W. W. DUSON 
 S BRO.-> 
 
 CROWLttY, La 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 C. L. C R ! P P E N 
 
 uwm 
 
 OF THE 
 
 v% n? 
 
 
^HE OPPORTUNITIES 
 
 You Have Missed, and 
 
 Why You Have 
 
 Missed Th em 
 
 While Others Have 
 Mounted the Crest of the 
 Wave and Are Being Carried 
 On by the Tide to 
 Success and Wealth . . . 
 
 YOU CALL IT CIRCUMSTANCES AND BAD LUCK; 
 WE CALL IT CIRCUMSTANCES AND NERVE, 
 OR THE LACK OF IT 
 
 CROWLEY, LA. 
 
 THE SIGNAL JOB PRINT 
 1895 
 
Nosna m m Nosna o o noh 
 
3 3 o. ^ q („ 3 
 C Ho - 
 
 CIRCUMSTANCES PARAMOUNT 
 
 A 
 
 £ 
 c r 
 
 P 
 
 .0 
 
 PILLED MILK is one of the least things in the world over which, 
 people should lament, nevertheless it requires more philosophy 
 than was ever possessed by a Newton or a Franklin to exemplify' 
 the old adage that we should never regret or cry for it. Ever since 
 the day when Eve ate the apple and Cain killed his brother Abel, from 
 the little boy who didn’t shoot his marble straight, to the great nations- 
 of the earth seeking conquest, all the world has been regretting some- 
 thing — either wishing that they had or that they had not. 
 
 The strongest minds of the world today and of all past ages have 
 been unable at times to stem the overwhelming tide of regrets and re- 
 morse that sweep over the soul as time demonstrates the fallacy of their - 
 reasoning, and the searchlight of truth, investigation and facts cause to- 
 stand out in bold relief the mistakes they have made and the opportu- 
 nities they have lost. They are one and all wont to exclaim, “It 
 might have been.” 
 
 To err is human, to profit by and take advantage of the mistakes of 
 the past shows business sagacity and good sense. Napoleon, when he 
 started out to get a corner on the world, with all his military genius, 
 power and prestige, spurred on by unlawful ambition, deprived himself 
 of liberty and life and the world of one of the most brilliant leaders it 
 ever possessed. He made the fatal mistake of being controlled by a 
 maddening passion for gain and conquest regardless of existing conditions 
 and circumstances, and died like a felon, chained to the rocks of St. 
 Helena. 
 
 Eighteen hundred years ago, with all the evidences and circum- 
 stances pointing toward the authenticity of the Christ, the world made 
 the mistake of crucifying him, and for eighteen hundred years the world 
 has been sorry for it and praying for forgiveness. 
 
 Up to the year 1776 the English Government made the mistake o£ 
 
 cP 
 
 751207 
 
4 
 
 Circumstances Paramount 
 
 pursuing a policy toward the Colonies so unjust in its demands and so 
 oppressive in its nature -that forbearance ceased to be a virtue and 
 the yoke of tyranny was thrown off and England cut off from a large 
 source of her resources, and for one hundred and twenty years she has 
 been sorry that she did not listen to the promptings of common sense and 
 good judgment . 
 
 The Confederate States made a mistake when they seceded from the 
 Union. The bones of thousands of brave officers and soldiers bleached 
 in the sun; men, women and children became homeless paupers, because 
 they could not foresee the inevitable result. 
 
 Great undertakings and enterprises have been launched only to be- 
 come the direst failures because of some fatal mistake in their construc- 
 tion or their management — in fact, mistakes are common to all classes of 
 people. The truly great man is he who is able to see his mistakes, and 
 when convinced of his errors without being prejudiced by his preconceived 
 ideas and beliefs turns his back manfully upon old methods and ideas 
 and sets his face sturdily toward new opportunities and success . It re- 
 quires nothing but bigotry in a man to refuse to listen to reason or to 
 be convinced by well demonstrated facts, and the man that is so firmly 
 fortified in his own opinions that he is not willing to give due credence to 
 the statements and experiences of others is the man who is making a 
 serious mistake. He is letting the golden opportunities slip one by one, 
 while others with less of prejudice and more of nerve puts himself in the 
 way of fortunate circumstances and the one word success tells the 
 story. 
 
 These mjstakes of the past concern the present generation but little, 
 only serving to illustrate the liability of humanity to make them. The 
 history of a nation or a people often repeats itself in the lives of the in- 
 dividual members of the body politic, and one of the hardest problems of 
 life is to determine when we are making mistakes, how to avoid them , 
 and how to take advantage of opportunities offered. It is for the pur- 
 pose of calling your attention to some of the mistakes that you have been 
 making, and pointing out some of the opportunities that are offered you 
 at the present time, that this pamphlet has been issued, and if, by a 
 plain statement of existing' conditions, backed up by facts and evidence 
 that cannot be disputed, we shall have pointed out to some the mistakes 
 they are making and show them the road to success or put them in the 
 way of bettering their condition, then will the work of this pamphlet have 
 been accomplished. 
 
CAUSES OF SUCCESS OR FAILURE 
 
 A GREAT and serious mistake in often made is our conclusions 
 as to the causes of the success or failures of individuals. We 
 are too apt to shut our eyes to the facts of existing conditions 
 and circumstances, and declare that this man is a failure and that man 
 a success regardless of their opportunities or surroundings. As well say 
 the eighteenth century was a failure because it failed to accomplish as 
 much as the present century. If they accomplish less their opportuni- 
 ties are fewer. 
 
 While we do not wish to detract from the credit due to many of our 
 great men, against whom it would seem the most adverse circumstances 
 could not prevail, and who by their will power and wonderful amount of 
 energy with which they have been endowed, have been able to make and 
 control the very circumstances that make the average or ordinary man 
 unsuccessful and failures. Still observation and experience teaches that 
 many other equally as great men have been failures all through their 
 lives owing to their surroundings and conditions. It is the inherent right 
 of every man and woman who labors with honesty and integrity of pur- 
 pose to expect and enjoy success, and no man should labor continuously 
 from year to year for a mere sustenance and be content with his condition. 
 If you have been doing this you have been making the first grand mis- 
 take to which we wish to call your attention. The second mistake you 
 have been making is, you have been working too much and not thinking 
 enough as to the causes of your failures and why you are not successful. 
 To be successful is the grand object in' 1 life, and our success depends not 
 always on our own efforts alone but more often on the opportunities of 
 which we take advantage. The history of most of the wealthy and suc- 
 cessful men of the United States, as well as of other countries, proves 
 that they placed themselves in the way of grand opportunities and then, 
 and then only was their energy rewarded and their efforts crowned with 
 
6 
 
 Causes of Success or Failure 
 
 success. The fundamental principles underlying and requisite to success- 
 are thrift and enterprise, a willingness to work and economize, 
 and then a field in which to labor that offers the advantage of good op- 
 portunities. If you are a manufacturer it is a mistake on your part to- 
 establish yourself where raw material is the most expensive, and where 
 all parts of your business will demand an extra outlay of money to keep- 
 the business running, the same as it would be to keep on manufacturing, 
 goods for which there is no sale. If you are a civil engineer it is a mis- 
 take for you to spend your life driving cattle. If you are a lawyer or a 
 jurist, you are making a mistake if you do not hunt for and find some- 
 place where your services will be appreciated and in demand. If you are 
 a skilled mechanic, you are making a mistake if you do not go to some 
 section of the country where your services are needed to construct build- 
 ings, erect machinery plants, build roads, bridges, etc. If you are a. 
 capitalist with idle means at your command, you have been making a mis- 
 take if you have been hoarding it up in banks or making investments that 
 pay only from three to six per cent, when there are places where money 
 is always in demand at from ten to fifteen per cent yearly interest, and 
 where securities are gilt edge and both principal and interest are absolute- 
 ly safe. If you belong to the great class of agriculturists you are 
 making a mistake if you longer continue to cultivate the hard and rocky 
 soil of the Eastern States where the possibility of amassing a competency 
 is as a chance of one hundred to one against you; and you are making a 
 mistake if you go to or longer remain in the Western States and Terri- 
 tories, where for the past five years farming has been a desperate gambl- 
 ing game with blizzards, drouths, hail storms and cyclones, with the- 
 chances largely against the tillers of the soil — where even under the most 
 favorable circumstances, owing to the overproduction of all classes of 
 agricultural products indigenous to northern climates, and consequent 
 low prices that have for years prevailed, the very most you can hope to* 
 do is to hold your own. We say you are making a mistake if you longer 
 continue to fight the battles where the odds are so heavily against you, 
 when by investigating you can find a place where all of the odds and op- 
 portunities will be as much in your favor as they have been against you 
 heretofore. 
 
 The opportunity! Will you embrace it, or will you join the vast 
 throng who in after years will be crying for the “milk that has been. 
 
Causes of Success or Failure 
 
 7 
 
 spilled” and regretting the chances they have missed? You have made 
 ithe mistake in the past of not keeping your eyes open for some grand op- 
 portunity that would have placed you on the Jiighway to success ; or you have 
 lacked the nerve to strike when the iron was hot and invest a few dollars 
 where the laws of supply and demand and the inevitable result of natural 
 resources would cause them to multiply and increase an hundred fold. 
 No truer declaration was ever made than, “There is a time in the affairs 
 •.of men which, taken at the tide, leads on to fortune.” 
 
 To the man who has money and is seeking a safe investment where 
 securities are gilt edge, and the returns in profit and interest sure to be 
 large, we say that time in your affairs has come. Will you take it at the 
 tide? 
 
 To the many thousands of farmers throughout the West and North- 
 west who have suffered defeat year after year, with possibly a partial suc- 
 cess once in three or four years just to excite false hopes and to lead you 
 to financial ruin. To those who have diligently plowed, harrowed and 
 planted year after year and have reaped little else than mortgages and 
 disappointment, and who would like to find homes in a country where a 
 crop failure was never known — where there are no cyclones, blizzards or 
 hail storms; where cheap homes may be secured, and where with ordinary 
 intelligence and .care the agriculturist each year is enabled to lay by a 
 . snug sum for the support and comfort of their families when old age comes 
 creeping on, we say your opportunity has come. Lay aside your pre- 
 judices and investigate the facts. 
 
 To the business men who are being crowded to the wall by competi- 
 tion and crop failures and their consequent inability to meet their obli- 
 gations: If you are seeking a place where all lines of business are good 
 ;and where all investments are paying splendid returns — in fact, if you 
 •.wish to find where the most prosperous section of the United states is to- 
 vday — where the opportunities lie that if taken advantage of are sure to 
 ilead to success, we say, the time is at hand. To all classes who are not 
 satisfied with their lot, who are honest and industrious, we say stop your 
 < digging for gold where it does not exist. The time has come and the chances 
 . and opportutiity of a lifetime are now offered. 
 
NATURE’S DOWERY. 
 
 T IS a well known fact, and a matter of history, that previous to-' 
 I the civil war that wrecked the Southern States, both financially 
 and industrially, they led the American continent in the production 
 of wealth. No section of the country at that time attempted to com- 
 pare or compete with them with what in those days seemed collossal and 
 gigantic enterprises and undertakings. It was in the Southern States 
 that many of the brainiest men of America were born and raised. It 
 was in the Southern States that the largest charitable institutions were 
 maintained. They possessed the largest plantations, the most elegant 
 homes and it was there that civilization, culture and refinement found 
 its cradling place and spread as from a common center in every direc- 
 tion until its influence was felt all over the land. It would be well for us 
 to stop for a moment and look for the cause of this prosperity. It can 
 be found with but little searching. It was emblazoned all over the 
 Southern States. From their geographical location, from climatic con- 
 ditions, and from the thousands of natural resources and advantages 
 hey possessed over other sections, they were the lap of luxury 
 into which all other sections should pour tribute. The history of 
 the bitter struggle for four long years and its termination in which the 
 Southern States lost their all, their capital, their slaves, their homes 
 and their credit, with millions of people thrown back on their own re- 
 sources, is fresh in the minds of many, and it naturally took fifteen long 
 years to get the Southern people back to that condition where they were 
 prepared to go to work intelligently to recover their fallen fortunes. 
 The rapidity with which they have recovered during the past fifteen 
 years from the effects of burned cities, wasted plantations and utter de- 
 vastation and ruin challenges the admiration of the world and brings 
 prominently before the honest inquirer again* the fact of their many 
 natural resources and advantages. 
 
 The evidences of prosperity today to be seen all over the Southern 
 States and the results that have been accomplished in the past ten or 
 
Nature’s Dowery. 
 
 9 
 
 fifteen years, stand as a living monument and witness to the fertility of 
 the soil, the healthfulness of the climate and the valuableness of its tim- 
 ber and its mineral and other unlimited resources, and proves conclu- 
 sively that the South possesses all the requirements necessary for the 
 upbuilding and maintenance of a great commonwealth in a greater de- 
 gree than any other section of the United States. Neither the East nor 
 the West, or any section of the North could have accomplished what the 
 South has accomplished in the last ten years under the same conditions 
 and circumstances. While the Southern States as a whole are exceed- 
 ingly rich in fertile agricultural lands, in their inexhaustible supply of 
 coal and mineral, and in their untouched forests of valuable timber, still 
 all sections of it have not been treated alike in the distribution of 
 nature’s wealth and blessings. No matter into what country or state 
 you may go, North, South, East or West, some particular section will 
 be found to have been favored to a greater extent than others. Some 
 particular section may excel in the fertility of its soil, some for the manu- 
 facturing opportunities it offers, others as a stock or fruit country. Some 
 possess a source of wealth in its climate, some are made rich by the 
 value of its timber and water courses, but what shall be said of the 
 value of the section possessing all of these advantages combined. 
 You can find them in Louisiana. The Dakotas for small grain, Minne- 
 sota, Michigan and Wisconsin for lumber, Kansas and Nebraska, Illinois 
 and Iowa for cattle, hogs and corn, Florida and California for fruit and 
 climate, and Louisiana for all of them. 
 
 Lying in the southwest portion of the State of Louisiana is what is 
 known as the prairie region of the State, and if there is one spot upon 
 the face of all the earth where the Creator and all nature have united in 
 lavishing their gifts it is here in this section. If there is one section of 
 country in all this broad land where the people fear not the floods nor 
 the drouths; where the talk of cyclones and blizzards are as an unknown 
 tongue; where the chintz bugs and the grasshoppers have never played 
 havoc with the husbandman’s prospects, and where each year the farmer 
 has never failed to make an abundant crop, it is here in Southwest 
 Louisiana. If there is one fault that can be charged to this section it 
 is that it was not made large enough. 
 
 Bordering on the Gulf of Mexico and extending back a distance of 
 seventy-five miles and beginning on the west side of the Vermilion River, 
 and extending west one hundred miles, covering an area of between 
 
IO 
 
 Nature’s Dowery 
 
 seven and eight thousand square miles, and containing about five mil- 
 lion acres is a country of great natural beauty, and one the tourist or 
 traveler never forgets when once he has visited or seen it. No land- 
 scape artist can correctly portray the natural beauty of this prairie land; 
 or we might well say of this woodland country with its undulating 
 prairies, its great bodies of timber, its navigable streams and its climate 
 that is the envy of the world. Add to this the possibilities that present 
 themselves when one investigates the advantages and opportunities 
 offered, and then form an estimate of the value of these lands for a home 
 or a field in which to labor. There are several important features upon 
 which those seeking homes in a new country should post themselves be- 
 fore locating. The chief of these is the healthfulness of a climate, its 
 liability to epidemics, the longevity of its citizens — whether the profits 
 of the year’s labors are to find their way into the pockets of the prac- 
 ticing physician and patent medicine vendor, while the poor victim 
 drags out a miserable existance. Good health all are seeking to gain or 
 to keep. For it a man will hunt in every corner of the globe, from the 
 highest peaks in the Rockies to the low lands of the coast country; 
 from the rock-ribbed shores of Maine to the flowering fields of the 
 orient. No time or expense is too great, no distance too long to over- 
 come to find health. For it we become exiles from home, families and 
 friends; for it we go barefooted in winter and wear woolen boots and 
 wooden shoes in summer; for it we freeze ourselves in high, cold al- 
 titudes and boil our poor bodies in the Hot Springs of Arkansas. It is 
 the one priceless boon and best gift of God to man. 
 
 No sane man will risk the life, health and happiness of himself and 
 his family where the chances are that they will be striken with disease. 
 If there is a healthy place on earth find it. 
 
 No state in the Union has been maligned in this respect to a greater 
 degree than has Louisiana. You have been taught to believe that 
 Louisiana was one vast swamp, and that these swamps were continu- 
 ously giving off a poisonous vapor charged and filled with germs of ma- 
 laria, typhoid and yellow fevers; that only the man born and raised 
 here, or the negro, could withstand the deadly effects of this Southern 
 climate. You have been told that the burning rays of this almost trop- 
 ical sun would soften the brain, parch the skin and set the very blood to 
 boiling in ones veins, especially if he came from the North. It would be 
 
Nature’s Dowery 
 
 i i 
 
 hard to tell who told you so, or where you got the impression from, or 
 to give any good and plausible reason as to why it should be so, and yet 
 you have made the mistake all these years of believing it without inves- 
 tigating the facts. If there is one city in the State of Louisiana that 
 would naturally have a higher death rate than others, owing to its situ- 
 ation below the level of the Mississippi river, and to its mixed population 
 and their manner of living, it is the city of New Orleans; but bad as 
 would seem it ought to be, we will compare it with other cities of this 
 and other countries, and then accept the record it sustains as a basis 
 from which to calculate the health conditions of Southwest Louisiana. 
 We only ask that the usual difference between a crowded city, largely 
 made up of a foreign population, and the open prairie country be credited 
 to our account. 
 
 For the comparison and statistics herein furnished we are largely 
 indebted to Prof. J. Hanno Deiler, of the Tulane University, and to the 
 United States Census Bureau of vital statistics, which places the death 
 rate per thousand among the 'white people of Louisiana at 15.12. The 
 
 rate in other states is : 
 
 Maryland 16.08 
 
 Delaware 16.47 
 
 New Mexico 16.82 
 
 New Hampshire 17.43 
 
 Connecticut 18.97 
 
 District of Columbia 19.67 
 
 Massachusetts 19.89 
 
 New York State 20.04 
 
 New Jersey 20.44 
 
 Rhode Island 21.55 
 
 From the above it will be seen that none of the states mentioned can 
 compare with Louisiana in the way of a low death rate. Who would 
 have the effrontery to say that New York state with its elegant and com- 
 fortable homes, with its millions of money with which to purchase all the 
 necessities and luxuries of life; or that Massachusetts with its Puritan 
 ways, and where the masses are educated in the science of hygiene and 
 correct living, are unhealthy, and yet they are extremely so as compared 
 with Louisiana. 
 
