the streams and let the
salt water from the Gulf reach up to
where they get their water for irrigation.
The irrigating canals take percentage
of the crop for their fee, and they are
very profitable Investments, some of them
paying for the entire cost of construction
the first year.
4 feature of the journey is that the
Southern Pacific engines are oil burners
and thus there is none OF the cinders and
smoke of the ordinary engine, but oe-
casionally one gets Wifi from the loco
motive suggestive of very dirty lamp,
or some other foul matter i'll offensive com
bustion.
OIL FIELDS OF TEXAS.
After the rice fields come the great oil
fields, and iR the morning we are running
through our first mesquite plains towards
San Antonio. The mesquite looks like an
old, badIy-run-down peach orchard. Its
habit of growth is very much like that of
the peach, but the leaves resemble those
of the Iosust. As it is one of the legrme-
nosae, or podded plants, it might be ex-
pected to improve the land, and this view
is supported by the deep, rich appearance
of most of the soil Anything might
grow luxuriantly in such dark, mellow
earth. The mesquite plains stretch away
endlessly on both sides of the road, and
seem to invite the hand of toll to erect
| homes of plenty. The mesquite wood is very
hard and astonishingly durable, so that
it makes the best quality of posts, and
where large enough and straight enough
excellent railroad ties But only swai
portion is available for this purpose, and
| it is also of very slow growth,
| San Antonio is the garden spot oil
Texas, and the imposing depot and beau
tifully-kept grounds adjoining are q
pleasant advertisement of this. The de-
pot is reproduction of the old Spanish
mission style of architecture, which, while
readily lending itself to its railroad pur
pose, is charmingly characteristic of this
| far-off Southern cline, where one rafhei
resents seeing the styles commonplace in
the North The grounds, covered with 8
thick, springy turf of Bermuda grass, en-
erald green with life and freshness, are
dotted here and there with characteristic
Southern plants-bananas, yuceas, cactI
palms, with spreading ribbed leaves as
wide as door, and the graceful, pictur
rescue Chinaberry tree. This last, whiel
we will see for hundreds of miles, aroma
every house which makes any pretenst
of planting shade trees, has marked
and pleasing individuality. 1t does 40
grow very high. The tallest seen any
where were not over 90 feet, with the ma
iority not much over half that. On it!
slender trunk it supports large, sym
metrically rounded ball of dark-green foil
age. The leaves are small, something lik'
the locust. The limbs short, clOse-grow
ing, and the whole head" so compact,
knit that it would seem difficult for birt
to find shelter in it. The tree is a blessin.
to the country, for as we pass ON into tn
arid region we find it growing where N
other will, and giving all the shade to b.
found on the sun-burned hills.
Leaving the fertile San Antonio Valley
with its fields of ripened corn now fallin;
before the keen blades of the harvesters
the country rapidly becomes arid and in
fertile. The cornfelds give way to waste
in which the mesquite mingles with TIL
needle-fringed cactus and the dark greer
of the greasewood. For awhile wild sun
flowers, now in full bloom, spangle tn
fields with living gold, but these soon Civ
way to even coarser wceds-a pepper
grass, which the cattle will only eat whe
forced to it by hunger, and a still less in
viting plant of the NORWOOD family
Still, there are hosts of cattle, and the
seem to be finding fair living in thi
unpropitious pasturage, for they are a
in good order, and streams of pure sprin
water every few miles are sufficient t
quench their thirst.
| RIO GRANDE.
At Del Rio, in Valverde County, Is
miles west of San Antonio, comes the frs
glimpse of the Rio Grande, swiftly-rol