The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1910-09-20
ITS GROWTH IS BEING DEVEL-
OPED WITH PROFIT.
FUTURE POSSIBILITIES
Replacing Cotton on Lands Devastated
by the Weevil-Progress Within Five
Years-Lands Believed To Be Va1ue'
less Desirable for Corn-Loss in Cot
ton and Profit in Corn Contrasted.

New Orleans, Sept Io-In round
figures, the boil weevil has cut Louis
iana's annual revenue from cotton pro-
duction to $I5,ooo,ooo from $5oyoooJooo
simultaneously, through necessity, agri-
cultural enterprise, encouraged by gov
eminent experts and enlarged by the
reclamation of marsh lands, has in
creased Louisiana's revenue from corn
production to nearly $65,ooo,ooo in 1910
from four or five millions few years
ago, yet the corn industry of the Pelican
State is still in its infancy. Thus, the
farmers of Louisiana who, two years
ago, looked upon the invasion of the
boil weevil as a curse and a visitation
of the devil, now regard the little pest
as a great and glorious blessing, and as
a providentia1 boon.
Several years ago Louisiana farmers
marketed 100000 bales of cotton in a
single season. The average yield per
acre was less than half bale, but on
the best lands bale to the acre was OBJ
tanned. In those days SC for middling
was looked Upon as a good price, and
$45 per bale or $22.5o per acre was not
to be lightly treated. In 1900 Louisiana
produced only 100000 bales.
Today the farmers on the reclaimed
lands Of South Louisiana are getting 100
bushels of corn per acre, which at Csc
per bushel brings sos per acre, or nearly
three times as much as the Louisiana
cotton planter got in the palmiest days
of cotton production and on the best
short staple land. Corn farmers on the
hill lands are not getting anything like
100 bushels TO the acre, but their yield
per acre is increasing very rapidly as
a result of the educational work being
carried on by V. L. Roy, the United
States Government corn expert at Baton
Rouge, who is teaching the old time
farmer how to grow corn in the new
way.
In 1908 and in all previous years
Louisiana farmers, and particularly the
cotton growers, bought most of the corn
needed to feed their stock from the corn
growers of Indiana, Illinois and other
states. Last year for the first time in
its history Louisiana became an ex-
porter of corn This year Louisiana
farmers win sell many million bushels
Of corn, and next year the excess of
production over consumption in Louis
lana may amount to as much as hum
dred million bushels.
In 1909 Louisiana raised but I6,ooo,o 900
bushels. In 1908, following great de-
struction to the cotton crop by the boil
weevil in 1907, the corn production
amounted to 100000 bushels. The in
crease of 1909 brought the yield up to
81 10000 bushels. while in 1910 the es-
timated yield is between 6o,ooo,ooo and
1oo,oooooo bushels. The difference in
estimates for 1910 is accounted for by
the fact that the minimum is calculated
upon the States average yield per acre
applied to the total corn acreage, while
the maximum estimates make allowance
for the great increase in corn acreage
on reclaimed lands where the yield
ranges from 50 to 100 bushels per acre,
and even more under intensive cu1tiva-
ton.
The development of the corn produc-
ing industry in. Louisiana since the boil
bweevil came has been nothing short of
wonderful Before then, Louisiana peo-
pie had never applied scientific cultural
methods to corn nor tested the richest
soils with if, and the smallness of the
old time yields they obtained had long
before led them to believe that Louis
lana soil was not adapted to corn cu1-
lture.
Now they have learned that the soil
over large area in Louisiana, particu-
larly in the recently reclaimed sections
of South Louisiana, is very rich in corn
plant TODD, and when corn expert from
Indiana told them that these lands were
capable of producing 1000 ffty-bushel
crops of corn without artificial fertili-
zation they sat up and took notice.
Five years ago no one would have
suggested Louisiana corn exhibit any
where, but this year the feature of the
Louisiana exhibit at Chicago Land Ex-
position, which is TO be held November
10 to December 4, will be corn. The
entire exhibit will be built, festooned
and decorated with I4-foot corn stalks
and with monster ears of corn, and corn
in quantities will serve as a background
for piles of vegetables grown in Louis
lana in November and shipped fresh tc