Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1914-04-03
LOUISIANA NOT 4 SWAMP.
S. e. Bowers Gets 1t 'Kansas, Who
Reviles His State.

The Globe recently printed some re
marks of a physician about the variou
sized frogs in Louisiana making thei
morning, noon and night pleas fol
quinine, iron tonic and pills. s. E
Bowers, reader of the Globe, and VIII,
formerly lived in Kansas, has taken red
hot exception to the item. Mr.. Bower
lives at Alfalfa, La. In q clever letter
which may be Of interest to alfalfa rails
ers, he says in part:
"The impression left by the article wal
that the State over as whole was vast
swamp and breeding placed for malaria
As a matter of fact there are some
swamps in the State, but there are de-
grees in other States, and You certainly
would not put eastern Kansas and west.
ern Kansas in the same class.
II wouldn't have such crouch if the
Globe was the only offender in this line,
but we seem to get it on every hand. In
the classic Walls Of Corn the authors
childhood remembrance is 'Treeless des-
ert we called it then, summed by beasts,
forsook by men,
"Some of the school textbooks of TO-
day in illustrating Louisiana show an al
ligator halflying upon q log, crane or
two wading in an oozy swamp, and a
snake swinging lazily from the limb of
q dead tree. This illustrative description
is given not as seventy-five years ago, but
as to-day, and comes Is near being the
truth as the early Treeless desert myth
of Kansas or the DOCTORS frog and
quinine Of Louisiana.
"The Red River Valley, where have
the honor, pleasure and profit of farming
my little quarter section of land, has no
more swamp than the Kaw valley and
does not overflow as often as the union
depot in Kansas City. There are spongy,
scum-covered, mosquito breeding lakes or
bayous-not in this vicinity. Fleas, flies,
bugs'and things that fly oy day and bite
by night are no more numerous than on
the paved streets surrounding the state
house at Topeka.
"Now let me tell you of one thing we
have to do. OF couse, there are others,
but one is sufficient. One crop upon
which we can make more money per
acre than you do in Kansas-yet Kan
sas has more than 1,O0O, 900 acres
in this self-same product and it is herald
ed as the MORTGAGE liter the home
builder and the automobile buyer'-is
About one-half Of he driver VAL
ley lands grow alfalfa to perfection. No
innoculation, lining or any especial prep
aration is necessary. The bacteria is ma
tive to our soils and the plant itself is
found growing almost wild along the rail
road tracks where seed has probably been
dropped from cars Of hay in transit. Al
falfa has been sown on: the bare stubble
Of a weed field without pillow, disc or har-
row being touched and good stand Sc
cured.
Alfalfa has been cut q often as nine
times in season, averaging nearly ton
Of cured hay to the cutting. 1t has been
cut as early as in January and - late as
in December. Every farmer knows that
alfalfa is not q product Of swamps or frog
ponds. Even F. D Coburn says it will
not stand wet feet. With that noted Kan
'as authority for the theory that alfalfa
and water will not mix. there is certainly
'ome foundation for the belief that there
nay be q few dry spota In Louisiana -