 In regard to the principal causes of death it may be said that the most 
 dreaded disease of all is consumption. It is a well known fact that thou- 
 
12 
 
 Nature’s Dowery 
 
 sands in the davanced stages of this disease annually come South for the 
 possible benefit they may receive, and to escape the rigors of a Northern 
 winter. New Orleans being the metropolis of the South naturally catches 
 a large proportion of these invalids, and yet New Orleans with this sur- 
 plus of consumptives is able to more than hold her own with many of the 
 other healthy cities of the land. Of all the deaths that occur in New 
 Orleans only 12. 10 percent are caused by consumption, while other cities 
 
 stand as follows: 
 
 Boston 15*15 
 
 New York 13.53 
 
 Louisville, Ky 12.89 
 
 Chicago, 111 17.66 
 
 San Francisco, Cal 18.92 
 
 St. Paul, Minn 16.08 
 
 Providence, R. L 13.57 
 
 While the German Empire has 12.70 
 
 Belgium 18.20 
 
 Russia 19.60 
 
 The next greatest mortality is caused by diarrhoeal disease. New 
 Orleans also makes an excellent showing when compared to other large 
 cities of the United States, with a low rate of 10.37 P er cent of all deaths 
 occurring from this cause, while other large cities stand as follows: 
 
 New York 10.52 
 
 Detroit 11.27 
 
 Baltimore 12.40 
 
 St. Paul 13*52 
 
 St. Louis 14.02 
 
 Chicago 14.09 
 
 Pneumonia is the next of the deadly foes of mankind, and is one of 
 the most dangerous diseases that medical science and skill have to com- 
 bat. Here again New Orleans holds and sustains the record she has made 
 as a healthy city and easily takes precedence among the large cities of 
 America, comparing favorably with many foreign countries where this 
 disease is almost unknown. The statistics of the different cities and 
 
 countries prove as follows: 
 
 New Orleans 
 
 St. Louis 
 
 Chicago 
 
 Cincinnati 
 
 4*97 
 
 7*39 
 
 8.85 
 
 9*39 
 
Nature’s Ddwery 
 
 i3 
 
 Boston 10. 13 
 
 New York 1 1.03 
 
 The German Empire 4.00 
 
 Belgium 4. 50 
 
 England 5.10 
 
 Italy 5.40 
 
 Holland 5. 70 
 
 Scandinavia 7.10 
 
 Russia 11.50 
 
 If there is one ghostly apparation that the intelligent and honest 
 upholder of Louisiana health condition meets at every turn it is the cry 
 of, “Malaria, malaria! You cannot live in Louisiana on account of 
 malaria.” You have been taught to believe that the inhabitants of the 
 State are living walking skeletons, that their bones rattle and shake with 
 ague, that the peach trees shake off their fruit and that potatoes shake 
 themselves out of the ground — that there can hardly be found room to 
 bury the victims of malerial fevers. You could never make a 
 mistake in your life than accept such belief. 
 
 The United States statistics show that during the last census year 
 there died in the city of New Orleans only 292 persons from malarial 
 fever, or only one person in eight hundred and twenty-eight, making 
 malarial diseases responsible for only 4.26 per cent of the total deaths. 
 This is an exceedingly low rate when one remembers that out of every 
 hundred deaths in France, seven are caused by typhoid fever, and out 
 of every hundred deaths in Germany, four and a half are from the same 
 cause, and yet one would not protest against their family or friends locat- 
 ing in France or Germany on account of typhoid fever. In the town 
 of Crowley, La., which is the center of the prairie district and has a 
 population of over 2,000, there have been but five deaths in eight years 
 from malarial diseases. 
 
 We will next call your attention to the percentage of fatalities by 
 typhoid fever, and here again New Orleans stands at the head with a 
 smaller percentage of deaths from this wasting disease than any other 
 American city in the land. The comparison with other cities stand as 
 
 follows: 
 
 New Orleans 65 
 
 Baltimore 1.87 
 
 San Francisco 2.35 
 
 Philadelphia 3.24 
 
14 
 
 Nature’s Dowery 
 
 Chicago 3*42 
 
 Louisville, Ky 3*47 
 
 St. Paul 4.10 
 
 Pittsburg 5.83 
 
 Omaha 4.02 
 
 New York 3*98 
 
 The German Empire 4.50 
 
 Belgium 4.60 
 
 Russia 4.80 
 
 France 7.00 
 
 The yellow fever scare used to be another great source of talk in the 
 .Northern states, but during the past seventeen years in which there has 
 mot been a single case in the State of Louisiana we have not heard so much 
 about it. It used to be considered indigenous to Louisiana, but this is a 
 mistake. Yellow fever is never found within the State unless imported 
 from some infected southern port. The old idea that the germs of the 
 disease remained in our soil and were bred in the natural conditions of 
 our climate have long since been exploded. The city of New Orleans 
 and the State of Louisiana are in no more danger from yellow fever 
 than the city of New York or Boston, and with the splendid quarantine 
 system inaugurated by Dr. Holt the people of Louisiana never give the 
 subject a thought. 
 
 Now, taking New Orleans as a basis from which to figure the health 
 conditions of the State, it will be seen that Louisiana ranks among the first 
 states of the Union as a desirable place in which to live. If this open 
 prairie country of the southern portion of the State had its just dues in 
 comparison with New Orleans it would probably make a showing thirty - 
 three and one-third per cent better than the city. 
 
 The above statistics and figures are facts that none can gainsay, 
 and are the result of Government investigation, and while they may be 
 a source of surprise to many they are nevertheless true. Yet while 
 they are correct and easily verified, there are many doubting Thomases 
 who will not investigate, but still dispute and deny them. 
 
CLIMATE OF LOUISIANA 
 
 C LIMATIC CONDITION is an important point on which the* 
 prospective immigrant should be enlightened. Extremes of heat; 
 and cold are the most serious obstacles in the way of many other- 
 wise prosperous sections. They are not only a source of annoyance and 
 hardship within themselves but far reaching in their detrimental results. 
 History and experience teaches that the highest forms of life, and the 
 greatest development in the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms 
 have been found in the warmer climates and southern countries, and 
 vice versa. For the pigmies in animal life, both intellectually and 
 physically, go to the ice-bound coasts of Lapland or Iceland or other - 
 countries of the far north. One of the most important requirements 
 for a desirable and advantageous climate is an evenness of temperature. 
 To this end the extreme difference between the hottest and the coldest 
 
 weather should not be great; in other words, choose such climates as are 
 subject to the least range of temperature, always avoiding sudden 
 changes and great extremes. It is the sudden changes in temperature 
 that are largely responsible for the excessively high death rate from 
 pneumonia and catarrhal diseases throughout the Northern states, and 
 from which Louisiana and other Southern states are so free. 
 
 From the United States Weather Bureau we find that for the year 
 1894, ending September 1, that the difference between the hottest and. 
 
 the coldest day of the year was: 
 
 New Orleans 84 
 
 Pennsacola, Fla 84 
 
 Sacramento, Cal 89 
 
 Jacksonville, Fla 89 
 
 Mobile, Ala 90 
 
 Atlanta, Ga 102 
 
 Montgomery, Ala 102 
 
 New York City 106 
 
Climate of Louisiana. 
 
 i7 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 Baltimore 
 
 Little Rock 
 
 Memphis 
 
 Santa Fe 
 
 Nashville 
 
 Portland, Me 
 
 Boston : 
 
 Pittsburg \ 
 
 Cincinnati 
 
 Chicago 
 
 Columbus, Ohio 
 
 Louisville, Ky 
 
 St. Louis, Mo 
 
 Denver, Colo 
 
 Des Moines, Iowa 
 
 Dubuque, Iowa 
 
 Leavenworth, Kan 
 
 Omaha, Neb 
 
 St. Paul, Minn 
 
 Yankton, Dak 
 
 Valentine, Neb 
 
 Ft. Bradford, N. Dak 
 
 St. Vincent, Minn 
 
 Roplae River, Mont 
 
 107 
 
 108 
 108 
 1 10 
 1 10 
 
 114 
 1 r 4 
 
 115 
 
 115 
 
 1 16 
 123 
 123 
 
 125 
 
 128 
 134 
 i34 
 T 34 
 136 
 138 
 I 4 I 
 1 4 1 
 
 144 
 
 156 
 
 157 
 i 73 
 
 From the above it will be seen that Louisiana has a uniform tem- 
 
 perature, and that it leads all of the states in the eveness of its climate. 
 The old theory and impression that the further south you go the 
 hotter it gets is an erroneous one. The further south you go the more 
 hot or warm weather you have, but not the extreme heat. 
 
 Again we must refer to statistics ' furnished by the United States 
 Weather Bureau. During the year 1894 the highest temperature re- 
 corded in various cities was: 
 
 New Orleans 99 
 
 Chicago 100 
 
 Milwaukee, Wis 100 
 
 St. Paul, Minn 100 
 
 La Crosse, Wis 101 
 
 San Diego, Cal 101 
 
 Philadelphia 102 
 
 Baltimore 102 
 
i8 
 
 Climate of Louisiana 
 
 Boston 102 
 
 Columbus, Ohio 103 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio 104 
 
 Louisville, Ky 105 
 
 St. Louis 106 
 
 Omaha, Neb 106 
 
 Leavenworth, Kan 107 
 
 North Platte, Neb 107 
 
 Ft. Bradford, N. Dak 107 
 
 Yankton, Dak 107 
 
 Sacramento, Cal 108 
 
 Red Bluff, Cal 114 
 
 Yuma, Ariz 118 
 
 The above statistics are sufficient to show that Louisiana does not 
 have the excessive heat that has-been accredited to it. Now as to the 
 low temperature. It is a well known fact Louisiana has no winter to 
 speak ot and only twice in twenty years has sufficient snow fallen to cover 
 the ground. Ice seldom forms, the average winter temperature being 
 about 68 to 70 degrees, while in most of the other cities mentioned the 
 mercuy falls so far below zero in winter that it goes out of sight and 
 there is no use looking for it. The climate of Southwest Louisiana is one 
 of the most delightful in the world, both winter and summer. Being a 
 prairie country and only thirty miles from-the Gulf of Mexico it enjoys a. 
 delightful breeze day and night, which tempers the heat of summer and 
 the cold of winter. Northern men are able to work out of doors during 
 the hottest weather of the summer without inconvenience, and while we 
 are continually hearing of heat prostration and sun strokes throughout 
 the North and West such a thing has never been heard of in Southwest 
 Louisiana. The warmest time of day is from 6 to 8 o’clock in the morn- 
 ing, after which hours the gulf breeze springs up and renders the balance 
 of the day moderately cool and pleasant. 
 
 The precipitation of moisture is an important factor in considering 
 the value or the desirableness of a climate, as one cannot live on climate 
 alone, though it may be the only recommendation that some sections 
 have to offer. To have a desireable climate, there must be sufficient mois- 
 ture for the successful growing and maturing of all such crops as are in- 
 digenous to that. particular section, and this should be evenly distributed 
 throughout the entire year. Deliver us from a country where the burning 
 
Climate of Louisiana 
 
 19 
 
 rays of Old Sol blisters your back and burns up vegetation for six months 
 in succession without rain or clouds, and then for the balance of the year 
 hides his face behind a bank of fog and drizzling mist or a steady down 
 pour of rain. 
 
 The annual rainfall of Louisiana is quite evenly distributed 
 throughout every month in the year. A wise Creator has arranged it 
 thus to meet the necessity of agricultural pursuits which are carried on 
 the entire twelve months. Louisiana, as compared to other states, does 
 not suffer from drouths, her average annual rainfall being 64 inches, 
 
 with other states as follows: 
 
 Oregon 49 
 
 Missouri 48 
 
 Kentucky 46 
 
 Indiana 44 
 
 Illinois 43 
 
 Ohio 41 
 
 Kansas 38 
 
 Michigan 37 
 
 Iowa 37 
 
 Nebraska 33 
 
 Wisconsin 32 
 
 Minnesota 32 
 
 South Dakota 27 
 
 California 27 
 
 North Dakota 19 
 
 Arizona 16 
 
 Montanna 15 
 
 Idaho 13 
 
 Wyoming 11 
 
 Now, when one considers that California, Oregon and Washington, 
 each are as dry as a powder house during all of the summer months with 
 what rainfall they have coming during the winter; and when we consider 
 that the precipitation of moisture throughout the states of Michigan, 
 Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois 
 and all of the other Northern states largely comes to them in the form 
 of snow and ice during the winter months when the ground is frozen and 
 cannot take care of it, we cannot help but see the cause for so many 
 crop failures from drouths. If we stop to think we must certainly ap- 
 
20 
 
 Climate of Louisiana 
 
 preciate the advantage that Louisiana offers with her 64 inches of rain- 
 fall evenly distributed throughout the year. 
 
 SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA may be divided into two grand divisions. 
 One, the prairie lands, all of which are rich agricultural lands well 
 adapted to the growing and maturing of* all crops indigenous to a semi- 
 tropical country; and the woodlands or forests, covered with an abund- 
 ance of valuable timber of many varieties, such as are found only in 
 the semi-tropics. Among the many crops that here reach the highest 
 state of perfection may be mentioned cotton, sugar cane, corn, oats, 
 rice, millet, broom corn, tobacco, sweet and Irish potatoes, as well as 
 all kinds of vegetables and fruits of nearly every variety. No better 
 soil or climate can be found on the American Continent for vegetable 
 farming or truck gardening. Here all of the conditions necessary for 
 the successful carrying on of this industry will be found — a soil and 
 climate which renders the production of two crops a year not only a 
 possibility, but a certainty if given proper care and attention. In the 
 center of this prairie district is the famous and popular young parish, 
 or county of Acadia. We say famous because no section of the United 
 States during the past five years has attracted more attention or pro- 
 voked more favorable comment. The parish of Acadia was set off from 
 the old parish of St. Landry in October, 1886. Previous to this time 
 this section was but little known, and had made no advancement for 
 fifty years. Acadia parish embraces 640 square miles, or 409,800 acres, 
 three fourths of which are rolling agricultural lands or level rice fields. 
 The balance, or one fourth of the parish, is heavily timbered with pine, 
 cypress, ash, oak, hickory, magnolia, holly and gum, of which there are 
 several varieties. It is seldom you can find so large a scope of country 
 of 640 square miles of land with hardly an acre waste land — in it no 
 swamps or bogs, no hills, no rocks or stones, with every square inch of 
 territory as valuable as land can be in a country with a magnificent 
 climate and where the fertility of the soil is unsurpassed. 
 
THE RICE INDUSTRY. 
 
 A CADIA PARISH is in the center of the great rice raising district 
 of Louisiana and the degree of success that has been attained 
 and the enormous profits derived from this industry have made 
 the parish famous all over the United States. As the rice industry- 
 has done most for this section of country and stands first in monetary 
 value, it shall receive first attention at our hands. 
 
 An erroneous impression has always existed as to the manner of rais- 
 ing rice. 
 
 Throughout the Northern states the idea prevails that rice is raised 
 altogether in swamps, and that land suited to the culture of rice must be 
 valueless for other purposes. Our old geography was largely responsible 
 for this idea. The writer well remembers the pictures displayed in these 
 old school books, showing the natives of Louisiana gathering rice in boats 
 and hauling it to dry land, usually with a huge alligator or crocodile fal- 
 lowing in the wake of the boat ready to swallow the largest membeWbf 
 the party should he chance to fall overboard. This may have beettifrhe 
 custom, and may still be in some of the Southern Islands, busftasfsbof 
 Louisiana know of no such method of raising rice in our States! iWwc^et 
 along very nicely without the boat or the alligator. .nhsib saw 
 
 The only thing required to raise rice in Southwest LouisJaamlis t^qel 
 ground, and water enough to flood it. Rice is a cereal plaids qfithbaQryjza 
 family, and is a native of China, Japan and many of, 
 lands. To a large extent it forms the staple article of 
 tries, and when properly cooked and prepared it isjy^y oPH&r i^o^ -&pd 
 is easily digested. There are many varieties of ric^rjtji^^tgie^g^heat or 
 other small grain, each having its own peculiarity-^ rFM'M^s sy^igh^pe 
 and value, due no doubt to the different countries! tyoha/ \tfe^amd^qoj^s. 
 The commercial names of the most popular ivkrfetidslfaow in//uisieliii(t)he 
 United States are the Honduras, Carolina-^ TbThi c'aS’dal 
 
22 
 
 The Rice Industry 
 
 observer these rices may all look alike, still there is a marked difference. 
 The Honduras is much the longer and broader kernel and derives its 
 name from the fact that the seed originally came from Honduras. The 
 Carolina rice is a smaller kernel than the Honduras and requires less 
 water for its cultivation. It is known as the Carolina from the fact that 
 it has been raised in the Carolinas for many years, being the best adapted 
 to that soil and clirhate, and it is often raised on dry upland without 
 flooding, the crop being planted in rows and cultivated like corn. The 
 Japan variety is a shorter berry than either of the other varieties and is 
 also much larger in circumference, and while the straw is much finer and 
 shorter the yield is more prolific and brings a higher price. 
 
 For the growing and successful maturity of rice it requires a pe- 
 culiarity of soil and climate that is found nowhere in the United States 
 in such a marked degree as here in Southwest Louisiana. The land is 
 prepared the same as for wheat or other small grain and the seed then 
 sown broadcast or in drills, about one and one fourth bushels being 
 used to the acre. When the crop comes up it resembles nothing so much 
 as a Dakota wheat field, the blades when first appearing being identical 
 in shape and color with wheat. Level land or that as nearly so as possi- 
 ble should be selected for a rice farm. Before the crop is planted levees 
 are thrown up around the fields for the purpose of holding water on them. 
 This work is usually done with large levee plows made for the purpose. 
 When the rice is from six to twelve inches in height it should be flooded 
 with water. In the early history of the industry the natural rainfall was 
 depended upon for this purpose and rice was only planted upon the 
 lowest lands, using the higher lands for watersheds from which the water 
 was drained into the rice fields; but as rice raising depends upon a sup- 
 ply of water there was always a degree of uncertainty that rendered the 
 possibility of a failure or partial failure not improbable. Especially was 
 this so in view of the large profits that were being made and the conse- 
 quent temptation on the part of planters to encroach upon higher lands in 
 order to raise more rice. 
 
 Today all of this has been changed by a well regulated system of ir- 
 rigation. Streams are dammed up, canals are made and large pumping 
 plants erected which supply water to the highest lands on the prairies. 
 Of this we shall treat later in these pages. Rice should be flooded at 
 from two to twelve inches and kept flooded during all of the growing sea- 
 
The Rice Industry 
 
 23 
 
 son until the heads have become filled and the crop begins to ripen, when 
 the levees are cut and the water allowed to run off, thus giving the ground 
 time to dry and harden before harvesting. The harvest season does not 
 differ from the harvesting of wheat or oats in the Northern states. After 
 cutting the rice is allowed to stand in the shock from two to three weeks 
 before stacking, as owing to the excessive amount of moisture in the 
 straw it takes longer to dry out than other grain. The crop is harvested 
 at the same expense and in the same manner with self-binding harvesters 
 as other small grain. The yield is about three times that of wheat. It 
 is threshed by the steam thresher and is put in large sacks holding about 
 four bushels, when it is ready for market. 
 
