Lower coast gazette., 1909-07-03
SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1909.

The Value of Louisiana Lands, and Of
Ours, the Best in Louisiana.
There is a tide in the affairs of men, which,
taken ut the flood, leads on to fortune. In a very
excellent editorial in the New Iberia Enterprise
the wonderful value OF Louisiana lands was refer
red to and the possibility Of making two good crops
per year on these lands was demonstrated. The
truck gardeners Of Louisiana are now giving an i'm
mense amount of attention to the economical pro-
duction and profitable marketing Of their very
valuable crops. Preparations for the fall crops
begin at about the time the corn crop natures and
is taken off and these truck garden crops of vari-
GUS kinds will grow right along through our Lou
isiana winters and be sold far away up in the
North by the time that the next corn crop is to be
planted on the a m lands.
The best oats that we can produce in Louisi-
ana, and under favorable conditions here we can
produce a hundred bushels to the acre, are the oats
planted in October. These oats can be grazed
during the winter and can be harvested as sheaf
oats, or as regular threshed oats in April or May
and the land be then planted at once in corn and
COW peas and there will thus be secured a good
corn crop in the fall and the fertility of the land
be maintained.
In Louisiana, and in our own parish Of Plaque
mines, we have been too much given to what the
French call monO-culture. For a hundred years
our tillers of the soil, great or small have been de-
voting themselves practically to but two crops,
those of sugar cane and of rice. Mono-culture
produces great skill in the single culture which is
practiced, but it carries with it such extreme haz-
ards that common experience has decided against
at although our enthusiasts adhere to it. Cotton
planters are very reluctant to take up other Gull
lures when they can successfully produce good
crops Of cotton and so it is with those who grow
sugar cane and with those who grow rice.
The narrowing margins in the culture Of these
leading staple crops is now bringing our people to
a better appreciation Of tn, advantage of some d.
versifcation. Millions of money are spent in Lou
isiana in preventing the grass from growing in our
fields, and yet Holland, much of England and much
of Denmark make their fortunes 0utOf grass and it's
Incidental cattle raising and dairy business. We nave
never seen finer cattle anywhere in the federal union
than those that are born and reared here on the
Lower Coast. Many of our farmers have mag
%niicent work cattle that will weigh from 1000 to
1900 pounds each, and yet scarcely any attention
is given to the cattle industry. A large part of
the success in raising hogs is to give them adequate
pasturage. That could be done here on the Lower
Coast, and yet no experimental culture has been
carried on sufficiently far to de n~onstrate cit er
the success or failure of hog raising on the Lower
Goa t. Truck gardening has become the current
passion just now and very fortunately for our in
dustrious truck gardeners they have apparently
done quite we'll in their work thus far. Truck
gardening requires such an immense amount of
ard such persistent hard work that we are led to
wonder as to whether or not our people will per-
sst in it and carry it on to the great success that
is here possible in it.
We think, however, that there is room with
us for many agricultural and horticultural indus
tries. If chicken farming could be made to pay,
and it is said that it is one of the most certain
sources of wealth in the whole country where
properly conducted, we should think our orange
growers would do we'll to unite chicken farming
with their orange industry. 1t is a fact that
chickens to do we'll should have large ranges of
good pasturage. Chickens can eat grass just as well
as cattle and hogs do and seem to thrive on it.
Apart from that, the supply Of insect life becomes
available in their large ranges and in newly plowed
lands they fairly revel in the amount of food they
can secure therefrom.
Our contemporary on the beautiful Teche, in
the good old town of New Iberia, deplores the fact
that our people are seemingly unwilling to avail of
the advantages that we have in the way of soil and
climate. 1t asks for a demonstration farm to be
placed at some point in the valley of the Teche to
show the good people there just what can be done.
We have in Plaquemines parish now many demon
~stration farms and the 10000 bushels of lettuce
and cucumbers sent from the little strip of terri
tory but a mile and a half long, comprising the
old Woodawn plantation at the upper end of the
second ward of this parish, show that we have
right there a demonstration farm, complete in
every respect, with many experts engaged in it.
Mr.. John Meyer and his two skilful sons and his
brother, Judge Henry Meyer, have been the prac-
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