New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1904-08-06

of the crop and where lands have sold
for as much as SO and 800 an care.
FlOurishing towns of 5000. 10, 900 and
5000, people dot section that boasted
of hardly more than watering tank on
a whistling station II years ago, and
100, 600 people have been carried into
those sections from the States of the
North. All this development is di-
rectly due to the efforts of the South
ern Pacific Railroad working on plans
mapped out and executed by S. f. b.
Morse. As soon as it became apparent
that these prairie lands were adapted
to the cultivation of upland rice,
Morse road jumped into the branch
and not only co-operated, but directed
and led. The development of this in
dustry became the business of the
hour, and everything within the range
of possibility was done to foster and
build it up immigration was sought
and colonies secured. With frequent
cases of rice planter clearing Oh one
crop the entire cost of farm. improve
ments and crop, land values very ma
turally jumped by leaps and bounds,
and when the prices of lands along
the railroad became so high rs to dis
migration the railroad company would |
build branch road bring another sec
tion into market. And not alone
were the efforts of the road directed
toward getting in more people and
increasing the acreage of the rice field
but under Morse's direction system
atized effort was made to induce the
widest possible consumption of rice as
a food. A representative of the liter
ary bureau of the road was sent into
the Acadian settlements of Louisiana,
to the restaurants of New Orleans, to
Japan and to China to find out the
various ways of preparing rice in
palatable shape. Somewhat to the
of Mr. Morse, his ennis
sary discovered over 200 different ways
Of cooking rice, and the greater part
Of these recipes We're issued in printed
form by the railroad to carry ont a
of education among people
who regarded boiled rice pudding as
about the limit of possibilities in the
rice line. The nutritive qualities of
rice, the staying powers of peoples
whose chief diet is rice, the various
ways of preparing it, and all about
the methods of planting, cultivating
and harvesting became familiar topics
to Mr.. Morse at this time, and he
could entertain visitor by the hour
with a most interesting exhibition of
his profound knowledge of the whole
subject of rice. 1t is simply his hab-
it of mind to know everything about
a subject and to never forget, in the
furtherance of his plans to develop the
rice industry rice kitchens were estab-
lished at all the expositions that have
been held in the country since the.
new fields were started and advantage
was taken of every method bywhich the
POPULARITY of rice as food could be
increased, with the object of keeping
the demand and the supply within
hailing distance of each other, so that
there might be no end to the develop
ment of the industry except the limi-
tation in lands adapted to rice culture.
Pioneering of this sort was applied
to the development of every other in
terest in the territory Of the road, as
for instance, the great oil development
in Louisiana and Texas, in which Mr..
Morse's road has from the very start
done everything possible to foster and
build up the industry and extend the
fields.
And then there is tobac co growing,
TO which Mr.. Morse was giving en-
thusiastic cooperation at the time he
left the Southern Pacific, a year ago.
Around Nacogdoches, in the middle
eastern part of Texas, there is choco-
Iate- -colored soil resembling in appear
ennce the soils of the best cigar leaf
tobacco regions of Cuba.
1t was believed that fine quality
Of cigar leaf could be raised here, and
II so. the lands, instead of being
worth "a to $40 an acre, would be
worth $500 or $4OO all acre; various
industries would be established and a