 Under favorable conditions it produces from twelve to eighteen bar- 
 rels per acre, the average price for the past seven years being $3 per 
 barrel. A barrel consists of 162 pounds, which gives considerable over 
 $3.00 per sack, as the sacks when properly filled weigh from 180 to 200 
 pounds. The rice then goes to the mill to be milled and dressed, fit for 
 consumption. The milling of rice is an interesting process and one 
 from which the miller derives large profits. The rice is first passed 
 through the fanner for better cleaning, which blows out all of the chaff 
 and light kernals. The grain then goes to the millstones which re- 
 semble the ordinary stones for grinding wheat. These stones are set far 
 enough apart to prevent the rice from being broken, or just close 
 enough to crack the hull. Another fan blows these hulls away, after 
 which 'the rice goes to the pounders, consisting of large egg-shaped 
 morters made of steel, in the center of which are iron pestles that keep 
 the rice constantly agitated. This process lasts from forty minutes to 
 one hour and a half. The constant friction of one grain against the 
 other wears off the outer cuticle of the berry and makes the grains 
 smooth and white. It then goes to the reels and separators where the 
 bran is separated from the rice, after which it is passed through the 
 brushes. These are made of sheep skin with the wool left on the skins, 
 which are nailed on to a perpendicular shaft that revolves at a rapid 
 rate, and the rice falling down from the second story becomes thoroughly 
 brushed and polished while passing through this brush. The clean 
 product then goes to the graders where it is usually separated into four 
 grades, the head rice or whole grains being barreled separately and 
 always bringing the top of the market. Then there are grades number 
 
24 
 
 The Rice Industry 
 
 one and two which are sold for lower prices, and then the screenings 
 which are sold to the brewer for brewing purposes. Rice makes an ex- 
 cellent quality of beer and brewers are always in the market for all they 
 can get at good figures. 
 
 A barrel of 162 pounds of rough rice is supposed to mill out 100 
 pounds of clean rice. The bran and polish are worth fully enough to 
 pay for the cost of milling. The bran is the outside cuticle of the berry 
 after the hull is taken off. This product is made by the pounders dur- 
 ing the scouring process. The bran sells readily at from $8.00 to 
 $ 12.00 per ton, and makes a rich and nutricious food for stock and is 
 always in good demand. What is known as rice polish comes from the 
 brushing department, and is as fine as wheat flour. It resembles 
 buckwheat flour and is largely used for bread, hot cakes, etc. It sells 
 for from $14.00 to $18.00 per ton. 
 
 The history of the development of the rice industry in Southwest 
 Louisiana is an interesting one, and dates back to the days of the early 
 settlement of this section by the decendants of the Acadians who raised 
 it in small patches for their own consumption. The rice was harvested 
 with sickles or reap hooks and was threshed out with flails by hand. The 
 hulls were then removed by putting the rice in wooden morters, usually 
 a section of oak log placed on end which had been scalloped out. Two 
 wooden pestles, one in each hand, were used for pounding the grain. 
 After the hulls had been removed it was poured from one dish into 
 another and fanned by the wind until the hulls were blown away. This 
 old primitive method may still be found in use among some of the native 
 French people of this section at the present time. 
 
 Rice was first raised for the market by the German settlers in the 
 northern part of what is now Acadia parish in the year 1875, but owing 
 to the distance from town and the transportation facilities, poor roads, 
 etc., only small fields were planted. Not until the year 1886, when St. 
 Landry parish was divided and the new parish of Acadia created, and 
 the new town of Crowley started, did the industry amount to much and 
 flourish. About this time began the immigration movement, and with it 
 the growth of the rice industry, and from that day to the present time 
 the march of progress has been swift and rapid. The development of 
 this industry has carried every other branch of business on with it to 
 success, until at the present time Acadia parish stands before the 
 
The Rice Industry 
 
 25 
 
 world in the most enviable light of any parish or county in any agri- 
 cultural state in the Union. To such a degree of success has the in- 
 dustry grown that from Maine to California, from Florida to the great 
 lakes on the north, men are daily inquiring, “How can I obtain a rice 
 farm in Acadia?” So often has come this cry that during the past few 
 years ten thousand people from the Northern and Western States have 
 found homes in this prairie section of Louisiana, the most of whom are 
 raising rice today. These people were nearly all poor when they came, 
 many of them without means, depending on their daily labor for bread, 
 and today they are independent — they own their own farms, which are 
 well stocked with Northern horses and mules, new and improved ma - 
 chinery; ride in their own carriages, are out of debt and ready to rent 
 their farms and live comfortably on half their income. 
 
 There is probably no industry in any agricultural country that has 
 rewarded those engaged in it with such large returns as rice raising. 
 Among the many inducements and advantages it has to offer the planter 
 are the quickness of the returns, the smallness of the outlay and capital 
 invested, the reasonable security against loss or failure, and the large 
 returns for the time and labor expended. It is the practical questions of 
 every day life that stare the immigrant in the face, and that must be 
 answered at once, especially if he has little money. Bread and butter 
 must be had, and he cannot wait for stock to grow up and mature, 
 neither can he wait for fruit trees to come into bearing. This year’s, 
 expenses must be met. Plant a rice crop in April or May and in August 
 or September you have the returns for the year’s labor in your pocket, 
 as it requires only five or six months to plant, grow, harvest and thresh 
 the crop. The outlay for the production of a crop is not large when 
 one considers the returns. It costs less to plant an acre of land in 
 Louisiana than it does in Illinois, Indiana, or Iowa. The cost of seed- 
 ing, harrowing, etc., are the same, harvesting a little more than wheat, 
 as the crop is heavier and fields smaller; threshing less per bushel than 
 wheat, because the yield is larger. 
 
 We shall take as an example the immigrant who lands in Acadia 
 parish and wishes to buy a rice farm of say 160 acres: 
 
 160 acres will cost him at $15 $2400.00 
 
 Houses and stables 500.00 
 
 55 barrels seed rice at $3 165.00 
 
26 
 
 The Rice Industry 
 
 Hired man six months at $ 20.00 120.00 
 
 Two spans mules and harness at $275.00 550.00 
 
 Wagon and machinery 250.00 
 
 Feed for team 125.00 
 
 Board for hired man six months 72.00 
 
 Fencing 250.00 
 
 2,240 empty rice sacks at 7cts 156.00 
 
 Threshing 2,240 sacks at iocts 224.00 
 
 Other expense threshing 100.00 
 
 $4,912.00 
 
 And now for the returns. One hundred and sixty acres of rice at 
 fifteen barrels per acre would be 2,240 sacks, and this is no more than 
 any one-fourth section of land in Acadia parish should produce if well 
 watered. The average price of $3.00 per sack would bring a gross in- 
 come ot $7,200.00. This would leave the farmer, after paying for his 
 farm, fencing and building his house, barns, buying teams, seed, and 
 machinery and all other expenses necessary on a farm of this size, 
 $2,288.00. It will be noticed that we have been v^ry liberal in our es- 
 timation of expenses. Many of the items might be reduced consider- 
 ably, thus showing larger profits; for instance a $300.00 house would do, 
 mules at $150.00 a span would answer instead of $275^00 mules, but as 
 it is our desire to show the average probable results instead of making 
 fancy figures, we have taken a conservative view of results and made a 
 liberal estimate of expenses. 
 
 Show us any section of country today in these hard times when all 
 over this broad land farms are being sold for taxes and interest on 
 mortages, where the farmer is enabled to lay by enough each year to 
 pay for his farm; show us any section of the country where the inhabit- 
 ants are satisfied and none wish to, or talk of moving away; show us, if 
 you please, any agricultural section where the real estate and personal 
 property valuations are doubling nearly every year, and where farming 
 lands have increased in value from twenty-five cents an acre eight years 
 ago to anywhere from $12.00 to $35.00 per acre at the present time. 
 Show us all these and then perhaps you will have as prosperous a sec- 
 tion as Southwest Louisiana, provided that the climate is all that could 
 be desired, and it possessed all of the other requirements necessary. 
 
 We defy the East, the West, the North, or any section of the South 
 
The Rice Industry 
 
 27 
 
 — the challange is open to the world, to do for the immigrant what 
 Southwest Louisiana has done for her people during the past eight 
 years. If they were poor when they came she has clothed and fed them, 
 she has furnished comfortable homes and employment for all. If it has 
 not made them rich, it has at least made them independant. If they 
 had money or means when they came here, it has added thousands to 
 their store. If they were sick it has improved their failing health. 
 
 These new people have brought to Acadia new life, energy, and 
 prosperity; they have given to her new blood, experience and capital, 
 and in turn she is fast making them rich, prosperous, contented and 
 happy, and this she is able and willing to do for you if you will come. 
 What others have accomplished you can do, and you ought to accom- 
 plish more because the opportunities are greater. Never in the history 
 •of this section of the country has there been such opportunities for in- 
 vestment as at the present time. The fame of this section has gone 
 abroad over all the land, and from every quarter of these United States 
 are coming inquiries for land and homes in Acadia parish, and every- 
 thing indicates that the coming winter will witness the largest immigra- 
 tion that Southwest Louisiana has ever had, and that these lands which 
 are now selling for nominal figures will double in value in the near 
 future. As far as it would seem that the rice industry has been de- 
 veloped yet it is still in its infancy, and to the close observer and those 
 who have been connected with its development, large and wonderful 
 possibilities present themselves. New and improved methods are con- 
 tinually presenting themselves, all of which have a tendency to cheapen 
 the cost of production and add to the profit of the planter and miller, 
 and also to eliminate from the industry any degree of uncertainty as re- 
 gards the making of a crop. 
 
 Probably the greatest element in the transformation in the industry 
 from a small and insignificant beginning to what is recognized today as 
 one of the leading and best paying industries in the Southern States, 
 may be found in the extensive system of irrigation that has been estab- 
 lished during the last few years. Previous to this time rice was planted 
 on the lowest land, using the highest lands for water sheds from which 
 the water was drained into the rice fields. Then began the damming up 
 of the gullies and natural drains of the land for storage purposes, fol- 
 lowed by the throwing up of the huge levees around low tracts and al- 
 
28 
 
 The Rice Industry 
 
 lowing them to fill up during the winter months with water for a time of 
 need. These were called reservoirs, out of which the water was pumped 
 on the high lands with pumps of four or five foot lift. The most 
 sanguine, believers in the prosperity of this industry never expected to 
 see the many inexhaustible streams and bayous with which this prairie 
 region abounds, and which connects the large bodies of fresh water 
 lakes and bays lying close to the Gulf coast, utilized for irrigation pur- 
 poses, on account of the high lift from these streams, being in many in- 
 stances as much as twenty-five feet. But the problem has been solved, 
 and that by our own people, and irrigation of Louisiana lands on a large 
 scale is as much a demonstrated fact as it is in California. In conse- 
 quence thousands upon thousands of acres of high land that was sup- 
 posed to be inaccessible for this purpose have proven to be a “bo- 
 nanza” to their owners. They have on this account suddenly developed 
 an intrinsic value that readily places them by the side of the most 
 valued agricultural lands in the South. Where a few years ago there 
 might be seen small tracts of lands with levees thrown up around them, 
 depending entirely on the rainfall, or receiving their supply of water 
 from small pumps, with horse power or a very light engine, today may 
 be seen large irrigation plants with high lift pumps of a capacity of 
 millions of gallons, and engines of anywhere from 50 to 150-horse power 
 capacity. There are large and substantial canals, often from ten to 
 eighty feet wide, and deep enough to run a good sized boat on, extending 
 back into the country from two to ten miles, while at regular intervals 
 can be seen the latteral ditches through which the water is taken to 
 flood the different plantations. 
 
 Among the largest of these pumping plants may be mentioned that 
 of the Vermilion Canal Company which has just been completed and is 
 supplied by the bayou Queue-de-Tortue. The plant comprises six fifteen 
 inch Morris pumps, propelled by two 250-horse power engines, with 425- 
 horse power boilers. This plant has a capacity of 75,000 gallons of water 
 per minute and can readily flood 25,000 acres of ground in a season. 
 These pumps deliver their water into a canal eighty feet wide and six 
 feet deep on which will run a large sized flat-boat. 
 
 The Messrs. W. W. Duson & Bro. , of Crowley, La., and the Abbott 
 Bros, have also erected plants of similar proportions. It is estimated 
 that the different pumps located along the Mernlentau river and its tri- 
 
CUTTING RICE ON THE GREEN & SHOEMAKER PLANTATION. 
 
30 
 
 The Rice Industry 
 
 butaries will draw from this stream alone 500,000 gallons per minute, for 
 each minute they run. It may be added here that these large canals are 
 always kept on the highest ridges of land and are built by throwing up 
 parallel levees from the outside, making what might be termed an over- 
 land canal instead of cutting below the surface, thus keeping the water 
 supply above all lands to be supplied. This system of irrigation on a 
 large scale has completely revolutionized rice raising in Southwest Louis- 
 ana. It has eliminated many of the disagreeable features from the in- 
 dustry, not the least among which was an uncertainty attached to the 
 planting of the crop, and depending for its success upon the rainfall. It 
 has placed it upon a solid and profitable basis where men of means can 
 engage in it upon a large scale without prejudicing the advantages of the 
 man with less capital who farms on a small scale; and more than this it 
 insures to him a degree of success both as to quality and quantity of pro- 
 duct that cannot be obtained where an unlimited supply of water is at 
 hand. The raising of rice under the present system of irrigation is re- 
 duced to a simple business proposition and on which any man of fair 
 business ability ought to be able to figure intelligently and arrive at a 
 conclusion as to the profitableness or unprofitableness of rice 
 raising. The cost of water, which is one of the most expensive 
 items connected with this industry under this system, has been 
 reduced to the minimum, as a hundred plantations can be 
 supplied from one plant, at fifty per cent of what it would 
 cost if supplied by separate plants for each farm. This absolute cer- 
 tainty of a crop when planted tributary to these large canals cannot help 
 but be of vast benefit to the planter in the way of an improved quality of 
 the grain as well as an increased quantity of the yield, as the crop ab- 
 solutely requires an abundance of water for its perfection in order to ob- 
 tain the highest results. 
 
 As showing something of the enormous proportions that the rice in- 
 dustry is assuming it may be said that in 1884 the domestic production 
 of rice in the United States was as follows: The consumption of foreign 
 rice is given by sacks of clean rice of 225 pounds each. 
 
 1884 domestic. . . 490,000 sacks. Foreign. . . 333,000 sacks. 
 
 1885 “ ... 600,000 “ “ ... 246,000 “ 
 
 1886 “ ... 615,000 “ “ ... 208,000 “ 
 
 1887 “ . . 448,000 “ ‘ ... 410,000 “ 
 
The Rice Industry 
 
 3i 
 
 1888 
 
 4 4 
 
 ... 465,000 “ 
 
 “ ... 491,000 
 
 1890 
 
 4 4 
 
 . . . 500,000 “ 
 
 “ ... 45 °, 006 
 
 1891 
 
 4 4 
 
 . . . 600,000 “ 
 
 “ ... 500,000 
 
 1892 
 
 4 4 
 
 . . . 1,000,000 “ 
 
 “ ... 500,006 
 
 1893 
 
 4 4 
 
 . . . 1,000,000 “ 
 
 “ ... 500,000 
 
 i8 94 
 
 4 4 
 
 . . . 1,000,000 “ 
 
 “ ... 500,000 
 
 Thus it will be seen that we are to-day importing about one-half of 
 the rice that is consumed, when we ought to raise nearly all of it. Now 
 when we consider that the consumption of rice is constantly increasing 
 and will continue to increase for years to come — for the American peo 
 pie are only beginning to be consumers of this valuable food — and when 
 we stop to think in what a limited territory of the United States rice 
 can be produced, we must at once recognize the intrinsic value of these 
 lands that produce it. Some idea of the growth of the industry may 
 be learned when we remember that in 1884 in Southwest Louisiana 
 there was only one twine binder used. In 1885, 5; 1886, 50; 1887, 200; 
 1888, 400; 1889, 700; 1890, 1,000; 1891, 2,000; 1892, 3,000; 1893-94, 
 3,400 binders and 10 headers. 
 
 The Southern Pacific railroad which passes through this rice sec- 
 tion in — 
 
 1886 shipped 
 
 1887 “ 
 
 1888 “ 
 
 1889 “ 
 
 1890 “ 
 
 1891 “ 
 
 1892-93 “ 
 
 In 1884 the shipment was 
 “ 1885 
 “ 1886 
 “ 1889 
 1890 
 “ 1891 
 “ 1892 
 
 2.000. 000 pounds of rice 
 
 4.000. 000 “ “ 
 
 8.000. 000 “ “ 
 
 16.000. 000 “ “ 
 
 60.000. 000 “ “ 
 
 180.000. 000 “ “ 
 
 300.000. 000 “ “ 
 
 50 cars 
 
 150 “ 
 
 500 “ 
 
 1000 “ 
 
 2000 “ 
 
 5000 “ 
 
 10000 ‘ 
 
AN ACADIA PARISH FIELD OF SUGAR CANE. 
 
RECIPES FOR COOKING RICE IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS 
 
 HOW TO BOIL RICE. 
 
 Pick your rice clean and wash it in two cold waters, not draining off 
 the last water until you are ready to put the rice on the fire. Prepare a 
 sauce-pan with water and a little salt. When it boils sprinkle in the rice 
 gradually so as to not stop the boiling; boil hard for twenty minutes, keep- 
 ing the pot covered. Then take it off from the fire and pour off the 
 water, after which set the pot on the back of the stove with the lid off to 
 allow the rice to di*y and the grains to separate. 
 
 GUMBO SOUP. 
 
 Cut up a spring chicken in small pieces, also a small slice of ham, put 
 into a pot with a heaping spoonful of lard; wait until the lard is hot 
 enough to fry these. When fried add okra cut into small pieces, add one 
 or two large tomatoes, and a spoonful of flour. Now cover the whole 
 with water and let it simmer over a slow fire. If crabs or shrimps are- 
 obtainable add them and season the whole highly. Salt to the taste. 
 Should be eaten with rice, and served in soup-plates. 
 
 JAMBALAYA, A SPANISH CREOLE DISH. 
 
 Wash one pound of rice and soak it for an hour, cut up one pound 
 sausage and one pound ham; a small piece of red pepper, two onions, 
 two large tomatoes, and a sprig of parsley. Fry these in a heap- 
 ing spoonful of lard, and then add about a pint of boiling water. Stir - 
 in the rice slowly, cover the pot and set where it can cook slowly. Salt 
 to taste and serve while hot. Jambalaya is nice made with oysters,, 
 shrimp, or chicken substituted for sausage. 
 
 JAMBALAYA AU CONGRI. 
 
 Boil one pound red kindey beans well done, add parsley and onions,, 
 black pepper and salt; when done add enough hot water to cover three 
 cups of rice; cook until it comes to a boil, then put on a slow fire twenty 
 
34 
 
 Recipes for Cooking Rice 
 
 minutes, covering the pot but leave small opening for the steam to escape. 
 Serve hot with fresh butter, or with daub and sauce. 
 
 RICH WAFFLES. 
 
 Stir into two pints of well boiled or soft rice one large spoonful of 
 butter and a pinch of salt; when cool add two eggs well beaten, one pint 
 of milk, one pint sifted flour, one teaspoonful of yeast; let it stand an 
 hour or two, and then bake in a waffle iron. » 
 
 FRIED RICE. 
 
 Boil sufficient rice soft and let it stand until cold; then cut into slices 
 of proper thickness and fry to a nice brown, turning it carefully so as not 
 to break the slices. This is an excellent breakfast dish. 
 
 RICE FRITTERS. 
 
 Cook one pound rice soft. When cool add six eggs, half pound flour, 
 two teaspoonfuls yeast powder, sugar to taste, and water enough to make 
 a thick batter. Cook by dropping a spoonful at a time in boiling lard. 
 
 RICE PUDDING. 
 
