V 3L. XXIII
HI
en tor the Indiana Farmer.
;      A Trip Through the South.
J1V E. Y. TEAS.
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INDIANAPOLIS, IND., SATUBDAY, FEB. 18,1888.
NO.7
left Indianapolis on tbe night of Dehor 10,1887, via Effingham and the 111-
i Central railroad, intending to visit
b northern settlements in Louisiana
Florida.   Beached Cairo in the early
n3-ning,and crossed the Ohio,af ter -which
course lay nearly due south through
States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mis-
ippi and Louisiana to  New Orleans.
So n after leaving the Ohio river  patches
of! otton were seen,the boles were stripped
heir lint, and being browsed by poor
le. Passing southward, the cotton
hes gave place to great fields of the
e product, until cotton seemed to be
,]_}ost the only crop
Considerable
a promising future. Strawberries do exceeding well, yielding, they say, ?200 to
?250 net per acre. The plantations looked
as well as any I ever saw. A few berries
were ripe the day I was there, December
13th. A few are found nearly or quite
every month in the year. The first shipment of strawberries from Hammond to
Chicago last year was made on February
28th. The railroad agent thore told me
that the strawberry season lasted much
longer than farther north. The land hereabouts is quite level, covered originally
with a heavy growth of long-leaf pine,
with some live oak, water oak, magnolia grandiflora, a magnificent tree 100
feet high, with its large, glossy evergreen
leaves and beautiful flowers in spring.
Other  magnolias,  cypress, beech, poplar,
winter. Jennings has a fine two-story
frame school-house, that is said to bo best
in the State outside of Xew Orleans. Dr.
A. D. Tomlinson from Parke Co., Ind., resides about five miles from Jennings and
keeps the postofflce at Evangeline, Acadia
Parish. The Doctor located here about
two years ago, for his health, asthma, etc.,
He thinks it the healthiest place he has
ever found, as well as the quietest. Nearly all his neighbors are Acadi'ans, an innocent, inoffensive people who came originally from Prance to Nova Scotia, and
from thero to Louisiana over 100 years
ago. Land in this Calcasieu district sells
at SI 50 up to sio per acre. Good house
and barn lumber costs So to $7 per 1,000.
There Is no better lumber made than that
from long-leaf pine.
tj  ontained just 50,- f-sYSS^aft^t&L
0\ ' inhabitants fejiss^SliMiSil
ite and  colored, K^SYY^^sKsYte
g» at and small.   It "       "^" "'""*""""**""'
f« aid no other ter-
** "7 of like extent
•1 ar  gave such  a
V* duct  per  capita.
*; e production  of
« tton is   still  the 	
la ling industry here, but the populate a has decreased about 35 per cent
M  25 years.     During the  war  and the
* "oralization of business following,
" farm lands were almost entirely
*■*! ■'kcted, and in consequence the fur-
n, l"ed fields, (cotton and corn are al-
1 js ridged up in the South, almost like
~ eet potato ridges in the North,) washed
M rfnlly, until now the farms in Ten-
■j ^ee and Mississippi, on the line passed
°, % Me a good deal more than half so
■* "bed  into gullies  as to be ruined.   It
* «ld cost more to reclaim these washed
* as, than to buy and clear fresh tlm-
■ ^ land. Around Jackson, Miss., the
^ m are rather level, and not much
J *aed.   I  thought  the  land generally
. |'y fertile, and very low in price. I sup-
S e ln nearly every  county in  western
' -nessea and  Mississippi, land can be
'ght for $i per acr8 ana  UpWard, but
j* h«P8 there are few if any inducements
Imigrants to stop here, in preference to
3ng 'irtber south where it struck me
^p tangible inducements existed. In
ob Mk Missisf»*PPi a farmer told me I
Q buy calves and yearlings at $2 to S3
£ nead. This gentleman, who was a
_ '^rable farmer, and pretty intelli-
w-SWho usually grew 100 acres of cot-
^ < "aid that "a real good four-year-old
"r would weigh 350 to 375 pounds, and
^ for 8i5;.. ?2 to S3 per head for young
oi ,r6 ^med to be the prevailing price all
»      - nssis8ippi, in  southern  Alabama,
* "Ida and Louisiana.
