Lower coast gazette., 1914-08-29

reclamation schemes are. in hand
with a view Of increasing still
more largely the area Of land in
this paying crop, to which these
lower ATTITUDES are so excellently
well adapted. ;
Few persons are aware Of the
real advantages that the Lower
Coast presents to those interest
ed in orange culture. Formerly
when Louisiana Seeding oranges
were all the go and when the
trees were killed down to the
ground, as seems to have occur
red every ten or fifteen years, it
required some three or four years
of time to secure a new crop
from the young trees that would
spring up from the stumps of
those killed by the freezes. Ex-
perience taught our people that
sour orange stocks were more re-
sistent to cold weather than were
our sweet orange stocks and that
still other varieties, including the
trifoliate, were quite resistent
and should be used as the foun-
dation on which to grow our finer
oranges. This kind of orange
culture has come into very gen.
era] use and the budding or graft
ing of favorite oranges, whether
Louisiana seedlings, naval oran-
ges or any of the mandarin var
ieties was found to be best done
on these hardy stocks and to be
done as near the ground line as
practicable, so that with the ad-
vent of severely freezing wealth
er the trees could be hilled up
above the point of budding or
grating AMI the bud or graft
thus BE- absolutely preserved
against any cold weather that
we have ever had in Louisiana.
If the top Of the tree were de-
stroyed then this bud would be.
come the germinal point and
within two years a satisfactory
crop would again be produced.
This has revolutionized Louis
lana orange culture and has set
the pace for the rest of the
American orange world. Many
Of our orange growers have found
the business to be comparatively
scratiye and the beautiful groves
on the West bank of the river in
! it's lower stretches are q lovely
sight to see. We have been hop
ing for years. that a fine shell
road would be built on the West
bank and through the Cutoff up
at Belle Chase and in this way
( give the visitors access to what
we might call the Garden of the
Gods in Lower Louisiana.
We would say in this connec-
ton that we incidentally noticed
some orchards that had been Sc
vere!y damaged by the Argentine
ant, that minute insect that was
imported for the purpose Of de-
stroying the boil weevil in the
cotton fields of Louisiana and
perhaps mistakenly has done
some damage to the orange crops
of the state.
With the decadence of sugar
cane culture on the Lower Coast,
where it has been the most con-
spicuous industry for more than
a century, the natural inquiry
now is as to what we shall do
with these lands that have the
capacity and the climate to do
more for the support of human
beings than have probably any
other lands on. the face Of the
earth. Every here and there we
find symptoms of q new life de-
veloping and even in the truck
gardening business, which in its
present somewhat disorganized
state has been struggling severe
" to secure adequate returns,
there are low evidences Of some
profit in the business and here
and there new houses are spring
ing up, built from the capital Of
honest industry engaged in truck
gardening.
\ We are under the impression
that there will be much more at
tention paid to cattle culture on
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