 Four tablespoonfuls of soft boiled rice, one-fourth pound of butter, 
 one quart of milk and eight eggs; scald the milk, add a few sticks of cin- 
 namon, and while warm stir into it the rice, butter and eggs, which 
 must be first beaten; sweeten to taste, and bake in a dish. 
 
 RICE CROQUETTES. 
 
 Take a teaspoonful of cold soft boiled rice, a teaspoonful of sugar, 
 melted butter, and add half leaspoonful salt, one beaten egg, and sufficient 
 milk to bring all to the consistency of a firm paste. After thoroughly 
 beating and mixing, shape into oval balls and dip in beaten egg; follow 
 by dipping into flour. Fry in hot lard, turning with care, and when done 
 to a nice brown put into a heated cullender. 
 
 GUMBO “FILLEE” — A FAVORITE CREOLE DISH. 
 
 Stir together in a pot until well browned, one tablespoonful lard, 
 and one tablespoonful flour, then add one spring chicken and one onion 
 cut into small pieces; let simmer for a few moments then add water enough 
 to half fill pot, let boil until chicken is thoroughly cooked, season very 
 highly. Just before serving stir in one tabespoonful of “fillee.” Serve in 
 -soup plates with hot boiled rice. 
 
IRRIGATION PLANT OF W. W. DUSON, TWO MILES FROM CROWLEY, CAPACITY 900,000 GALLONS PER HOUR, LIFT 23 FEET 
 
SUGAR IN ACADIA PARISH 
 
 ^k\ IT O INDUSTRY in America possesses the fascination for those en- 
 ^ gaged in it that sugar growing does. The industry is as old as the 
 State itself, and is one of the greatest in wealth production 
 
 of all agricultural pursuits, and although it has recently been deprived 
 
 % 
 
 *of the heavy subsidy and bounty paid by the government, sugar raising 
 is still very profitable. The Louisiana sugar planter differs in no way 
 from the balance of humanity — all alike are willing to take all they can 
 get and clamor for more — but just why the Louisiana sugar planter 
 should receive from $40 to $60 per acre bounty on every acre of sugar 
 cane raised when the industry within itself is one of the most prosperous 
 in the country, is hard to see. Especially is this so while the Dakota 
 farmer raises wheat for from 40 to 60 cents per bushel and is satisfied 
 with an average crop of 15 bushels to the acre. We are not upholding 
 the action of the government in deliberately and wilfully violating its 
 civil contracts and ignoring its pledges to the planters of Louisiana, but 
 .at the same time we see no reason why sugar raisers should clothe them- 
 selves in “sack cloth and ashes” because the government refuses to pay 
 the expense of raising their crop and give them the gross proceeds. 
 Under the old regime sugar raising was indeed a bonanza, and while from 
 now on the industry may still be counted as the fastest money making 
 agricultural pursuit known, still the whole system in the near future will 
 undergo a decided change. The strong tendency toward a “ sweetened 
 aristocracy' 1 '' will be checked, and sugar planters will have to live like 
 other mortals and accept the legitimate returns and results of their 
 labors. The days of the old * collossal sugar plantations are limited and 
 numbered and the time is near at hand when the plantations will be cut 
 .up into smaller farms and sugar raising will be diversified with rice rais- 
 
Sugar in Acadia Parish 
 
 37 
 
 ing, cotton, corn and stock. It has only been three or four years since 
 it was known that the prairie lands of the southwest part of the State were 
 suitable for cane culture, but during this time it has been demonstrated 
 that these lands are among the most valuable of any in the State for this 
 purpose, as the cane raised on these prairie lands with their clay subsoil 
 possesses a much larger per centage of saccharine substance than the 
 cane from the regular sugar districts of the State. 
 
 Sugar cane, unlike most farm crops, is not raised from the seed, being 
 propogated from the cane itself. The ground is first plowed up in ridges 
 and then a small furrow opened up down the center of each row. The 
 cane is then laid in lengthwise the entire length of the row and covered 
 up. About every six inches on the stock there is a joint, and from each of 
 these joints comes a bud or sprout which forms the new crop. Sugar 
 cane only has to be planted every three years, the second and third 
 year growing from the stubble. The crop produces from thirty-five to forty 
 tons to the acre. Sugar making has been improved upon until it has been 
 reduced to a science, and a ton of cane should produce two hundred 
 pounds of sugar. Placing the average yield at twenty tons would give the 
 planter 4,000 pounds of sugar, which sold at four and a half cents per 
 pound would yield him $180.00 gross per acre (and still the planter 
 clamors for the bounty.) But it must be remembered that this is not 
 all profit, as it probably costs more to raise a crop of cane than the same 
 number of acres of any other crop, but the balance on the ledger is uni- 
 versally in favor of the grower, and to such an extent that it would seem 
 incredible to the agriculturists of the Northern states. The expense 
 of raising a crop of sugar cane may be reckoned as follows: 
 
 Seed cane, per acre $10.00 
 
 Preparation of land 2.00 
 
 Planting, per acre 2.50 
 
 Cultivating, per acre 5.00 
 
 Fertilizer, per acre 2.00 
 
 Harvesting, per acre 8.00 
 
 $29.50 
 
 But it must be remembered that cane has to be planted only once 
 in three years, so that the average cost would be consiberably lessened. 
 Now the difference in cost and the gross proceeds goes to the sugar 
 manufacturers and the planter, both of whom receive the highest possible 
 
CLING STONE PEACH TWO YEARS FROM CUTTING BY J. S. JOHNSON 
 
Sugar in Acadia Parish 
 
 39 
 
 reward for their labors. There are thousands of acres of these valuable 
 sugar lands in Acadia parish today that may be had at merely nominal 
 prices, ready for the plow of the industrious immigrant, every acre of 
 which in the near future will be under cultivation. 
 
 What these prairie lands of Acadia parish need today is men who 
 understand diversified farming. The tendency of the Southern agri- 
 culturist has too long been toward specialties. One section runs all to 
 rice, another entirely to cotton and another entirely to sugar. Every farm 
 in Acadia parish should have its rice field, its cotton patch, its corn and 
 cane fields, its truck gardens and its orchards, and its vineyards. 
 Diversified products are the salvation and only solid foundation on 
 which any agricultural country can permanently build. How much 
 better to raise a class of crops that are always in demand than to con- 
 tinue to raise those crops of which there is already an over-production 
 of. No over-production of sugar, no over-production of rice, as the 
 United States will never raise what it will consume. No over-pro- 
 duction of corn or hogs in Louisiana, as we are furnishing today one of 
 the best markets in the country for these products; no over-production 
 of hemp, jute-and ramie. No over-production of horses and mules in 
 Louisiana, as we are compelled to go to the North to buy them. But 
 do not make the mistake of thinking for a moment that the Northern 
 States, where stock has to be housed and fed for six months through a 
 long winter, can raise and ship stock as cheap as we can raise 
 it, for it can be raised in Acadia cheaper than the cheapest. 
 
A THREE-YEAR-OLD LECONTE PEAR TREE IN THE ORCHARD OF W. W. DUSON 
 
FRUIT RAISING IN ACADIA 
 
 
 
 
 
 of most pf the different varieties of fruit has been known since 
 the first settlement of the country. Not only can fruit be suc- 
 cessfully grown, but it is the natural home of many of the most profit- 
 able varieties, as is well established by the abundance of evidence to 
 be found in the way of wild fruit growing all over the parish, and the ease 
 with which all varieties are cultivated. We have a soil possessing all the 
 necessary constituents, and a climate particularly adapted to the success 
 of the industry. And with this section over a thousand miles nearer the 
 great fruit distributing centers than California is, still but little progress 
 has been made as yet toward developing the industry, but that a wide and 
 profitable field is here offered, none can doubt. Fruit raising, when con- 
 ducted intelligently, is one of the most pleasant, as well as profitable oc- 
 cupations in which one can engage, and offers many advantages over 
 any other line of agricultural pursuits. When the disadvantages under 
 which fruit raisers labor in other sections are considered, it seems sur- 
 prising that the industry has received so little attention at the hands of 
 those who are naturally attracted toward it. One of the ad- 
 vantages the industry offers in Southwest Louisiana is the reason- 
 able certainty of making a crop. Of course there come years in the 
 history of any section when the fruit crop is light, but Southwest Louisi- 
 ana has fewer of these years than any other section known. While the 
 successful pursuit of the industry requires much care and attention and 
 ought to be protected by a thorough knowledge of the business and its 
 requirements by those engaged in it, still the work is light and pleasant, 
 and a large part of it may be performed by the women and children. It 
 requires but a small outlay in cash and needs but little land to produce 
 large results. 
 
 The returns are large and reasonably sure. The Southern States are 
 
KELSEY JAPAN PLUMS RAISED BY M. ROMAINE, FORMERLY OF WEST LIBERTY, IA. 
 
Fruit Raising In Acadia 
 
 43 
 
 large consumers of fruit and especially the city of New Orleans, and it 
 is strange indeed that train load after train load of fruit should be 
 shipped a distance of over 2,000 miles from California past our very 
 doors to New Orleans, while Acadia parish has thousands of acres of 
 equally as good fruit lands that can be bought at nominal price and 
 which do not require irrigation. Probably the king of all fruits in South- 
 west Louisiana is the fig. This is the natural home .and abiding place 
 of this most delicious of all fruits. The trees are hardy and thrifty, and 
 grow in every nook and corner wherever planted; they are easily propo- 
 gated from the cutting, and after coming into bearing yield an abundant 
 crop every year. Other fruits may fail or produce only partial crops, but 
 the fig goes steadily on from year to year bearing a burden of sweet 
 fruit which is a wonder to be seen and that would exhaust the hardiest oak. 
 So much has always been required and expected of the fig tree ^.nd such 
 an unusual sight is it to find a tree that does not bear fruit that in olden 
 times it - was thought worthy of scriptural comment and by divine 
 authority it was ordered to “be cut down.” The tree is very symmetrical 
 in its proportions, has large, dark green foliage, and comes into bearing 
 from four to six years of age and lives to be fifty to seventy-five and often 
 a hundred years old. The fig tree puts forth no blossoms, the fruit burst- 
 ing forth like buds from the limbs. The tree requires no trimming or 
 fertilizing, and a fig orchard near a canning factory or other market would 
 be a fortune for your children’s children. Trees at from six to eight years 
 old bear from 500 to 1000 pounds of fruit each. Taking an average of 100 
 trees to the acre and 500 pounds of fruit to the tree, one acre would pro- 
 duce 50,000 pounds of fruit, at four cents per pound, the usual price paid 
 at canning factories, yields the producer $2,000.00 per acre. Cut the 
 price in two and call it two cents a pound and you have $1,000.00 per 
 acre. There are several varieties of this valuable fruit grown here’ 
 among the most popular being the “Celeste,” which is a native of 
 Louisiana. It is the most prolific, is as sweet as honey, requiring but 
 little sugar for preserving or canning.’ No daintier, more refreshing 
 and more nourishing fruit is known to man than fresh ripe figs, and 
 no industry offers greater or more flattering inducements than their 
 culture in Acadia parish. 
 
 Next to figs there are probably greater possibilities offered in pear 
 culture than any other fruit. Pear trees are also growp from the cutting 
 and often bear at three years old, the Leconte, Keifer, and the Bartlett 
 

 . 
 
 LIMB OF THREE-YEAR-OLD PEACH TREE RAISED BY T. J. THAYER, FOR- 
 MERLY OF SPRING VALLEY, MINN. 
 
Fruit Raising in Acadia 
 
 45 
 
 are among the most popular varieties. A pear orchard when laden with 
 blossoms or with fruit is only excelled in beauty by an orange grove. 
 
 Probably there has been more development and greater progress- 
 made in this branch of the industry than in any other, owing to the 
 thriftiness of the trees and the rapid growth they make — often attaining 
 a height of forty feet at three years old. The Bartlett pear needs no 
 introduction to fruit eaters. Although the fruit is not as large as some of 
 the other varieties here in Southwest Louisiana, it attains the highest 
 state of perfection, the grain of the fruit being remarkably fine and 
 possessing an excellent flavor that is found only in few localities. In 
 fact this is a characteristic of all Louisiana fruits, being of a richer 
 flavor and possessing that exquisite delicacy that renders them the 
 choicest of any in America. The Bartlett blossoms early and ripens 
 during the early days of July. 
 
 The Leconte pear is a larger variety than the Bartlett. The fruit 
 ripens more slowly and is a better keeper than the Bartlett. This pear 
 has the peculiarity of growing in clusters, often as many as from twelve 
 to twenty growing in the space of as many inches on the limb and form- 
 ing a solid bunch as large as a water pail. The Leconte pear trees are 
 probably more prolific than any other variety and consequently are more 
 valuable as a money making crop. This fruit ripens during the month of 
 August. If there is one thing more than another that will fill the heart 
 of the fruit grower with enthusiasm it is to see an orchard of Leconte 
 pear trees with the limbs bending to the ground or substantially propped 
 up, laden to its fullest capacity with ripe fruit. The Keifer pear is also 
 another valuable pear and possesses some qualities that no other pear 
 possesses, that renders it at once in many respects the most valuable of 
 any. The trees grow to an enormous size, are very hardy and thrifty, and 
 yield an enormous amount of fruit, that for size and keeping quality is 
 not equaled by any other variety. This fruit ripens during the month 
 of September and often hangs on the trees until late in October; and 
 while the fruit is not as fine grain or delicate in flavor as the Bartlett, it 
 more than makes up in keeping qualities. If properly taken care of it 
 may be kept until mid-winter or spring, thus giving the grower the op- 
 portunity of shipping to any of the markets of the country. The fruit 
 grows to the largest size of any known, many pears being six inches in 
 diameter, and weighing from sixteen to twenty-four ounces. During the 
 
Fruit Raising in Acadia 
 
 47 
 
 last year or two, and especially this season, has been demonstrated that 
 plums and persimmons of the Japanese variety are a decided success in 
 this section. Even California fruit raisers are willing to admit that 
 Acadia parish rivals their own state in the production of these fruits. 
 Around the homes of many people in Crowley this season (1895) may 
 be seen the evidence that would convince the most skeptical that these 
 fruits are indigenous to this soil and climate. 
 
 Nearly every variety of the Japan plum grows and matures to per- 
 fection. Many trees may be seen here today three years old, not over seven 
 or eight feet high, bearing from 1,000 to 3,000 plums, varying in size from 
 a large size walnut to the size of a hen-egg. Some of these fruits are a 
 bright yellow, some a deep purple, some real blue and others brown, all 
 alike thin skin and richly flavored, and containing pits smaller than the 
 little red or blue plum of the Eastern states. The way these trees have 
 borne this season is simply marvelous and past believing unless seen, 
 each little limb being literally covered with fruit. So closely are the plums . 
 set that they form one solid mass or roll the entire length of the limb. 
 These large Japan plums always find a ready sale in all of the markets of 
 the country and bring the highest possible prices. 
 
 Grape raising is another branch of the fruit industry from which 
 large sums may be realized. Up to the present time but one man here, 
 Mr. J. S. Johnson, and one man in Mermentau, in the western part of the 
 parish, Victoran Maignaud, have given grapes any attention, and they 
 only on a small scale. Mr. Maignaud raised the scuppernong very suc- 
 cessfully and although possessing no knowledge of the requirements 
 necessary for their successful cultivation yet many of his bunches weigh 
 from five to eight pounds. Mr. Johnson makes an excellent showing 
 with the Concord grape (see photograph.) Mr. Johnson informs us he 
 has no difficulty whatever in producing them in abundance. He also has 
 a number of the choicest peach, pear, and plum trees to be found in 
 the parish, all of which bear abundantly. 
 
 It has long been a well-known fact that Louisiana produces the 
 choicest peaches grown in America. Neither Maryland, Michigan or Cali- 
 fornia peaches can compare with the Louisiana product. The trouble with 
 peach growing, as well as other fruit, is that there is too much hap- 
 hazzard work about it. No care or attention is taken to select such vari- 
 eties as are most suitable for profit, and after planting the trees must look 
 
APPLES FROM THE ORCHARD OF MR. MIRES, WEIGHT FROM 12 TO 16 OZ S. 
 
Fruit Raising in Acadia 
 
 49 
 
 out for themselves. What Southwest Louisiana needs and wants are fruit- 
 growers who understand the business and its requirements, and who will 
 take a pride in developing the industry. Such a man may be found in the 
 person of T. Jay Lacy, of Washington, La., twenty-five miles north of this 
 place. Mr. Lacy has had thirty years experience in fruit growing and is 
 familiar with every branch of the business, and he unhesitatingly recom- 
 mends this section as a fruit country. In his orchards may be seen over a 
 dozen varieties of oranges, peaches, pears, grapes, plums, apricots, 
 quinces, nectarines, pomgranites, cherries, guavas, blackberries, straw- 
 berries, and in fact all of the different kinds of the different varieties men- 
 tioned, as well as many others, and he makes a success of everything he 
 touches, simply because he understands the business he is engaged in. 
 He takes a pride in his fruit orchards and they are fast making him 
 independent and rich. What this man has accomplished, you can accom- 
 plish. The soil is here in Acadia parish, the climate is here; these lands 
 are cheap and are waiting for experienced hands to take hold of them 
 and make them blossom as a garden. What fields of fruit; what orchards 
 of peaches, pears, figs and plums; what vineyards of grapes; what 
 gardens of berries Acadia parish would produce if only the fruit grower 
 was here! Men with small means and some experience and a large stock 
 of energy is what Acadia wliats today to develop her fruit land and 
 they will surely come; and the time is not far distant when the valuable- 
 
 4 
 
 ness of Acadia lands as fruit producers will be fully demonstarted; and 
 fortunate indeed will be those who take the lead in this industry, and 
 rich will be their reward. If the reader of these pages has a taste for fruit 
 raising and whishes to find a place where fruit grows naturally and 
 abundantly, if he wishes to find a place where he has no such competi- 
 tion as in Florida, California or other fruit countries, where the soil and 
 the climate are the most favorable; if he wishes to get in on the ground 
 floor and reap a rich harvest he should investigate the rich fruit lands of 
 Acadia parish at once, or else he will see others with more nerve embrace 
 the opportunity, while he will go about the balance of his days regretting 
 the opportunity he missed and the mistake he made that in 1895 or 1896 
 he did not locate in Acadia parish and engage in fruit culture. It will 
 simply be crying over “spilt milk ,” regretting lost opportunities for which 
 the live wide-awake progressive man in these push-ahead, and clamor- 
 far-a-place-in-the-front-rank time has very little use or sympathy for. 
 
RAISED BY J. S. JOHNSON— FREE STONE PEACH AT THREE YEARS OLD 
 
TRUCK RAISING 
 
 A CADIA parish ought to be and will be the truck gardener’s para- 
 dise, from its location midway between the cities of New Orleans 
 and Houston two of the most prosperous cities of the South, fron^ 
 the nature of its soil which is quick in its action and generous in its pro- 
 ductions, possessing those qualities so requisite to the rapid growth and 
 maturity of vegetables, with a semi-tropical climate, that renders 
 two crops a year not only a possibility but a certainty if the seed is planted* 
 with an abundance of moisture without irrigation. With its abundance 
 of sunshine so necessary for the rapid growth of vegetation and the 
 ripening of fruits, it offers all that could be asked by the most exacting . 
 