Savage A JFarnnm's Taland Home retock Farm, ©ro**e Isle, Wayne Co., IfElcle.. or Percheron and Freneli Coach Homes.
■""SSippi
intryas
'7 next
I think northern
is not near  as  good a grass
^•ntry „ the go^g^. gecti„I1_
idlo.       tst<>pwasat Hammond, La., 52
«* Z^h 0i Xew °rlean8- At this Point
SI nn P^OP16 from Iowa, Illinois and
fc. j*80** have settled. They are look-
°l 'tstrT'yl* malnlv *° the production
» rtwl^berrIes and vegetables forthe
~ fnetn -neei,.i. _, .. .   _
hickory, pecan, persimmon, etc., abound
The land is a sandy clay, nice to work,
and fairly productive. Some bearing
orange trees and banana plants were
seen. Fig trees do well in all this region.
Agooddealof rice and sugarcane aregrown
here. This point is quite a health resort
for those affected with lung, throat or catarrh trouble, and as such is certainly entitled to patronage. These pine lands are
covered with a luxuriant growth of nutritious grass, that with the switch cane
affords good pasturage the year round.
From Hammond I went to New Orleans and west,via the Southern Pacific railroad, through the immense rice and sugar
cane fields of Louisiana 180 miles to Jennings, a new town four years old, the center of a colony from Iowa,with some from
Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Indiana. This is a high rolling prairie country very much like central Illinois and
Iowa, with abundance of timber on the
numerous navigable streams. The timber
is mainly hard pine, (long leaf) and oak of
various kinds. The soil is not so black as
the Iowa prairies, but is a fine chocolate
soil, and quite productive. Rice, sugar
cane, sweet potatoes, peaches, oranges and
figs were the ante-bellum products. Here
were also located some of the largest
herds of cattle and ponies that existed in
the United States, and it is a very paradise
for herdsmen. I never saw a heavier
growth of grass, which makes excellent
hay, or if,left uncut affords abundant pasturage the entire year. If from any cause
the original prairie grass is destroyed, it is
supplanted by a grass called "gazon" a
most valuable grass, possessing the good
qualities of blue grass and orchard grass.
I was told young cattle could be bought
for ?5, and ponies, $5 to ?10, for colts and
yearlings; hogs, Jlto $2 50, and sheep,
Jl 50 to ?1 75. . Hogs are of the razor-back
breed, but get quite fat on acorns, etc., in
My next Btop was at Lake Charles 30
miles further west on the same railroad.
The city of Lake Charles is situated on the
lake of the same name. The lake—the
upper one of a chain of lakes—extending
south 50 miles to the Gulf of Mexico, affords ample passage for steamers and sail
craft from this port to New Orleans and
the rest of the world. When they get the
contemplated air line railroad to Kansas
City finished, this must become an important business center. There are now
twelve large saw mills located on the
borders of the lake, nearly as extensive as
any of those at Minneapolis or St. Anthony, and the timber land on the river
above is said to be inexhaustible. At any
rate the forests are very cxtensive,and the
quality probably unsurpassed in America.
Lake Charles is a city of about 4,000.
The town is near 100 years old, but was a
dull village until within 10 years. Orange
trees have been bearing,without a miss, in
this region since 1812, until two winters
ago, nearly all trees were killed to the
ground—the only injury from cold since
the first planting. Some of the old
trees have sprouted up again, tbe most
have not. Some young trees have been
planted again—not a great many I think.
A few are loaded with fruit.
