The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1914-08-01
A COMM ONWEALTH JUST FINDING
ITSELF.

writes these glowing words:
81 have seen colonization and immi-
grafton schemes in many states, many
based on attractive conditions, some
on fraud; but never before have seen
a state with such attractions OF soil,
climate, citizenship, means Of trans
portation, length of growing and graz
ing season and with such slight ex"
ploitation among the seekers for new
homes as exists in one Of our Oldest
Southern states, commonwealth made
when nature was in a gracious mood,
and state which has had showered
upon it the great gifts of nature since
the days the continents were formed
out of the seas and the great Missis-
sippi and her feeders, the Red, Arkan-
sas, Missouri, Ohio, began depositing
the silt soil of the North, the West
and the East within her borders.
"The shifting mouth of the Missis-
sippi has for ages, until mastered and
made stationary by the devices OF man,
been swinging back and forth along
the Gulf, building soil the richness OF
which probably is not equaled on the
face of the earth in extent and acces-
lsibility.
Louisiana is this favored state, and
her people have allowed the common
wealth to lie sleeping under the balmy
sun of plenty and easy living. The
boil weevil shocked some of the people
Into knowledge that no country can
depend on single cropping but the real
awakening came when, as one Of the
Presidents expresses it, the government
Withdrew from it's partnership with the
Estate through it's tariff legislation in
the matter of sugar. Then did a great
Estate come to a realization that as a
whole it knew but few of the turns
of agriculture and that she must know
Iall if she continues to prosper.
"Now, very empire in itself, Lou
lisiana is holding out her hands in sup
plication to the North and East and
West for progressive farmers to come
and people her acres. This by nc
means indicates the cry of a poverty
Istricken people. It is the mere &C
acknowledgement that she must change
her system of farming. Where one
plantation bloomed before, dozen
twenty, fifty farms devoted to genera
and stock farming must exist in the
future
ut not only means continuation II
J the culture of cotton, rice and cane
t but the addition of other staple crops
and the raising of stock to consume
/ the crops. That the situation be no
misunderstood some explanation is nee
essary regarding the open-armed wei
come awaiting the farmers of tn,
North.
"The success of Northern men II
combating the boil weevil through d
; versifcation and other means brough
+ the Southern planters to realization
that many of their enormous planta
tions, handled as they are by shiftles
n NEGRO tenants and often more shiftles
whites, must be cut up and farme
!, more intensively and more intelligen
d ly. When the sugar blow came thou'
ands of the big planters determine
l. they could not grow cane at a prof
with their labor equipment, althoug
other planters are going ahead, In
proving their methods of cane cultuI
y and lettering their sugar factories IL
y more economic production of tn
II staple.
"From other directions, too, is th
call for progressive farmers being sci
forth From the reclamation projee'
of the coast country, where man
thousands of acres of marsh lands al
being uncovered by systems of cana
and great pumping plants, come Il
invitation. No man knows the dep
of the soil nor the thickness of Il
fertility
THUS has state found its need #
more and better farmers There
no reflection to be entered against Il
big planters, as most of them are wo
derful managers. They fell heir
the baronial system of farming al
they have stuck to it until chang
conditions of agriculture necessitate
. reversal.
"a thousand, or two, three or fl
thousand acres of cane or cotton und
: the management of one planter, wi
his expensive and inadequate syste
of tenant or wage workers, will sp
different end when the same ira,
are placed in the hands of enou
owners who do a part of their o.