 There is hardly a garden vegetable known but what makes two crops 
 a year. Irish potatoes are planted in February and dug in May and June, 
 and the same planted again in July and August and dug in December o r 
 January. The yield is large and the tubers exceptionally fine, being of good 
 size, dry and mealy. Irish potatoes always bring a good price in New 
 Orleans and are seldom worth less than $1.00 per bushel in the local 
 markets throughout the State. Sweet potatoes are another excellent 
 crop. Small beds of these are planted early and when the vines cover the 
 ground (in May or June) they are cut and planted in larger fields. They 
 yield often from one hundred to one hundred and fifty barrels of three 
 bushels each per acre. There are many varieties of sweet potatoes, the 
 Louisiana yam being the choicest and most sought after variety. This 
 variety possesses a large amount of saccharine substance and when prop- 
 erly baked the skin usually cracks open and the potato is found to bq 
 covered with syrup. The Louisiana yams are seldom found in the 
 
 markets of the northern states. The. variety known as The Queen ojf 
 
 • * . .. '4 •... y •■■... • ” 
 
 the South is probably the most prolific of any of the varieties grown 
 here. They are of very large size and yield two, three and four hundred 
 bushels to the acre. Sweet potatoes make an excellent food for stock, 
 
KEIFER PEARS GROWING ON PROPERTY OF GEO. E. SEARS & SON 
 
Truck Raising 
 
 53 
 
 horses, cattle, sheep and hogs being very fond of them. They possess 
 large fattening qualities on account of the sugar they contain. 
 
 Cabbage, turnips, beets, parsnips, carrots, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, 
 beans, peas, okra, and in fact every variety of vegetable that possesses a 
 marketable value or that can be consumed on the table of the farmer 
 grows to perfection here and may be had any and every month in the year 
 with but little care and attention. One great advantage that the truck 
 gardener has here over gardeners of other sections, is that he is enabled 
 to supply the markets with vegetables early and late in the season. In fact 
 he is never idle and the amount of vegetables he can raise and sell is 
 limited not to the season or the markets, but by the limit of his energy. 
 
 i 
 
 
JAPAN PLUMS RAISED BY M. ROMAINE, FORMERLY OF WEST LIBERTY, IOWA 
 
DAIRYING IN ACADIA PARISH 
 
 
 
 
 
 live, wide-awake dairyman in Acadia parish are simply wonder- 
 ful. We publish below in full a letter to the Southern States 
 Magazine, of Baltimore, Maryland, from W. B. Mercier, of the United 
 States Experimental Station at Baton Rouge, La. Mr. Mercier is a 
 man of large experience, and is in a position to speak authoritatively 
 on the subject. He says: 
 
 “The fact that almost the entire population of Denmark and some 
 other European countries are engaged in the dairying business proves 
 that it must be a very profitable industry. The fact that many sections 
 of our United States, and parts of Canada, are devoting nearly all their 
 attention to it, furnishes additional evidence that other branches of 
 agriculture must be less profitable to the farmer. 
 
 “Now if such has been found the case with these countries where 
 winters are long and severe, feed and pasturage scarce and dear, is it 
 not time for some of our people to utilize the unlimited resources nature 
 has willed to them for carrying on the greatest dairy business of any 
 country on earth. When we sum up the resources of these countries for 
 pursuing this industry, we find them almost incomparable, so many are 
 the advantages the South can claim over any of them. Our European 
 and Northern friends are compelled to house and feed their animals con- 
 tinuously for several months of the year, while we never have to keep a 
 cow in a stable during the day, and very frequently we do not need 
 shelter more than a week during the entire winter. 
 
 “From April to October feeding is practically unknown with us, the 
 native grasses giving such luxuriant pastures as to render extra feeding, 
 entirely useless. The milk and butter obtained from cows running on 
 these pastures are equal if not superior to any ever produced by the most 
 highly fed animals of any other country. There is never a time that 
 
56 
 
 Dairying in Acadia Parish 
 
 stock cannot live here throughout the winter if given full access to the 
 fields and woodlands without ever seeing any other food. While I do 
 not believe in neglecting the stock during the mild winters any more than 
 in the severer climates further north, it is a fact that thousands of 
 heads of cattle pass our severest winters without the least protection or 
 food more than they get for themselves. 
 
 “We have only to plow and level our lands to get a spontaneous 
 growth of the most nutritious and valuable grasses for either hay or pastur- 
 ing that can be grown in any country. In a seasonable year we often get 
 from two to four cuttings of hay, which yield anywhere from two to five tons 
 of cured hay per acre, which has been proven to equal in value as a feed 
 stuff, timothy, and unless the latter is an extra quality, it will be found 
 superior to it. With care any dairyman may have good green pasturage 
 for his cows twelve months out of the year. There is absolutely no limit 
 to food that can be grown if proper pains are taken in planting, prepar- 
 ing and cultivation. Sorghum and all other forage plants grow to per- 
 fection, and the root crops can be grown more abundantly and easily 
 than anywhere else. Grains of all kinds can be successfully and profit- 
 ably grown. Cotton seed and its product can be had at the very lowest 
 figures, and nothing gives a better, cheaper or more universally popular 
 food for the dairy cow when intelligently combined with other food to 
 form a complete dairy ration. 
 
 “That we have good local markets for the dairy products can be 
 ascertained by looking over grocers’ books in any of our towns. They will 
 show us that tons upon tons of butter and cheese, and even milk are 
 shipped from distant points to be retailed to us at high prices. Nearly 
 every town is capable of supporting a large and well managed dairy, and 
 would gladly do so if it could only be assured that nothing was to be sold 
 except nice and fresh products of the choicest quality. The prices 
 actually paid in the southern markets for choice butter and cheese is 
 simply astonishing. It does not look reasonable that a people possessing 
 lands so admirably adapted to the production of these articles of food, 
 would have so long neglected the opportunities for developing to the 
 highest state of perfection this important and profitable business. The 
 past decade has marked great progress along this line in some places, 
 but the next ten years will work a revolution in the dairy business through- 
 out the Southern states. For by that time the shrewd business-like 
 
Dairying in Acadia Parish 
 
 57 
 
 northwestern Yankee will have seen the vast possibilities in this indus- 
 try, with our genial climate and fertile soils, and, as about everything 
 else, he will not be slow in using these valuable resources of nature to add 
 to his material welfare. It is upon him, with his push and energy, that 
 we shall have to rely in upsetting the old worn out ideas of farming, and 
 supplanting them with his new and more progressive method. I hope 
 that many who are now struggling against so many disadvantages in the 
 less favored sections will compare the possibilities of the two climates and 
 decide to come and cast their lot with us, and show the people here what 
 can be done with our soils. All such as will come are assured of a hearty 
 welcome from every true and progressive Southerner.” 
 
LECONTE PEARS RAISED BY J. S. JOHNSON 
 
STOCK RAISING 
 
 A S a stock country Southwest Louisiana has no equal — in fact it 
 used to be considered fit only for this purpose, and even today may 
 be heard the repinnings of some of the old cattle kings over the 
 downfall of their past glories. Here men lived and reared their families 
 never knowing what it was to do a day’s work in their lives. The lands were 
 government or State lands or belonged to non-residents. They counted 
 their cattle by the hundreds or thousands of calves they branded in the 
 fall, some of them never knowing within a thousand head how many cat- 
 tle they owned. These prairies were covered with a rich coat of native 
 grass from three to six feet high. There was plenty of fresh water in 
 the many streams and gullies, there were no winters, and consequently 
 no shelter to be provided and no feed supply to be looked after. They 
 raised their own hogs and hominy, their own rice and sugar, and paid 
 little or no taxes, lived in ease and luxury and it is no wonder that when 
 they saw the march of progress and immigration sweeping down upon 
 them they discouraged it in every way possible. These vast heards of 
 sleek, fat cattle that used to roam unrestrained and unheeded over these 
 luxuriant prairies have long since passed away, but the same natural 
 conditions remain as in the days of these cattle kings — the same fertility 
 of soil is here to produce the tame grasses in abundance, the same belts 
 of timber for shelter, the same rivers, the same mild and even climate 
 that made stock raising so easy and profitable in the past are here to 
 aid you with your new and improved graded stock, and while the lands 
 are not exactly free to you many desirable tracts and locations are still 
 to be had suitable for stock raising at nominal prices. You will have 
 the advantage of owning your own range and being able to control your 
 business — can raise better stock, have better markets, enjoy church and 
 school facilities and exchange ideas with your neighbors without going 
 fifteen or twenty miles to do so. Cattle, horses, sheep and hogs do ex- 
 
6o 
 
 Stock Raising 
 
 ceedingly well here. While the Creole horses and cattle of Louisiana 
 (the native stock) that have degenerated by interbreeding and lack of 
 care and attention are fast disappearing their places are being taken by 
 the Galloway, Herefords, Durham, Holstein and Jerseys; the Chester 
 Whites, Burkshires and Poland Chinas are fast taking the place of the 
 common Louisiana “rail splitters” or “razor-back” hogs. Large Per- 
 cheron, Clyde and other all purpose horses and mules are occupying 
 the farms and pastures where once roamed the small Creole ponies over 
 the unbroken range. 
 
 The intelligent stock-raiser need look for no field of easier condi- 
 tions or a country offering more or better inducements in his line than 
 Acadia parish does today, and we know of no line of business in which 
 a man could embark that would prove a greater boon to the country or 
 a source of greater profit to the owner than an improved modern stock 
 farm in Acadia parish. 
 
CORN AND OATS 
 
 JnT^HEY are magic words indeed to the farmer, especially if he is from 
 Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa or any of the other great corn producing 
 states. The impression has always existed that corn did not make 
 a good crop in Louisiana. If this be the case, there must certainly be some 
 .good reason for it. It is one of the mistakes you have been making if you 
 attribute it to the soil or to the climate. There are only four conditions 
 or elements necessary for the production of corn in abundance. First, 
 fertile soil; second, warmth; third, moisture, and fourth, thorough cul- 
 tivation. If any of these conditions or elements are absent we may 
 expect failure. Louisiana has the soil the fertility of which cannot be 
 questioned; it posesses both the warmth and the moisture and if a failure 
 is chronicled, in nine out of ten instances it is attributable to a lack of 
 eultivation. The average Kansas or Iowa farmer has long since learned 
 that it requires constant and thorough cultivation to make corn, no matter 
 how favorable the season may be or how fertile the soil. If corn is not 
 eultivated and the ground stirred frequently and thoroughly it will fail in 
 Iowa or Kansas the same as in Louisiana. On the other hand, give us 
 five corn-raisers from the state of Iowa and we will show five men who 
 will make a success of raising corn in Louisiana, and they will make 
 more clear money by fifty per cent than they did raising corn in Iowa, 
 because lands are cheaper, taxes lighter, clothing, fuel and building 
 material cost much less and the crop sells for better prices, as the 
 competition is less and there is no over-production. Corn can be more 
 profitably fed to hogs and other stock here in Acadia parish than in 
 Kansas, Nebraska or Iowa. Hogs, cattle, mutton and poultry respond 
 more quickly to generous feeding than in any of the northern states on 
 account of the long cold winter which requires double the feeding to 
 maintain and keep up the fattening process than it does in warmer 
 elimates. Pork brings a better price in the South than it does in the North 
 
62 
 
 Corn and Oats 
 
 because there is less of it. Acadia parish for the past seven or eight years 
 has paid out millions of dollars for feed when it ought to have corn to 
 sell, but so much time and attention have been given to rice culture and 
 such have been the profits in this line that farmers have preferred to 
 plant all rice and buy their meat, bread and horse feed, but a marked 
 change has been noticed in this respect this past season, and there is a 
 growing tendency toward a diversity of crops. More oats, corn, potatoes, 
 sugar-cane, fruit, milk, etc., are being produced than ever before and 
 the science of cheap living demonstrates that the farmers of Acadia have 
 taken a long step in the right direction, for there is no section of the 
 United States today where the people can come so near living at home 
 independent of everybody as here in southwest Louisiana. Corn pro- 
 duces here, properly cultivated from thirty-five to seventy-five bushels 
 per acre, and throughout Acadia parish this season the crop has been 
 more than thribbled, and whereever you strike a field of corn cultivated 
 by Northern men the yield is immense. 
 
TIMBER 
 
 A DREARY, desolate, treeless country is always an indication of un- 
 favorable conditions. It indicates a liability and tendency toward 
 droughty conditions; it is also an indication that a country is liable 
 to suffer from severe storms, cyclones and blizzards, and usually it is in 
 such sections that the extremes of heat and cold and the greatest distur- 
 bances in atmospheric conditions occur. Aside from their severe winter 
 climate and their liability to crop failure the greatest drawbacks that most 
 of the Western states have to contend with is a lack of timber. Man, 
 with all of his energy and perseverance, with all his intellectual faculties 
 alert, divising new methods and means to use up the timbers of our 
 country, can despoil the proudest American forest in a day as it were. 
 Then set him to work undoing the work he has done and what can he 
 accomplish? How small and insignificant does his work appear. We 
 may build factories, mills, steamships, towns and cities, but God him- 
 self must build the forests of the world. 
 
 One of the most refreshing sights th’at the immigrant sees when he 
 comes to Southwest Louisiana, especially if he comes from the bleak 
 prairies of the Northwest, is the magnificent belts of timber that sur- 
 round our prairies. These timber belts give to the entire country a 
 homelike aspect that at once makes him feel that he has traveled far 
 enough and would like to cast his lot here under the shadows of some of 
 these giant oaks. Every few miles throughout this prairie section of 
 Louisiana, lazily winding its way to the Gulf is found a river or bayou. 
 Lying on either side of these streams are the forests of Acadia. What 
 giant oaks, that have gathered their strength from the growth of cen- 
 turies; what towering pines, with their bare and naked trunks devoid of 
 limbs for one and two hundred feet; what majestic cypress, with their 
 scanty limbs covered with their green or brozned foliage; what tall and 
 graceful ash, with their slender arms and dark green leaves; what groves 
 
6 4 
 
 Timber 
 
 of gum and hickory, what ridges of magnolia and holly, what thickets of 
 plums and crab-apples! What cozy nooks and cool retreats they afford! 
 
 Where ancient oaks and gnarled and twisted hickory trees grow 
 side by side, emblems of strength and power; where the dull grey 
 Spanish moss waves like spectres in the breeze; where muscadine, wild 
 honey-suckle and passion vines mingle and inter-mingle with bitter- 
 sweet, wild grapes and sweet woodbine until they hide the very trees 
 themselves and hang in great festoons from branch to branch, and 
 through it all the soft playing of a southern breeze wafting the fragrance 
 of wild honeysuckle, crab apple and plum blossoms — of the rose, the 
 myrtle, the magnolia and the jessamine — such are the woods of Acadia. 
 
 The timber of Southwest Louisiana, while being picturesque in the 
 highest degree, also possesses an intrinsic value that few are able to 
 justly appreciate. Here will be found timber in abundance for fencing 
 and fuel, relieving the inhabitants of the stern necessity of twisting hay 
 or buying coal; thousands of acres of ash, oak and hickory for wagons,, 
 plows, harrows, harvesters and threshing machines — enough to supply 
 dozens of woodworking factories for years to come. 
 
 What an opportunity! What a demand for factories to work up 
 this mine of wealth of raw material into all of the useful implements 
 and commodities.that are being shipped in here from the Northern states 
 by car loads every day. Two of the most inexplainable problems in 
 connection with Southern industries has always been: Why the South 
 should raise the cotton of the world and then send abroad for its fabrics 
 when they should be manufactured at home; and why the South, with 
 its millions of acres of the choicest timbers,’ should send to the Northern 
 states for its wagons and other manufactural products. The first problem 
 is being solved by the erection all over the South of cotton factories. 
 Eastern manufacturers have learned that they have been losing large 
 sums by shipping the raw material thousands of miles when it should be 
 manufactured where it is raised, and the same solution is to be found in 
 the manufacturing at home of our wogons, buggies and all other kinds, 
 of wooden implements. 
 
GROWTH OF TRANSPORATION 
 
 A PROPOS of what has been said of the growth of the various 
 agricultural and manufacturing industries of the South, the re- 
 newed activity in real estate transactions, as well as the general 
 improvement along all lines of business, may be mentioned the wonder- 
 ful growth of transportation facilities in Southwest Louisiana. The 
 immense quantities of agricultural products that the fertile prairies of 
 Southwest Louisiana produce, together with the large amount of lumber 
 that the pine and cypress forests lying just north and west of them have 
 been turning out are creating a growing demand for more and better 
 transportation facilities. That this demand is being met with an in- 
 creased supply is apparent by looking over this section. 
 
 As compared with the facilities five years ago, the southwestern 
 portion of the State has increased in transportation facilities fully 300 
 per cent, and where a few years ago could be found only one of these 
 great arteries of commerce — the Southern Pacific railroad — today may 
 be found a complete network of railroads, bringing almost every planta- 
 tion into reasonable hauling distance from shipping stations. 
 
 The work of railroad extension in Southwest Louisiana was begun 
 by the Watkins people some three of four years ago, when recognizing 
 the necessity of a northern outlet for the lumbering interest of Cal- 
 casieu parish, and with a view to meeting the demand arising from the 
 growing agricultural interests north of there, it was decided to build this 
 road. It was started at Lake Charles and has been completed as far north 
 as Alexandria, on its way to Kansas City. It is known as the Kansas 
 City, Watkins and Gulf line, and is proving of great benefit to this sec- 
 tion, not only in the way of increasing the shipping facilities for the 
 large output of lumber and agricultural products, but is an important 
 factor in bringing new settlers into the southwestern portion of the 
 State. The management of this line conducted a number of successful 
 
SCENE AT ABBOTT BROS. RICE WAREHOUSE AT CROWLEY 
 
Growth of Transportation 
 
 67 
 
 excursions to the South during the past winter, bringing several car 
 loads of northern people who have found homes in this section of Loui- 
 siana. 
 
