The Teche Country

[…] Prairies [...] westward, with [...] and around the [...] scattered over its [...] presenting a landscape pleasing [...] and in many instances truly grand; and as its western shore is washed by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico—it being for a distance of eighty miles up the bayou in many places but a few miles to the salt water—it is needless to say that the climate is delightful and salubrious.

The soil is good—in fact, rich—being, on the east side of the bayou, a light clay, with a mixture of sand and alluvion, showing in some localities, and along the banks of the stream itself, evidences of having once been laved by the waters of the Red River, while on the west it is heavier, being [...]. For production, however, it is excellent, and yields in abundance every variety of crop grown in South Louisiana. The lower portion of the stream has upon its banks some of the finest sugar estates to be seen in the country, while the upper portion is more devoted to cotton, which does well, yielding largely and being of excellent quality. Corn, rice, peas and potatoes are produced abundantly and with little labor, while garden vegetables of every kind do as well, many kinds of which can be grown the year round. Fruit, too, abounds. Oranges are produced along a good portion of the bayou by the hundred thousand, and are of excellent quality. Bananas and other varieties of tropical fruit can be grown with but little care. Figs, apples, plums and peaches are abundant, while pears, grapes, quinces, etc., have only to be planted and cared for as in other localities to do as well as the more hardy varieties named above.

Of the kinds of wood to be found in this section of the country may be mentioned cypress, live, red, white and water oak, elm, gum, maple, willow, pecan, china, locust, cotton-wood, hickory, hackberry, mulberry, magnolia and holly, leaving out many less important varieties.

Game abounds throughout this section the whole year round. In the woods squirrels and rabbits are abundant, and an occasional deer, or even, at times, a panther, is found in our country [...]. In the winter season the prairies are alive with wild geese, brant, ducks of different kinds, teal, snipe and quail, while during the spring and summer they are visited by nearly every variety of wild fowl, from the stately [...] to the diminutive reed-bird, and other species of the feathered tribe.

Before the war some care was given in this and the Opelousas country to the raising of stock, with considerable success, and it is a pleasure to know that this lucrative branch of industry is here receiving, to a considerable extent, the attention it merits, and promises well for those engaged in it.

With such natural advantages, and a good, intelligent, generous and hospitable people, tolerably well dispersed over the country with their towns, villages, schools and churches, you have an inviting section, and it will not surprise you to learn that it is increasing rapidly in wealth and population. The people of the country are, for the most part, descendants of the Acadian exiles, though not a few are of Spanish origin, and have retained the faith of their ancestors, so that nearly every town or village and many of the more important communities have their church and resident priest.

Within a few days you can do all this and be back in time again, stirring up the "devils" [...]. With best wishes, ever yours, [...]