The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1911-09-16
A Country Picnic.


The editorial I've took in an East
Baton Rouge country picnic the other
day.
It was the first he had attended
in this section since a visit to Mich
igan a few years ago enabled him
to take in a similar-or similarly
named-affair in Allegan county in
that state.
The trip to Burris scheolhcuse tooh
ene over ten miles Of East Batoa
Rouge so-ealled public road, thro1gh
a land as smiling and fertile as a
man would wish to see, with lush
hay fields, nt-kept fence rows, pat
Old houses rotting to decay, Wit
never a new barn Or a new DWELLING,
and almost no farm homesteads with
any sign of progressive prosperity.
The trip was on a Saturday after
noon One passed not a single Wag-
on that seemed to have carried pro-
duce Of country land to town, not a
new vehicle with a farmer in it. It
was a land smiling, ferti.e-empty.
The trip to the Michigan picnic
was six miles out from a county mar
ket town and county seat, over roll
ing hills, where six inches of attrition
soil on glacial deposit, aided by lib
eral fertilizer and leguminous alter
nate crops, kept the fertility alive.
The road was a 60-foot nacadamized
thoroughfare, thoroughly drained
There were no field fences, but the
space between the roadway and the
trim fields was bare Of weeds, more
closely cropped than most Baton
Rouge lawns. One passed trim white
farn1houses, with woven Wire fences,
great orchards adjoining wide gar
dens, with swindmills towering above
giant red barns, pastures, with sleek
Holsteins or Jerseys or Here4osds.
The fields were as carefully tendeG5
as the best patch Of ground on the
L.. S. e1penisn en station farm
wheat, corn, lbslcllzWfie eat, timothy mil
Iat. clover, ii Their respective stage
for the season. q
While country scl1eolhouses witt
shade trees about them, sheds TO
the vehicles and horses of the chill
drsn, wide Fairgrounds were never
ont of sight.
The writer was. passed by the rural
mail deliYeTyIna1l, sen of a wealthy
farmer, a college graduate, who made
his route twice a Gay in an auto H.
delivered TO each homestead, not
only ma:1-order catalogues and tax
notices, but copies Of the county pa
per, one or two magazines, farm and
General. either Grand Rapids, a
Detroit CT a Chicago daily.
It was Saturday afternoon in Mich
igan, as we'll as on the other occa-
sion in Louisiana. Empty wagon after
empty wagon, with sleek, splendid
draught horses, ratified honeWard.
back from the trip to the market
town with poultry, eggs, or produce
or fruit, and back, so the record
show, with a bank deposit book witt,
4 new entry IN the coat pocket CT
almost every driver.
To get to Burris school house, one
turned off the man road, through a
hundred yards of Weed-groWn, stump
clogged path, to a tiny clearing
whore a ralnshackle. one-Toom, TN
ceiled. unpainted, winartyen board
alit had served only Last year as
s.pubiic school,
To get to the Michigan picnic
Ground, one turned from the man
road, through a farm orchard, wiesTe
sre:.t haaps of apples were on the
ground beng packed for market
down to the shores of a little lake
There a neat Eoatbouse was sur
rounded by a flock OF roWbcafs, ca
noes, gasoline launches belonging tt
the farmers in the neightborhcod.
Why the difference?
Not altogether boil weevil.
That part Of Michigan, this part @
Louisiana, were settled about tht
same time. The Michiganders came
from Ohio, Virginia, New England
tae ninth ward Louisianians, man.
Of @them from Tennessee, Kentucky
Virginia. There IS q sprinkling Q
German and Dutch about Allegan
There is a sprink1ing OF German am
French in the ninth ward.
The Michigan land is not possesses
of one-Ilalf the natural fertility ant
adaptability Of that in East Batol
Rouge-and the climate in Louisian
is incompatible.
TIE difference, originally, came j.
East Baton Rouge's dependence O.
negro labor. In Michigan the wealth
| farmer worked with his own hands
while in Louisiana the wealthy farm
er'ss son Of ancient days got the ide
in his head that he couldn't do any
thing save practice law. give med
| MIC
By this difference, Michigan go
the jump on rural Louisiana.
But this difference no more tha
offsets the difference in natural fel
tii.ity
The difference is maintained b
/ good roads, good country schols. n
raj free delivery. At the bottom G
all are the good roads, easier t
/ build in Michigan than here, Jus
as essential here as in Michigan
From them come the prosperity, tn
/ dtVarsiftcafion nf nradIIctS and ce