 Beginning at Crowley* the Southern Pacific Co. last year built and 
 has in successful operation a branch road known as the Midland Branch, 
 running north 'a distance of thirty-two miles to Eunice. This line opens 
 up one of the finest agricultural sections in the State, and where the 
 planter was heretofore compelled to haul his cotton, rice and other pro- 
 duce a distance of twenty-five to thirty miles to Crowley or Opelousas, 
 he today finds splendid railroad facilities at his very door. This road 
 has been the incentive and the means of building up several prosperous 
 and important towns along its line, which are in turn contributing largely 
 to its material support and prosperity. The company is now extend- 
 ing this branch road south of the main line a distance of about eighteen 
 miles into Vermilion parish, where a new town is already laid out. This 
 extension will connect with the Vermilion Canal and Irrigation Company’s 
 works on the Bayou Queue-de-Tortue, where a $75,000 irrigation plant 
 has already been erected and is in successful operation. Abbeville, in 
 Vermilion parish, is also another location that is on the line of railroad 
 extension, as the Southern Pacific Company has a branch road running 
 from New Iberia to this place that is doing a prosperous business. Since 
 the completion of the road to Abbeville the town has taken on new life — in 
 fact, greater improvement has been made in this place during this period 
 than in a quarter of a century before . And now the people of Acadia are 
 rejoicing over the prospect of having another railroad traverse this parish, 
 with headquarters at Crowley, to be known as the Louisiana Central Rail- 
 way. The survey of the new line is nearly completed from Crowley, 
 running north through Church Point, Opelousas and Washington, strik- 
 ing the Gould System at Palmetto on the Texas & Pacific Railway. 
 From Crowley the road will be built twenty-five miles southeast to Abbe- 
 ville on the Vermilion river, which is a large and important stream that 
 will afford a splendid outlet for the road by a packet line to New Orleans, 
 Galveston and other large ports. While this movement has been put on 
 foot by the large rice planters and business men of Acadia and St. 
 Landry parishes, there is plenty of capital behind the enterprise to insure 
 its completion. New York brokers are anxious to advance the funds for 
 this purpose. The route selected is a most feasible one, running the 
 
-68 
 
 Growth of Transportation 
 
 -entire distance from Abbeville to Palmetto through a level, open prairie 
 country with neither hills nor swamps to contend with. This road will 
 be of vast importance to the planters and business men along the line, 
 not only in the way of furnishing additional .transportation facilities for 
 a large section that has heretofore been along distance from markets, 
 but will also give the towns along the Southern Pacific road a competing 
 line, which ought to be felt in better freight rates, as it will probably be 
 •operated by the Gould System. The lands lying along both sides of this 
 line a distance of seventy-five miles are among the most productive and 
 fertile of any in the State, and embrace the rich sugar lands of Vermilion 
 .as well as the fertile rice lands of Acadia and St. Landry parishes. 
 Some of the best business men as well as many of the wealthy planters 
 of Vermilion, Acadia and St. Landry parishes are interested in the line 
 and will push it to completion in the near future. Hon. Hampton Story 
 and Senator H. Barousse, Hon. Jno. E. Pelton and E. Daboval, Jr., of 
 the Acadia Rice Mills, are largely interested in the new road, with 
 Welman Bradford as chief engineer in charge. 
 
 Besides the activity displayed in railroad building may be mentioned 
 the improvement in the navigable streams of the southwest portion 
 •of the State. The Calcasieu river, in Calcasieu parish, is being con- 
 stantly improved by the government in the way of new jetties at its 
 mouth, which, aided by the dredges, are fast making it navigable for 
 large sized steamers. The Mermentau river, in Acadia parish, is another 
 stream that has lately received a share of public attention, and is fast 
 becoming a favorite route for the shipment of oranges, rice, live stock, 
 etc., coming from the coast country, while the Vermilion river, running 
 through the parishes of Lafayette and Vermilion and discharging its 
 waters into Vermilion Bay, affords splendid transportation facilities 
 down its course to the Gulf, or up the river to the Southern Pacific rail- 
 road at Lafayette, up to which point it is navigable. 
 
 Southwest Louisiana is indeed a favored section, threaded as it is 
 with these navigable streams, which will always effectually hold in check 
 (if only by the possibility of what they offer) any desire on the part of 
 railroads toward excessive freight rates, and being traversed in every 
 direction by railroads until almost every neighborhood is brought within 
 reasonable distance of a railroad town. The wonderful increase in rail- 
 road facilities in this section is accounted for by the law of supply and 
 demand, and that the development has kept even pace with the rapid 
 growth of all other industries is plain to be seen. 
 
CROWLEY 
 
 •^T^HE question has been asked many times, “What’s in a name? 
 What’s in a word?” There are many words and many names that 
 possess within themselves an individuality and convey a world of 
 meaning every time they are spoken. From the association connected 
 with them instantly is suggested to use the possibilities of success or 
 failure, or revenge or humility, of love and passion, of defeat or victory, 
 of satisfaction and joy, or of disappointment and sorrow. At the men- 
 tion of an “Appomattox” or a “Waterloo” what a horde of recollections 
 and memories come trooping up! When in foreign lands the mention 
 of “America” or her beloved institutions or the names of her noble men 
 and women will cause a feeling of pleasure — the heart to beat faster as 
 it throbs with a pardonable pride at the recollections the name suggests. 
 Mention the name of some sweet flower, some beloved son and instantly 
 the springs of memory are unlocked and the associations connected with 
 them present themselves to us. And so it is with events and with places. 
 At the mention of the name of Crow t ley at once is suggested the ideas 
 of peace, plenty and prosperity — of a town that started but a few 
 years ago under the most unfavorable auspices and that has grown to be 
 one of the brightest and busiest little cities in all of the Southern States 
 — of a city of churches, public schools, colleges, of long lines of ware- 
 houses and enormous shipping interests; of a town filled with people from 
 nearly every state in the Union, from whose faces have been driven the 
 look of depression and woe caused by being harassed by debt and crop 
 failures in their former homes, and in place of which may be seen bright, 
 cheerful looks with an air of satisfaction over the present and great hopes 
 for the future. 
 
 The word Crowley to thousands of. Northern people who have 
 located in Acadia parish and to the natives of this section alike, has 
 become synonimous with everything that is bright, prosperous 
 
CROWLEY STATE BANK BUILDING— PAID UP CAPITAL $50,000 
 P. S. Lovell, President W. E. Ellis, Cashier 
 
Crowley 
 
 7i 
 
 and progressive, and they all alike turn to it as the “Meca” of their 
 existence. The town enjoys an enviable reputation, not only locally but 
 throughout the State. Neither is its fame confined alone to the Southern 
 States. In most of the Northern States, in nearly every city, town and 
 hamlet may be found dozens and scores of people who, if they have not 
 seen the place, have heard of its prosperity and its bright prospects for the 
 future. The town is known far and near as the “Queen City of South- 
 west Louisiana.” Wherever reside the friends of those who have located 
 here or wherever newspapers go, Crowley has been held up as a model 
 of enterprise, thrift and energy. 
 
 Crowley is located in the southern part and is the county seat of 
 Acadia parish. It is located on the Southern Pacific railroad one hun- 
 dred and sixty-six miles west of New Orleans and two hundred miles east 
 of Houston, and is the central receiving and distributing point for a large 
 and one of the richest agricultural sections of the South. 
 
 Crowley has a population of between two thousand and two thou - 
 sand five hundred people. The town was laid out in 1887. It has 
 had no boom or mushroom growth, but from its very start has enjoyed 
 a steady and prosperous growth, and has steadily been filling up with 
 the best class of citizens, all of whom take an especial pride in their 
 town — in its institutions, its prosperity and everything that pertains to the 
 welfare of the place. The streets are all nicely graded and drained, and 
 there has already been laid over six miles of good, substantial sidewalks. 
 It has a good county court house and an $8,000. brick jail, opera house, 
 public school building costing $3,500 or $4,000, a $20,000 commercial 
 and literary college, four or five of the largest warehouses in the State — 
 one of them alone being 480 feet long — with a combined capacity of over 
 a million bushels of rice, one large elevator, one steam brick manufac- 
 tory, one steam novelty works, two rice mills, telephone communications 
 with all the surrounding towns, and one bank with a new banking build- 
 ing just completed at a cost of ten thousand dollars; is the best horse 
 market in the State outside of the city of New Orleans, has seven church 
 organizations with six elegant church buildings, one machine shop, six 
 blacksmith shops, two tin, sheet-iron and copper working shops, one 
 pump factory, one wheelwright shop, two meat markets, ten general 
 merchandise stores, five grocery stores, two gents’ furnishing stores, 
 three millinery stores, three drug stores, two jewelers, two harness shops, 
 
SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY STATION, CROWLEY, LA. 
 
 PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDING, CROWLEY 
 
Crowley 
 
 73 
 
 •one bakery, one steam job printing office, three livery, sale and feed 
 stables; three restaurants, five hotels and two boarding houses, besides 
 many other smaller business places that are usually to be found in a 
 town of its size. 
 
 Crowley enjoys the distinction of being the largest rice shipping 
 point in the world, there being a constant stream of cars from October 
 to May going to the milling centers throughout the United States. 
 
 The executive authority of the city is vested in Mr. P. J. Chappuis, 
 who is the present mayor. Mr. Chappuis is an able lawyer and a 
 liberal-minded, progressive citizen, and aided as he is by an efficient coun- 
 cil has done much that adds to the development and prosperity of the 
 town. 
 
 In the year 1886 Mr. W. W. Duson conceived the idea of build- 
 ing a town on the present site of Crowley. To this end he associated 
 with himself his elder brother, Hon. C. C. Duson, and Mr. Alphonse 
 Levy, a well known business man of St. Landry parish, with two or 
 three other gentlemen, forming the Southwestern Louisiana Land Com- 
 pany, and the site of Crowley was selected as the base of their opera- 
 tions. To this company and the untiring energy and zeal of its general 
 manager, Mr. W. W. Duson, is largely due the success of the town. 
 Mr. Duson is a native of this section of the country, and possessing 
 as he does an intimate knowledge of its valuable resources and desir- 
 ableness as a home for northern people, has exerted all his energies to- 
 ward bringing this section to the attention of those people seeking 
 homes in the South and today he has the satisfaction of seeing a pros- 
 perous city rapidly building and peopled with a wide-awake, progressive 
 class of citizens who are thoroughly alive to the interests of their town. 
 Early in the history of Crowley the citizens recognized the necessity of 
 providing some means for educational facilities which would place them 
 ■on a different level from other southern towns. They determined that 
 a lack of good schools should never be the means of retarding immigra- 
 tion and development and should never be used as an argument against 
 locating in Crowley. They here showed their appreciation of higher 
 education and their generosity by going down into their pockets and 
 building by private subscription the Acadia Commercial and Literary 
 College at a cost of over $ 20,000 . The building is one of the handsomest 
 and best equipped for school purposes of any in the State outside of New 
 
74 
 
 Crowley 
 
 Orleans. Soon after this Crowley was asked for free public schools on 
 a larger and better scale than what the State could or would furnish. 
 Here again the citizens displayed that same spirit of progress and gener- 
 osity that has at all times been manifest when the needs and the best 
 interests of the town where it stake. It took a solicitor just one day to 
 raise the $4,000 in cash needed to build such a public school house as was 
 in keeping with the town’s needs and growth. This is a way that the 
 citizens of Crowley have of doing things, having unbounded faith in the 
 future of the town and knowing that every dollar they put out in this 
 manner is “but bread cast upon the water” and returns to them two- 
 fold in the increased valuation of their property. In this respect the 
 town is a model one and furnishes an object lesson and example that is 
 well worth emulating by older towns than Crowley. Its citizens and 
 business men are large-hearted and liberal-minded and there is less of 
 jealousy and the petty little bickerings that make life in a small town so 
 distasteful to many, and more of that genuine feeling of good fellowship 
 and all-pull-together-for-Crowley than can be found in most any other 
 town. The town is regularly laid out into blocks three hundred feet 
 square which are cut up into sixteen lots, the most of which are 50 feet 
 wide and 100 feet deep, excepting the key lots which run half way across 
 the block, making them 150 feet long. The streets of the town run east 
 and west and are known as First, Second, Third, etc., while all thorough- 
 fares running north and south are known as avenues and are named 
 after the letters of the alphabet. The court house occupies a command- 
 ing site on a square of ground in the center of the town and is a sub- 
 stantial brick structure which has been cemented outside and resembles 
 a stone building. 
 
 Crowley has a good sized colored population, but they in no way 
 interfere with the white people. The southwest portion of the town has 
 been set apart for their residence and here they live, having their own 
 churches and schools and their various organizations and societies with- 
 out any desire on their part to mingle or intrude upon the whites. 
 
 The town of Crowley is out of debt, is not bonded, taxes are very 
 light, and at the present time has nearly money enough in its treasury 
 to erect a splendid water-works system and electric light plant, which 
 we shall probably have by January 1, 1896. 
 
Things You Want to Know and Questions You Want Answered 
 
 Q. Is it a healthy country ? 
 
 A. There is no healthier climate or country under the sun than 
 Southwest Louisiana, and we believe it to be a fact that the death rate 
 is lower in these prairies near the Gulf of Mexico than any other spot in 
 America. 
 
 Q. What school facilities has Acadia parish to offer ? 
 
 A. None of the newer parishes can compare with Acadia in the 
 inducements it offers to the immigrant in this line. Throughout the 
 parish may be found school houses, though not as good as you have at 
 home, still they are answering the purpose until something better can be 
 prepared. Public schools are maintained about six months in the year. 
 The town of Crowley has a fine public school building and maintains a 
 free public graded school nine months in the year; has also an excellent 
 college and one or two private schools. 
 
 Q. What are your church advantages ? 
 
 A. Crowley has as many good churches as any town of its size 
 east, west, north or south and as large a per cent of church going peo. 
 pie. There are six good church buildings and seven church societies, 
 besides two colored churches. The Episcopal society will erect an ele- 
 gant building in the near future. 
 
 Q. Can a Northern man stand the climate in the summer ? 
 
 A. Yes, a Northern man can stand the climate at any season of 
 the) ear. You will find a longer spell of warm weather than in the 
 Northern States but not so high a temperature. The fact that thousands 
 of Northern men work out of doors in the sun the entire summer without 
 inconvenience should convince any one on this point. If Northern men 
 could not stand this climate they would not stay here, much less after 
 they had tested it, send for their wives and children, their fathers and 
 their mothers. 
 
 Q. Are there many venomous snakes and poisonous insects? 
 
 A. There are less snakes than in the state of Wisconsin, with the 
 
76 
 
 Things You Want to Know 
 
 possible exception of the water moccasin. They are found quite plenti- 
 ful in the streams and lakes, but are entirely harmless. There are no 
 poisonous insects. 
 
 Q. Are not mosquitoes and flies terrible in the summer ? 
 
 A. Mosquitoes are annoying at some seasons; no more so here,, 
 however, than in most of the Northern states. There are ten house- 
 fles in Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska to where there is one in 
 Louisiana. 
 
 Q. Do you have yellow fever in Acadia parish ? 
 
 A. Never had a case of yellow fever in Southwest Louisiana, and 
 have not had a case in the State for seventeen years. No more danger 
 of yellow fever here than in Dakota or New York. 
 
 Q. Does your country overflow ? 
 
 A. Never overflowed but once, and then Noah had an ark and 
 saved all the good people. Acadia parish is from forty to sixty- five feet 
 above overflow. 
 
 Q. What is the best time of the year>to come to Louisiana ? 
 
 A. Just as soon as you can close up your business in the North or 
 where you are now. One season is as good as another; the sooner you 
 get here the better chance you stand to secure bargains and begin living 
 in earnest. 
 
 Q. Does northern stock do well in Louisiana? 
 
 A. Horses and mules do well with the same care for the first year 
 that you give them north. Cattle over one year old should not be 
 brought from the northern states; calves and yearlings do well and you 
 run no risk in bringing them. 
 
 Q. What are freight and passenger rates from this place to Crow- 
 ley ? 
 
 A. You had better write us particularly on this subject, and we will 
 secure for you the lowest possible rates. 
 
 Q. What are work horses and mules worth in Crowley ? 
 
 A. Mules are mostly used, and when young, sound and good weight 
 sell for about $275.00 per span; poorer grades can be bought for from 
 fifty to eighty-five dollars each. Horses sell for from $125.00 to $225.00 
 per span. 
 
 Q. Would you advise me to ship my goods or sell them and buy 
 again ? 
 
 A. Unless you can get fair prices for your household goods and 
 
Things You Want to Know 
 
 77 - 
 
 stock fill a car and ship it. The same machinery you used north will 
 answer your purpose here. If your car is not full, fill it up with oats. 
 With each car, if it contains live stock, you are entitled to transportation 
 for one person. 
 
 Q. What does your machinery cost in Louisiana ? 
 
 A. Farm wagons cost about $50.00 to $55.00, according to size and 
 quality; walking plows about $1.00 per inch, $ 12.00 for 12-inch plow, 
 $16.00 for 16-inch; sulky plows from $40.00 to $65.00; self binding har- 
 vesters — McComack, Deering and Osborne — $150. 00 each; harrows from 
 $8.00 to $25.00, according to make and size. 
 
 Q. How is the drinking water in Louisiana ? 
 
 A. Good, wholesome, pure water may be obtained at a depth of 
 from fifteen to twenty-five feet. This is about the depth of the clay until 
 you strike a strata of sand and gravel which supplies an abundance of 
 good water for stock or household purposes. The subject of drinking 
 water is one on which there is a diversity of opinion. Although well 
 water is largely used for drinking purposes, rain water, which is caught 
 in large cypress cisterns standing up from the ground is most universally 
 used. Throughout the northern states, if a barrel of rain water is- 
 caught and left standing ten days or two weeks in the sun the water will 
 be full of wigglers, have a green scum, and in fact be putrid. Here a 
 barrel or cistern of rain water stands out in the sun all summer and 
 keeps as clear and pure as a crystal. This fact is supposed to be attri- 
 butable to the purity of the salt breezes that constantly sweep this coun- 
 try from the Gulf of Mexico, and herein may be found one of the greatest 
 causes of the extreme healthfulness of this section. 
 
 Q. What markets have you for the products you raises ? 
 
 A. We are midway between the cities of Galveston and Houston 
 on the west and New Orleans — the greatest cotton, sugar and rice market 
 in America, if not in the world — on the east, and which is also a good 
 lumber market. Within the next eighteen months we will undoubtedly 
 have the Louisiana Central railroad running the entire length of our 
 parish and connecting with some of the northern trunk lines, if not with 
 the Mississippi river only seventy-five miles distant at Baton Rouge, the 
 State capitol. 
 
A FEW OPINIONS 
 
 The following is a letter written by Mr. P. S. Lovell, formerly of 
 Battle Creek, Mich., and published in the Sotithern States Magazine , in 
 July, 1894: 
 
 Being tired of the cold winters of Michigan, I determined to locate 
 in the South. After investigating different localities I decided that 
 Southwest Louisiana was the place for me, and in the spring of 1891 I 
 settled at Crowley, in Acadia parish, and have never regretted the change. 
 
 There are more opportunities for the profitable investment of capital 
 in Southwest Louisiana than in any other section of the Uuited States 
 with which I am familiar. The man of moderate means can, by thrift 
 and economy, much more easily secure a competence here than in the 
 North. 
 
 While in this locality rice is our main crop, corn and cane do equally 
 well. Everything needed for good living, except wheat, can be grown 
 here. Gardens flourish the year round, there being no month in which 
 fruit and vegetables may not be gathered. Fruits of all kinds, including 
 peaches, pears, plums, apricots, figs, oranges and berries grow luxuri- 
 antly. 
 
 It is also an excellent stock country. The pine lands equal those 
 of Michigan and Wisconsin, and can at present be bought very cheaply. 
 This country offers inviting opportunities for manufacturers. Acadia 
 parish is rapidly filling up with Northern and Western people. They have 
 found the climate an exceptionally healthy one, and have had the kindest 
 of treatment from their Southern neighbors. In the whole parish I know 
 of no Northern man who has not been financially benefitted by the change. 
 
 Crowley, Louisiana. 
 
 The following is a letter written by Mr. B. R. Garland, of Rockville, 
 Ind., who located in this country about four years ago, which was publish- 
 ed in the Souther ?i States Magazine in December, 1894: 
 
 I came -from Rockville, Ind., to Crowley, La., about three years 
 ago, and have been growing rice successfully and profitably. The people 
 of this section do not know what hard times are. Because there comes 
 -a year occasionally when they do not realize three or four times the cost 
 
A Few Opinions 
 
 79 
 
 of their lands they call it hard times, but they know absolutely nothing 
 of such want and suffering as are experienced in some sections. 
 
