St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1915-03-20
Continued from page one)

the SuD-LFOplCdl Lt6ioho
fore, if we Of the South are to gel
fhe benefit of this Celto-Germanlc
type of immigration, co~nfessedly,
the most desirable, we must put
our house in order, not only IN
preventing soil pollution, in inn
proving drainage and in retaining
waste water places, but in regulat-
ing the impounding of waters, and
we are fortunate in having so able
and industrious an investigator
and original thinker as DR.. Carter
to take this matter up.
In Louisiana and Mississippi
thousands of acres OF long-leaf
pine that before the invasion or
the saw mills were healthy, having
all the natural advantages Of eli
mate, sylvan beauty, mineral
springs, ETC., requisite and necess
airy to establish sanitaria and sana-
toria are now malarious by reason
of i mpounding waters. When it
comes to the rice districts of south
Louisiana land doubtless the same
cnditions obtain in southeast Tex
ash we have another story: AS a.
result of the low price in cotton a.
couple of decades ago the culture
Of rice was attempted on the broad
and fertile prairies Of Southwest
ern Louisiana, its culture up to
that time having been confined to
the river bottoms where water
could easily be syphoned for irri-
CATION, but it was found feasible
and comparatively inexpensive to
institute irrigation canals or aque-
ducts for the conveyance OF river
water and the water from deep
wells, to be found in inexhausitible
quantities at a depth of from one
to three hundred. feet. When
these irrigation plants commenced
these irrigation plants commenced
to multiply reticulating the prair-
les with their latrals the thought
full hygienist looked with grave APP
p%rehension on the sanitary future
of the rice districts and believed
that laws should be enacted as
in the rice districts of Europe, in
hibiting the growing of rice near
towns; but was suggested at the
time, and that theory has been
borne out by practical experience,
that these prairies r malarlous
in spots; that is to say, wherever
in spots; that is to say, wherever
ponds had formed or "Viviers," or
reservoirs, had been dug in back
yards and hog lots approximating
conditions, that these fer
tile grounds for breeding mosqui-
toes had been rendered healthy by
the substitution Of running for
stagnant water; in SO far as top
feeding minnoWs and other natural
enemies of mosquito larvae were
concerned, they were found in both,
,he difference in favor Of the irri-
canal lying in its cleain-cut
ranks and moving water instead of
he ragged edge of the fond, Great
ng thousand of stagnant pools
warming with mosquito life.
"A very erroneous impression ex-
SIS both on this and the other side
if the great herring pond about
health conditions in Louisiana,
where it is imagined that the state
5 a vast coastal plain extending
rom the Mexican Gulf to the Ark
nsas line; that this region is conn.,
0sed of sea marsh, swamps and
luggish bayous sWeltering under a
heat, unfit for human habi-
alton, and that there the basso pro-
)ndo Of the saurian croaks to the
lezzo soprano Of the anopheline
nd the high falsetto of the stego-
lyial in a horrid symphony of
lorbidity and death. daughter
nd applause.) This, Of course, is a
ipe dream that would hape been
Iughable had it not inhibited the
sricultural development Of the
ate and DETECTED the tide of i'm
igration to the less favored re-
ons of the west and to Canada.
hat are the facts? That there is
section of the world, Of equal fer
Fity, as healthy as Louisiana. Of
'urse it is not meant that some
ountain or seaside health resort
Of vegetation, is not as
or healthier reference is
I'd to fertile communities in the
mperate zone. When it comes to
MINER heat the southern portion OF
Louisiana has a cooler summer tn
.mperature than most localities in co
g United States under a thou In
nd feet elevation. All of this tie
es not mean, however, a total abb lat
nee of malaria, which exists in ed
OTIS as a result of gross sanitary nil
hes, THAT can be remedied by tn,
DIR. Carter will doubtless wa
ar out the assertion that along at
) coastal plains and its sea marsh bo
and even the delta Of the Missis- SAL
pi, which approximates the ply tn;
al conditions Of the deadly delta thu
the Ganges,there is compare ria