The eagle eyes of some Northern capitalists saw this Acadian paradise a fow
years ago, and were glad. They obtained
from the Government hundreds of thousand^ of acres of valuable lands, buying
everything that was out doors,lands along
tho railroad for 40 to 50 miles, and farther
north and . south, and then set about attracting northern people to settle here.
They laid off the towns of Jennings and
Welsh, and have prosperous communities
with Northern ideas and Yankee drive-
along the line.
A walk along the streets and through
the gardens of Lake Charles on   Decem
ber 17th afforded a surprise to me.
Winter was supposed to be "on." They
did not expect colder weather than had
already been, and yet tea roses and cape
jasmine were in full bloom, as well as
tuberoses, cannas, salvias, abutilons, etc.
Castor beans 10 feet high in full leaf and
bloom. Great rows of peas four to five
feet high in bloom and fruit. Tomatoes
and egg plant as line as I ev.er saw, in full
bearing. Irish potatoes, the third crop
from same land this season, nearly ready
to dig,very nice potatoes and a good yield.
Sweet potato vines growing as in July.
Oleanders making considerable trees,with
bodies as big as a stovepipe. Marshal
Xeil and other tea roses are perfectly
hardy, and succeed admirably. This is
the homo of the fig, the trees growing like
_  .low-headed  apple
:Y-Y::;:;;-L;Y:;Y trees, and bear good
-.■'li ■"i55'---:-'is^|Y:_ :.; crops every year.   It
YKY :■ is  thought   canning
■;. ;>Y:-'.'"-"■ i.-:".-j.rY Y>Y; ■ and  drying  the  fig.
■ Y:i-:. will become quite an
industry  here.   The
trees   growing  from
cuttings as  easily as
jj currants,   and    bear
the second year.
' A  mile  post   just
west of  the depot at
i^MmJ_UU Ifll Iksb^lilS !-<*ke Charles says 2l<>
T^^^^&^m^,ulles t0 Xew 0r"
egaS&g
leans,  aud    on   the
reverse  2,2/t.  to' Sail "
Francisco.     This   is
'one  ot the   leading
routes from the Eist
to California.
'.   Sunday   morning,
j^j^ the 18th, I started on
23* my  return  to   New
'YYI Orleans,   and   there
bought a round-trip
ticket   to   Chipley,
Florida,  via • Mobile
and  Pensacola.     I
at DeFuniak  Springs
made short stops
and Bonifay, and a good look about Chip-
ley, made me ready to return. I saw
nothing very attractive in Florida. The
land is too sandy to suit me. The Le
Conte pear makes astonishing growths—
single shoots 12 feet in one year sometimes, and the ayerago growth of thousands of trees in orchard that I saw, was
greater than I ever saw elsewhere" Peach
trees do fairly, figs and mulberries very
well; grapes, all that can be desired.
Returning I stopped at two points in
Mississippi on the gulf, that appear to me
a little nearer paradise than anything
reached heretofore. At Ocean Springs I
found the genial Parker Earle,the "Strawberry King of Illinois," for many years
president of American Horticultural Society. Mr. Earle was horticultural director of the two New Orleans expositions,and
made an enviable reputation by his good
influence in those mismanaged concerns.
Mr, Earle purchased 4000 acres near Ocean
Springs, with a fine residence,overlooking
the gulf.and has settled down here,though
he still retains his Illinois fruit farms. I
found him busy making arrangements for
the great horticultural excursion to California this month, and also arranging to
have planted 200 acres of peach orchard
this winter. He says for profitable peach,
grape and fig culture, he has seen no place
in America superior to this, and for
health and comfort, this is unsurpassed.
In proof of the latter feature we need only
to notice that the gulf coast from New Orleans to Mobile wherever the land is not
too low,is occupied with the summer residences of citizens of these two cities, who
do business in town, but have their families in the country during the summer,
breathing the pure salt air from the gulf
and enjoying the fruits that here so
abound in perfection.   A writer familiar
Concluded e>»_ tsape 13. f