 In the first place, lands are cheap and sold on easy terms at a low 
 rate of interest, and if a man has not a home of his own it is his own 
 fault. Cheap lands, cheap fuel, cheap building material, cheap colthing 
 and cheap food--— all this in a land that will produce sugar, rice, cotton, 
 corn, oats, sweet and Irish potatoes, fruit of all kinds and every manner 
 and variety of vegetables. I know of many men who came here two or 
 three years ago with from $200 to $500 and today have a quarter section 
 of land with good buildings well stocked, their years feed and seed and 
 free from debt. How many countries can do this for a man? I defy 
 anyone to point out any section of the United States today that has done 
 more for the industrious poor man or more for the health of the invalid 
 or more for the capitalist in the way of steady rise in values and large 
 returns on investments than this section of Louisiana during the past five 
 years. 
 
 The people of this State have always performed their labor by the 
 hardest and most expensive means, and now that new and improved 
 machinery is being introduced it is cheapening the cost of production, 
 and it is safe to say that rice is raised at a cost of $1.00 per barrel less 
 than it was five years ago, with many possibilities of still further reduc- 
 tions. 
 
 Crowley, Louisiana. 
 
 The following is a letter written by Mr. L. S. Hatch which was 
 published in the August, 1894, issue of the Southern States Magazine: 
 
 During the war I spent two years in Louisiana as a soldier, and 
 although at that time some things were not as pleasant as could be de- 
 sired, still many times after returning to my Northern home my thoughts 
 would turn to the fair land of Louisiana — to its mild and even climate, 
 its orchards and flower gardens; its productive soil, and many other 
 advantages it affords over the North. 
 
 In 1888 my health became so impaired that it became necessary for 
 me to seek a warmer climate. I sold out my little property I had ac- 
 cumulated and bade good-bye to the blizzard-beaten prairies of 
 Nebraska and pulled for the “old camping ground” and once more 
 hoisted the stars and stripes, this time over my own home, with the 
 same men for neighbors who had helped to make it so unpleasant for me 
 during my first visit to this section of the country. I certainly find a 
 greater difference in them as soldiers than as neighbors and friends. 
 
 We have rice for our principal and money-making crop here instead 
 of corn or wheat, as compared with Nebraska and other Northern States. 
 Rice is raised at about the same expense as wheat is raised in Nebraska,. 
 
8o 
 
 A Few Opinions 
 
 the same machinery being used for seeding, harvesting and threshing 
 the crop as is used in any Northern State for a crop of grain. 
 
 In the Northern States wheat is raised on land worth from $30 to $60 
 per acre, and from ten to fifteen bushels is considered a fair yield. 
 Now, at the price of wheat for the last ten years, say fifty to seventy - 
 five cents, the farmer will hardly have money enough to pay the expense 
 of the crop, and he considers himself fortunate if the balance is not on 
 the wrong side of the ledger. Rice is raised on lands worth from $10 to 
 .$15 per acre, and ten to fifteen barrels per acre considered a fair crop, 
 worth from $2 to $3 per barrel. Then, again, these prairie lands are 
 well adapted to the culture of sugar cane. This is acknowledged by 
 .agriculturists everywhere to be the best paying crop that is raised any- 
 where in the United States. 
 
 Another advantage this country possesses over the North is its mild 
 winters. There are six months of the year in the North when the farmer 
 has all he can do to keep himself and his stock from suffering with 
 cold, thus leaving him only six months in which to earn something that 
 is usually consumed the next winter. The farmer of Southwest Loui- 
 siana has the entire year in which to labor. He usually does his plow- 
 ing in December and January, while his stock run on the prairies or on 
 his pasture the year round. All kinds of vegetables do well here, and 
 with a little care and attention the farmer can have a garden in the 
 winter as well as in the summer. It is also an excellent fruit country; 
 all of the fruits that grow in the North and many that will not grow 
 there, are raised here with little or no attention. 
 
 The timber and waste places are filled with blackberries, plums 
 and other fruits. There is nothing to prevent the farmer from preserv- 
 ing and canning all the fruit that a family can use. I have a very large 
 family, but have had fruit on my table nearly every meal for a year 
 and still have some seventy-five jars left from last year. 
 
 The greatest drawback this country has is its poor school system, 
 but this is improving very rapidly. The town of Crowley is well supplied 
 with public schools and colleges, and is one of the most prosperous towns 
 in the State of Louisiana. 
 
 Farmers of this section are fast learning the benefits of diversified 
 farming, and hereafter will raise their own meats, corn and other grain and 
 not depend on other sections to furnish them so largely as in the past. 
 Since coming to Louisiana I have made rice-raising my principal busi- 
 ness, and this year will put in about 300 acres of rice, besides a nice 
 field of sugar cane. 
 
 Good pure water is obtained at a depth of from twelve to twenty feet, 
 but cistern water is used mostly for drinking purposes. The native people 
 -of this section of the country are an easy-going people, and I believe are 
 
A Few Opinions 
 
 8i 
 
 the happiest people in the world. They told us when we came here 
 we would starve, but we told them while we are starving 
 that they would get pretty lean and hungry. I find them to be a 
 kind-hearted, generous and hospitable people, and with but few excep- 
 tions without very much ambition to better their condition. 
 
 There is plenty of room here for thousands of people who are being 
 frozen up in the fall and thawed out every spring; plenty of room for 
 them to come here and build up a home for themselves and their 
 children. 
 
 Crowley, Louisiana. 
 
 The following letter was written by Mr. J. A. Williams, formerly 
 of St. Paul, Neb., and published in the Southern States Magazine , 
 October, 1894: 
 
 I came to Louisiana in 1887 from St. Paul, Nebraska, where I had 
 been alternately freezing and thawing since 1880. I was attracted to 
 the town of Crowley, which had just been started, and which has now a 
 population of 2,000. 
 
 I find in this land of the sun that anyone may come with a small 
 amount of means and make a home for himself. In this parish rice cul- 
 ture has been the main crop. We have plenty of good rice and cane 
 lands here to be had for from $5 to $25 per acre. 
 
 This country has taken a wonderful stride forward. What six 
 years ago was an open prairie with cattle roaming over it at their own 
 will and pleasure has been converted into a vast network of fences, 
 lanes and farms, all of which has been brought about mainly through 
 the efforts of W. W. Duson, the founder of Crowley. 
 
 A new railroad running north and south, and known as the Mid- 
 land Branch of the Southern Pacific, taking in a magnificent farming 
 country, tapping our Southern Pacific about eight miles west of Crowley, 
 has been built. 
 
 This is a healthy country. Northern men may be seen working in 
 their rice fields all day long with less concern about the hot sun than 
 they did in their Northern homes. 
 
 Besides my half section of fine land near town I have a block near 
 the center of the town with a good house on it, and fine orchard of 120 
 Leconte pear trees in bearing. When I landed here I had about $300 
 in cash. Figs, peaches, plums, apricots, strawberries and blackberries 
 all do well here. 
 
 Crowley, Louisiana. 
 
 The following is a letter written by Miron Abbott, who came from 
 Muskegon, Michigan, about seven years ago. The letter was published 
 
82 
 
 A Few Opinions 
 
 in the Southern States Magazine in September, 1894. Mr. Abbott, with 
 his brothers, came to Crowley with less than a $1,000. Today they are 
 worth $100,000 as the result of their industry, their intelligence and the 
 natural resources of Acadia soil. He says: 
 
 I came from Muskegon, Michigan, five years ago to Crowley, 
 Louisiana, or to the place where Crowley now stands, for at this time 
 Crowley existed only in the minds of its projectors. 
 
 The first essential quality that a country should possess, and that 
 any man, especially with a family, will seek is a healthy climate, and in 
 this respect Southwest Louisiana certainly stands at the head of the list. 
 To the sudden changes and extremes of temperature can be attributed 
 most of the cases of catarrh, bronchitis, consumption, rheumatism, etc., 
 so prevalent in the North. 
 
 Southwest Louisiana being a fertile country and located only thirty 
 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, has the benefit of the invigorating Gulf 
 breezes at all seasons of the year. This, with an abundant water sup- 
 ply of the purest drinking water, is largely responsible for the excellent 
 state of health which the inhabitants of this section enjoy. 
 
 I many years ago decided that there were too many people raising 
 corn, wheat, oats and barley in the North, and that on account of the 
 overproduction of these crops it was no longer a paying business. I was 
 also aware that in some sections of the South a class of products could be 
 raised in a limited section, and there could be no over production of them. 
 It was for the purpose of avoiding the first condition and finding the latter 
 that we left the State of Michigan and came to Southwest Louisiana, 
 and I find that the conditions that we were seeking exist here to a greater 
 extent than we expected to find. 
 
 In the first place the health of myself and family has been all that 
 we could wish for; we have seen the lands that we located a few years 
 ago as government homesteads increase in value from nothing to from 
 $25 to $40 per acre. I have seen my friends and neighbors, some of 
 them who have worked by days work all their lives previous to coming 
 to Louisiana, now prosperous and in possession of fine farms well 
 stocked with cattle, mules and horses and free from debt. I have seen 
 these lands that a few years ago were thought to be almost worthless, 
 by proper cultivation produce two crops of Irish potatoes of as fine 
 a quality as I ever saw in any Northern State. I find beautiful and lux- 
 uriant vegetable gardens growing to the highest state of perfection in mid- 
 winter. I find that these lands that have been overlooked or passed by as 
 worthless by the homeseeker for the past twenty-five years in his search 
 for a home are capable of producing from fifteen to thirty-five tons of 
 sugar cane per acre, worth $4.00 per ton at the railroad station, or from 
 
A Few Opinions 
 
 83 
 
 ten to twenty barrels of rice, worth from $ 2.00 to $3.00 per barrel. I 
 find that the stories that used to be told about Louisiana beibg nothing 
 but a swamp filled with alligators, with occasionally a dry sp6t of land 
 which was covered with snakes and other venomous reptiles — that the 
 people were of the fire-eating sort and looked with suspicion, hatred and 
 distrust toward Northerners who settled amongst them — are all bosh and 
 nonsense. 
 
 No finer peaches, pears, oranges, pomegranates, quinces, gripes, 
 plums, blackberries, strawberries and other fruits ever grew than are 
 raised in this section. There are no finer farming lands thaik these 
 prairies of Southwest Louisiana, and no better timber in the world than 
 is to be found along the streams of this country. 
 
 No man could ask for a kinder, more generous people or fqr a 
 heartier welcome than is extended by the native people of Louisiana. I 
 do not mean to convey the idea that Louisiana is a paradise, with none 
 of the drawbacks that other new countries have to contend with, f'lpr 
 such is not the case. Louisiana needs better roads and a better school 
 system. It needs more money for manufacturing purposes, it needs ft 
 different system of handling her crops; it needs legislation on several 
 important subjects. But we do claim that Southwest Louisiana* 
 possesses more and better opportunities for supporting a family £.nd 
 laying something by for a rainy day than any of the Northern or Western 
 States and, I believe, than any other section of the South. 
 
 From my experience and observation of five years in this section] I 
 do not hesitate to say that any sober, industrious man who will come to this 
 section of the country and put forth the same amount of energy and u$e 
 the same economy that he is compelled to use in the North will very 
 soon find himself independent. \ 
 
 This section also offers splendid inducements for the capitalist!. 
 Property is constantly increasing in value, and lands that are today sell- 
 ing for $10 per acre, in the next three years will bring $40 and $50. It 
 takes years to turn the tide of emigration when once it has set in in one 
 direction. For the past twenty years emigration has been to the West 
 and Northwest. The American people, as well as the German and 
 Scandinavian races, are not unlike flocks of sheep — where some leader 
 goes, the flock follows. The fact that when California was brought to 
 the attention of homeseekers they poured into that state until there was 
 no longer room for them, and it was no uncommon thing to see land sold 
 for anywhere from $100 to $700 per acre; the same with Illinois, Iowa, 
 Wisconsin and Minnesota. This confirms my opinion that the South, and 
 particularly this section of it, is on the eve of the most prosperous era it 
 has every known. The advance guards have come and are still coming 
 until there are now in Acadia parish people from every state in the 
 
8 4 
 
 A Few Opinions 
 
 Union. Tljey are writing and telling their friends, and their good reports 
 cannot help but have its effects. It is a fact that immigration has turned 
 Southward, and from past experience and present indications this will 
 soon be as well developed and thickly settled a country as California. 
 
 In c/onclusion I will say I came to Louisiana for the purpose of find- 
 ing a milder climate and a place where a man could get fair and honest 
 returns/for his labor and where the conditions were more favorable for 
 a poo'*/ man and where I could better my condition, and after residing 
 here fi ; ye years I am pleased to say I am satisfied, my only regret being 
 that I did not come five years before I did. 
 
 / Crowley, Louisiana. 
 
 Marshall, Ind., September, 1895. 
 Me4srs. JV. W. Duson &= Bro., Crozuley , La.: 
 
 Gentlemen — Referring to your request for my opinion as to South- 
 west Louisiana and the advantages it offers to the Northern man who 
 wi/shes to change his location, I beg first in reply to say, it would be a 
 difficult task indeed to estimate or sum up the advantages that your sec- 
 tion offers. I am more and more impressed with this idea every time I 
 Jsit that country. 
 
 /The phenomenal growth and development of Southwest Louisiana, 
 the /profitableness of her agricultural products, the heathfulness of her 
 clin/iate and the prosperity of our Northern people who have located there 
 spe/ak in the highest terms of the natural resources of that favored sec- 
 tion. I am more than pleased with the investment I made there through 
 yoiir firm a few years ago and consider the lands of Acadia and Vermilion 
 parishes as safe investments, and can see no reason why your section 
 should not have a bright future before it, and your real estate values 
 dpuble in the next few years. 
 
 / Wishing you success in the laudable enterprise of settling up that 
 ^ection with a thrifty and prosperous class of people, I remain, , 
 
 / Sincerely yours, 
 
 A. R McMurtry. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL 
 
 W HILE the natural conditions of this country — its superb 
 climate, fertile soil, cheap lands, abundant crops and good 
 prices for the past eight years — have been important factors- 
 in settling up this section — in fact the very basis on which the prosper- 
 ity of Acadia parish is founded — yet there have been other elements 
 and other agencies at work that have turned the tide of immigration from 
 the West to the South and brought this section and the advan- 
 tages it offers prominently before the capitalist, the agriculturist 
 and the thousands of steady, hardworking yeoman of the North. 
 All these natural atributes of soil and climate have been here 
 for ages, lying dormant, untouched and undeveloped, the stillness- 
 unbroken save by the plaintive wail of the whippowil or the 
 mocking bird’s rollicking song; and the prairies so capable of producing; 
 the necessities of life, covered year after year with almost a tropical 
 growth, only to be enriched by their own vegetation for a thousand sum- 
 mers, would have remained in this condition with all their wealth of 
 natural resources to the end of time had it not been for man, with his 
 spirit of restlessness and indomitable energy and desire for advancement 
 and to accomplish something. 
 
 The first to call the attention of the outside world to the unlimited : 
 resources of Acadia parish was the firm of W. W. Duson & Bro. This 
 firm is composed of two well known Louisiana men that need no intro- 
 duction to the people of their native State. To the manager of the firm,. 
 Mr. W. W. Duson, more than to any other living man is due the credit 
 of transforming Acadia parish from an unbroken cattle range eight years 
 ago into what today is admitted to be the most prosperous agricultural 
 section in the United States. The success of this firm has been almost 
 phenominal. Starting as it did with little or no means, it has built 
 
86 
 
 Biographical 
 
 up a business second to no real estate dealers in the South. One of the 
 greatest elements of success that has entered into Mr. Duson’s business 
 career is the honesty and integrity of his purpose. Possessing, as he 
 does, a strong love and attachment for his native State, and appreciating 
 the advantages it offered in climate, soil and other resources, it was a 
 source of annoyance to him to see a constant stream of immigration 
 from the East pouring into the Western States and Territories that had so 
 few inducements to offer, while the broad and fertile prairies of his own 
 State remained undeveloped and not even investigated. The question 
 being one of vital importance to him he began to study the causes why 
 Louisiana was so constantly being shunned by the prospective home- 
 seeker and the capitalist alike. The cause was soon found to be a 
 prejudice against the State and an utter ignorance of her resources. 
 From that day to this possibly no man in the State has done as much 
 toward obliterating this prejudice and disseminating the facts and con- 
 ditions as they actually exist than W. W. and his brother C. C. Duson. 
 Realizing the importance of the work and the difficulties surrounding his 
 undertaking, W. W. Duson organized the Southwestern Louisiana Land 
 Company and became its general manager. This gave him the means 
 and opportunity of prosecuting the business he had undertaken, and he 
 assumed the difficult task of settling up the prairies of Southwest 
 Louisiana with a thrifty, prosperous class of Northern farmers and busi- 
 ness men with an energy and strength of purpose that soon made itself 
 felt.* 
 
 Engravers were set to work making maps of this section of country, 
 printing presses and newspapers began telling of the resources of South- 
 west Louisiana, type-writers were employed in corresponding with and in- 
 viting people to visit this region and see for themselves, and excursion trains 
 were run at the company’s own expense. Men came from the different 
 sections of the country. They lookod on with astonishment at the won- 
 derful crops that were raised — saw them sold and the farmer put his 
 money in his pocket and go home after more, but were unable to solve 
 the problem. They said: “It is an exceptional year; next year the 
 crops will be poor.” Men who had lived here all of their lives told them 
 crops never failed. Then they said: “It must be very unhealthy here, 
 or this country would have been settled up generations ago.” They saw 
 old men eighty and ninety years of age who told them they were born, 
 
Biographical 
 
 87 
 
 and had raised large families here and had never been sick a day in their 
 lives. The fears they had when they came that the Southerners would 
 murder them because they came from the North were dispelled by the 
 hearty handshake of the native and a pressing invitation from the good 
 housewife to “come and drink coffee.” Some of these men who visited 
 Acadia parish six or seven years ago had nerve enough to -trust their own 
 eyes and believed what they saw. They had business sagacity enough 
 to see that this country had a rich and brilliant future before it. They 
 grasped the situation, and the time which comes in the affairs of men was 
 taken at the tide and today they are independent. Others went away 
 still wondering and doubting, and they have been regretting the mistake 
 they made ever since. The constant efforts of Mr. Duson and his able 
 associates in the land company to bring Acadia parish to the attention, 
 of the Northern States was felt each year by an increased number of im- 
 migrants. Invariably when a man visited Acadia parish and the new 7 
 town of Crowley which the company had started, whether they invested 1 
 or not have ever since been the staunch . friends of the country and 
 universally speak a good word for it. They have told their friends of 
 what they saw here and the opportunities offered. This in itself has 
 been a great factor in settling up the country and has materially lightened 
 the task Mr. Duson had undertaken. Personally, Mr. Duson is a man of 
 great energy and force of character. He knows no such thing as fail, 
 and is generous to a fault, giving largely of his means for the support of 
 churches, schools and anything that will materially build up Southwest 
 Louisiana or better the condition of the people in the community in which 
 he lives. Many is the young man who attributes today his start in life 
 to the aid and assistance of W. W. Duson. His brother and partner in 
 business, the Hon. C. C. Duson, of St. Landry parish, is one of the most 
 prominent and favorably known men in the State. He was for fourteen 
 years the sheriff of St. Landry parish before it was divided, and made 
 probably the best record of any sheriff the State has ever elected to the 
 office. Soon after the close of the war when every section of the South 
 was infested with organized bands of outlaws from both the North and! 
 South, through his stubborn determination that the law should be upheld 
 he succeeded in breaking up and driving out of the State the last member 
 of the desperate gangs, many of whom were convicted and hung while 
 others are now serving life sentences in the penitentiary. Mr. Duson is 
 
S8 
 
 Biographical 
 
 also an ex- Senator from his district. He is a man of great personal 
 magnetism, a brilliant conversationalist with a mind richly stored with 
 personal reminiscences of the early history of Louisiana, takes great 
 interest in the politics of his State and is one of the leaders of his party. 
 As a business man Mr. Duson stands among the first in Southwest Louis- 
 iana — like his brother W. W., is well thought of by the business men of 
 the State or wherever he is known. 
 
 Besides their extensive business interests in Crowley, these enter- 
 prising gentlemen about eighteen months ago undertook the building up 
 and development of those lands lying in the western part of the parish 
 of Acadia. With this end in view they induced the management of the 
 Southern Pacific Company to build a branch of their road twenty-five 
 miles north, known as the Midland Branch. This line begins about 
 eight miles west of Crowley and runs north twenty-five miles up into the 
 parish of St. Landry to the town of Eunice. It took but six months to 
 obtain the right-of-way for this line, grade the road and lay the track. 
 On September 12, 1894, a public sale of lots was held at the new town of 
 Eunice, at which time $25,000 worth of property was sold, on the most 
 of which improvements were begun at once. Today it would be a hard 
 matter indeed to find a brighter or more prosperous town of its size any- 
 where in the country. 
 
 Eunice is situated in the center of a large scope of the richest agri- 
 cultural lands in the State. The surrounding country is well settled up 
 by a thrifty class of agriculturists, and while the farms are not as large 
 as they are around Crowley, their products are more diversified. Pre- 
 vious to the establishment or the town of Eunice the farmers were com- 
 pelled to haul their products a distance of twenty to twenty-five miles to 
 Crowley and Opelousas, and it is no wonder that these thrifty and hard- 
 working people appreciate the advantages that the new road and town 
 of Eunice afford them. The destinies of Eunice have been presided 
 ■over and been under the personal supervision of Mr. C. C. Duson, who 
 has spared no time or expense to have the town artistically laid out, 
 streets nicely graded and sidewalks laid along the business streets. 
 Many who witnessed the rapid growth and enhancement in values of lots 
 in Crowley took advantage of the opportunity to invest in Eunice. 
 Those who lacked the nerve to invest now know that it was a good thing 
 because property has nearly doubled in Eunice since the day of the sale 
 
Biographical 
 
 8 9 
 
 one year ago. They can now see that they made a mistake and have 
 but two alternatives — either buy at the advanced prices or let it alone.. 
 The great demand for property in Eunice, the rapid growth of the towny 
 and the large volume of business done there all prove that there was a press- 
 ing need and demand for this town. Anyone looking over the place and 
 noting the general air of prosperity and business activity and looking out 
 upon the thousands of acres of rich farming lands tributary to the town, 
 being about twenty miles in each direction, cannot help but see that 
 Eunice is destined to be the metropolis of that prosperous section and 
 that the town is bound to play an important part in the history, growth- 
 and development of Southwest Louisiana from this time on. A 
 parallel case is to be found in the opposite direction. Lying south of 
 Midland Junction and running down into Vermilion parish is a strip of 
 country that has no suporior for rice raising or general farming. The 
 western part of Vermilion parish may be called the newer portion of 
 all that section known as the prairie region of Southwest Louisiana. 
 Not until the year 1892 did it begin to develop, since which time the rice 
 industry has received a great deal of attention. Some of the largest irri- 
 gating plants in the State have been established here this season. This 
 section is the seat of a thrifty colony of Indiana and Illinois people who 
 have opened up some of the finest rice plantations to be found in America. 
 It is a section that is being rapidly settled up by Northern and Western 
 people, who are fast developing it into an ideal farming community. The 
 greatest drawback this section of country has had has been its lack of 
 transportation facilities, its distance from markets, railroads, churches- 
 and schools. But all of these difficulties are now being overcome. 
 Through the efforts of Mr. C. C. Duson the Southern Pacific Railway Co. 
 are now extending their Eunice Branch south from Midland Junction 
 into the heart of this, the agriculturist’s paradise. The road has already 
 been graded and track laid to the Bayou Queue-de-Tortue a distance of 
 about eight miles. As soon as the bridge can be completed over this; 
 stream the road will be pushed forward to a point four miles further south 
 where a new town is now being laid out to be known as Gueydan. 
 Like the towns of Crowley and Eunice, this town will be under the man- 
 agement of Messrs. W. W. Duson & Bro., who will see that the town is 
 laid out, the streets nicely graded, parks established, a good depot and 
 hotels built — in fact, they intend to see that a thriving town is well started 
 
90 
 
 Biographical 
 
 before inviting the public to see what they have done, or before asking 
 them to cast their lot in Gueydan. The energy that these men have, 
 their unlimited resources for advertising, the care and attention that 
 they bestow in looking for the best interest of the towns in which they 
 are interested, the natural resources of the country, the long distance 
 from which the town will draw patronage, all combine toward making 
 Gueydan an ideal town and one that its projectors may well feel proud 
 ■of. Some time during the month of December of the present year (1895) 
 a public sale of lots will be held, and there will be offered one ot these 
 opportunities that the early pages ot this book have been telling you 
 about. If you will embrace it and put yourself in the way of the incoming 
 tide you will be carried on to success and wealth, just as surely as were 
 those who bought property in Crowley when it first started. They have 
 seen business lots that they purchased for from $30 to $40 and $50 per 
 lot advance until they are worth from $1,500 to $2,500 per lot. If you 
 hesitate you may wish you hadn’t and cry for the “milk that has been 
 spilled,” but the same opportunity will never come to you again. Other 
 opportunities may present themselves, but will you profit by them? You 
 made a mistake that five years ago you did not invest your money in 
 Southwest Louisiana lands , for since that time they have doubled nearly 
 every year. You made a mistake that you did not take some interest in 
 the towns of Crowley and Eunice when they first started, and now Guey- 
 dan is offered you. Will you seize this opportunity f 
 
 Money invested in almost any line in Southwest Louisiana is sure to 
 bring large returns. Her lands offer the safest and best paying investment 
 that are today on the American market. Don’t make the fatal mistake 
 of putting off another year the investigation of these facts and then 
 after property has gone so high that you can’t reach it, mourn over the 
 .opportunity you have lost and the mistake you have made . 
 
 We give the public this bit of personal history in view of the fact 
 that this firm deals extensively with the public, thousands of whom they 
 have never seen. They solicit correspondence and investments, pay 
 taxes for non-residents, and it is due the public that they know with 
 whom they deal. This firm in all of their long business career, dealing 
 with thousands of people whom they have never seen have built up an 
 honorable reputation. They have never been charged with fraud or 
 misrepresenting facts and your interests are safe in their hands. They 
 
Biographical 
 
 9i 
 
 are well and widely known, and that you may better know who they are 
 we publish here a few letters from the most prominent business men in 
 New Orleans and other parts of the State: 
 
 New Orleans, La., April 23, 1895.. 
 
 To The Business Public: 
 
 We have known Mr. W. W. Duson, of Crowley, La., for some: 
 years. We commend him as trustworthy, capable and enterprising,, 
 and shall be glad to learn of his success in his undertakings. 
 
 Respectfully, A. Baldwin & Co., Limited. 
 
 E. Eustis, Treasurer. 
 
 Lake Charles, La., April 23, 1895- 
 
 To Whom It May Concern: 
 
 This is to certify that we have known Mr. W. W. Duson, of Crow- 
 ley, La., for the past five years and a half. He is a man of integrity and 
 any representations he may make can be relied upon. He is a large 
 property owner in Southwest Louisiana and especially in and about 
 Crowley. Any favors shown Mr. Duson will be appreciated by us. 
 
 Respectfully, A. L. Williams, 
 
 Cashier First National Bank. 
 
 New Orleans, La., May 1, 1895. 
 
 Messrs. W. W. Duson 6° Bro. : 
 
 Gentlemen — We note with pleasure your determination to visit 
 some of the Northern centers in the interest of Crowley and adjacent 
 territory, which we may say owes its wonderful and rapid strides in de- 
 velopment in an exceedingly great measure to your untiring efforts; and 
 we write to encourage and urge you to continue the good work. 
 
 Knowing you as intimately as we do, and knowing the high esteem 
 in which you are held by the people in your section and in this city, 
 both as a business men and men of integrity, we feel certain of your 
 ultimate success. Sincerely yours, Martin Thompson & Co. 
 
 New Iberia, La., April 22, 1895. 
 
 To Whom it May Concern: 
 
 This is to certify that we have known Messrs. W. W. Duson & Bro. 
 for several years and have had considerable banking business with 
 them. We know them to be honorable, energetic and pushing business 
 men. Their word and paper has always been good and promptly paid to 
 us. We only wish we had more good business men like them in our sec- 
 tion of the State. Very Respectfully, W. E. Satterfield, 
 
 Cashier People’s Bank of New Iberia. 
 
92 
 
 Biographical 
 
 New Orleans, La., April 23, 1895. 
 Messrs. W. W. Duson &= Bro., Crowley , La.: 
 
 Gentlemen — We are in receipt of your esteemed favor of the 20th 
 inst. requesting a letter from our firm in reference to the part you have 
 performed in developing the Southwestern portion of Louisiana; and also 
 as to your own personal responsibility and business capacity. It affords 
 me great pleasure to be instrumental in aiding you in this great enter- 
 prise. Southwest Louisiana is indebted to your firm more than to any 
 other, or we may say all others, in the State of Louisiana for its present 
 development. 
 
 We agree with you that the parishes in which you are now laboring 
 are ideal spots tor people wishing homes in a comfortable locality, who 
 have moderate means and who wish to engage in agricultural pursuits. 
 We believe if you reach the right parties in the North and West you will 
 add a large number of new residents to your locality. We have this to 
 say of your firm that in all our dealings, which have covered a period of 
 several years, we have found you honorable, high toned gentlemen, and 
 always ready to carry out any promises made by you. Wishing you 
 every success, we remain, Yours very truly, 
 
 Woodward, Wight & Co., Limited. 
 Pearl Wight, President. 
 
 Patterson, La., April 26, 1895. 
 Messrs. W. VC. Duson Bro ., Crowley , La.: 
 
 Gentlemen — Referring to your favor of recent date asking for an 
 expression of my opinion as to the work you are doing in Southwest 
 Louisiana, as well as the prospect for still greater development of your 
 section, will say I was acquainted with your section of the State when 
 it had little save natural beauty to recommend it to the attention of 
 outsiders. During the past ten years I have watched the growth and 
 development of your parish with much interest. 
 
 Because through our business dealings extending over a period of 
 many years, I was convinced of your integrity as a business man, and 
 of the sincerity of your purposes, and because I fully believe that your 
 section of the State is destined from its natural advantages to become 
 one of the most thickly settled, as it is now the most prosperous section 
 of the South, and that it is fully worthy of the efforts of its best citizens 
 in behalf of its development, such as it is receiving at your hands. 
 
 The phenominal development and growth of the rice industry 
 throughout Southwest Louisiana has placed the value of your agricul- 
 tural lands beyond the experimental stage, and in my opinion, in view 
 of the the unprecedented immigration which the entire South is now 
 receiving, in the near future they will bring double the prices they do 
 today. I regard them as a safe investment today and believe you are 
 
Biographical 
 
 93 
 
 fully warranted and borne out by the facts in the expression of your 
 opinion in regard to them. I have no hesitancy in saying this, as I have 
 all faith in your section of the country and confidence in your judgment 
 as a business man. I feel certain you will not misrepresent them. The 
 greatest need of your section, is more men with such energy as your firm 
 has displayed for the past ten years, to aid you in bringing it to the 
 attention of capitalists who will gladly aid you when once they become 
 convinced of the value of your securities. And I heartily endorse your 
 determinaton to find these men, as I am thoroughly convinced that an 
 investigation on their part would satisfy them that investments in 
 Southwest Lousiana are perfectly safe, and will bring them larger returns 
 than anything that is offered in the North, East or West today. 
 
 Yours very truly, F. B. Williams. 
 
 Westlake, La., April 24, 1895. 
 
 To The Business Public: 
 
 We have known Mr. W. W. Duson, of the firm of W. W. Duson & 
 Bro., for the past ten years and cannot speak too highly of him. Messrs. 
 Duson Bros, have done more for Southwest Louisiana than ony one else 
 in the State. What was ten years ago an open prairie, they have by 
 their perseverance and enterprise settled with a thrifty class of farmers 
 from all parts of the States, and they are themselves largely engaged 
 in the cultivation of rice. They have built the town of Crowley, now a 
 well-to-do farming center of some two or three thousand people, where a 
 few years ago there was not a house in sight. These gentlemen have 
 been engaged in some large undertakings in this section and by their 
 straightforwardness and promptness in meeting all engagements have 
 been very successtul, and our dealings with them, which have been quite 
 extensive in our line, have always been most satisfactory. 
 
 Locke, Moore & Co., Limited. 
 
 Geo. Locke, President. 
 
 Washington, La., April 26, 1895. 
 
 IV. IV. Duson , Esq., Crowley , La.: 
 
 My Dear Sir — Your valued favor of the 20th is at hand, and in 
 reply to your request to be permitted to refer to us if you should find it 
 desirable, let us say we did not suppose that it would ever be neces- 
 sary for the firm of W. W. Duson & Bro., or for yourself or your 
 worthy brother C. C., to refer to any one in almost any locality. 
 Certainly your name has become almost a household word wherever the 
 great resources of Louisiana have been known, and the hundreds of 
 good honest, progressive settlers for whom you have secured most excel- 
 lent homes are daily spreading the well founded reputation for honest, 
 
94 
 
 Biographical 
 
 earnest purpose, and prompt progressive action, which you have so long 
 enjoyed at home. 
 
 You are at perfect liberty to refer to us at any time, and it will give 
 us pleasure if, by our plain statements of facts, we may in a small degree 
 assist you in your commendable efforts to help honest people secure 
 cheap and good homes in the most naturally favored state in the Union 
 — Louisiana. With best wishes, believe me, 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 Geo. W. Curtis, Cashier. 
 
 New Orleans, La., April 23, 1895. 
 Messrs. W. W. Duson Bro., Crowley, La.: 
 
 Gentlemen — With the closing of our second year’s business with 
 you we wish to thank you for many courtesies extended us and to express 
 our appreciation of your straightforward and honorable manner in your 
 dealings with us. The business community of this city and the people of 
 Southwest Louisiana have much to thank you for, as to your efforts is 
 due the development and prosperity of your section, which has certainly 
 been unprecedented. We wish you all success in your undertaking to 
 which your integrity and energy most undoubtedly entitles you. 
 
 Very truly yours, Daspit & Levert. 
 
 Opelousas, La., April 26, 1895. 
 
 To The Public: 
 
 W. W. Duson, Esq., a member of the firm of W. W. Duson & Bro., 
 of Crowley, La., is a gentleman with whom I have been intimately 
 acquainted for many years, both in the social and business walks of life, 
 and I take pleasure in stating that he is not only an honorable and 
 reliable gentleman but one full of business vigor and thrift and any 
 representations of his (or his firm) should meet with credit. The firm 
 has been in existance for several years and is well known and respected, 
 and its worth and reliability attested by the growth and prosperity of 
 Acadia parish and the flourishing towns of Crowley and Eunice. Any 
 favors shown him will be appreciated by a host of personal and business 
 friends, and by Yours very truly, W. C. Perrault, 
 
 Judge nth District La., Acadia and St. Landry Parishes. 
 
 New Orleans, La., April 26, 1895. 
 
 IV. IV. Duson <S^ Bro., Crowley, La.: 
 
 Gentlemen — In answer to your favor of recent date, for your own 
 benefit as well as for the benefit of those you seek to interest in your 
 section, will say that our acquaintance with your business manager, Mr. 
 
Biographical 
 
 95 
 
 W. W. Duson, and his manner of doing business, extends over a period 
 of twenty years and during this time we have had many large and im- 
 portant financial transactions with him. Many times we have been com- 
 pelled to rely entirely on Mr. Duson’s integrity as a business man, and 
 the soundness of his judgment, and we can unhesitatingly vouch for 
 both of these qualities. 
 
 W. W. Duson and his brother, ex-Senator C. C. Duson, are both 
 men of unquestionable integrity and business sagacity, and any state- 
 ments they make are worthy of all credence. They need have no dif- 
 fidence in recommending . to the financial world Southwest Louisiana 
 securities, as we are convinced that their section offers a safe invest- 
 ment to capitalists, and it needs only be brought to the attention of 
 monied men in order to interest them in its further development. As- 
 suring you of our willingness to aid you in any way we can, and of our 
 good wishes for the success of your firm and the work you are doing, we 
 are, Yours truly, Kahn & Levy. 
 
 Bayou Chicot, La., April 23, 1895. 
 
 To Whom it May Concern: 
 
 This is to certify that Messrs. W. W. Duson & Bro. are honorable, 
 upright and trustworthy gentlemen, and I take great pleasure in recom- 
 mending them to the general public as gentlemen of integrity, energy 
 and veracity. 
 
 The firm of W. W. Duson & Bro. more than to any one else is due 
 the credit of developing Southwest Louisiana and bringing the many re- 
 sources and advantages of that section to the notice of the public, and I 
 bespeak for them and their section of the State a brilliant future. 
 
 Respectfully, Samuel Haas. 
 
 New Iberia, La., April 25, 1895. 
 
 To Whom it May Concern: 
 
 We take pleasure in saying that we have known Mr. W. W. Duson 
 for several years and have had, during that time, business dealing with 
 him that have proved satisfactory in every respect. We believe him to 
 be a thorough and upright gentleman, honest and true in his purposes, 
 and one who can be relied upon. Very Respectfully. 
 
 P. L. Renoudet, 
 Cashier First National Bank. 
 
 New Orleans, La., April 23, 1895. 
 
 To Whom It May Concern : 
 
 Mr. W. W. Duson, of the firm of W. W. Duson & Bro., of Crowley, 
 La., has been known to us for several years. He and his firm are very 
 
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 Biographical 
 
 extensively interested in lands in a portion of Louisiana which under 
 their management and its natural great agricultural advantages has built 
 up and improved very materially. 
 
 Mr. Duson we have found to be a man of unswerving integrity in 
 business, of good judgment and great energy. His work and that of his 
 firm in developing and settling up the portion of Louisiana in which they 
 are interested has met with great success, and we cheerfully recommend 
 Mr. Duson to those whose attention he may solicit. 
 
 Yours truly, Rice Born & Co., Limited. 
 
 Ed. A. Born, Vice-President. 
 
 New Orkeans, La., May 7, 1875. 
 
 To Whom it May Concern: 
 
 We desire to say of Messrs. W. W. Duson and C. C. Duson, of 
 Crowley, Louisiana, that they are highly reputable men, and have done 
 a great deal to develop and forward the interests of their section. All 
 our dealings with them have been entirely satisfactory. They have 
 been very successful in improving Crowley and its neighborhood, and in 
 this they have been strongly assisted by the character of the land they 
 live in. To use their own words it is one of the grandest agricultural 
 sections in America. New Orleans National Bank, 
 
 Wm. Palfrey, Cashier.