Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007 - (Page 33)

River Flood of 1932 McDaniel. “He’s a regular prince, and I wouldn’t mind turning my money over to him. Now I’m going to wait for it, I guess.” Disease, too, was increasingly a problem. Dr. John W. Williams, director of the Ouachita Parish Health Unit, administered an area-wide typhoid vaccination project, traveling to various outlying areas and assuring the wary that the medicine was free and that “these vaccinations will incapacitate them in no way.” His efforts to stave off an epidemic were ongoing since mid-January. “The flood waters are contaminated beyond realization,” he announced, “and while there is no danger in drinking water in the city mains, one is very likely to contract typhoid from merely wading and working in the flood districts.” The standing water provided a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes, particularly as the temperatures in late February and early March began to rise, and Williams reminded parish residents that “there Though Monroe’s Grand Street faced the river, homeowners were forced to build levees on all sides of their homes as the floodwaters submerged Grand Street and moved inland beyond it. The Ouachita Truck Growers Association attempted agricultural diversification in the wake of the floods The winter flood of 1932 exacerbated the effects of a fluctuating cotton market that left Northeast Louisiana’s one-crop agricultural economy vulnerable to a volatile depression and only augured more future problems in more normal flood seasons. In response, a group of parish farmers formed the Ouachita Valley Truck Growers’ Association. Supported by area banks, the group emphasized diversification through “truck crops” — crops that could be easily transported by truck, like cantaloupes. “By such diversification of crops, with smaller acreage planted to cotton, farmers of this section will depend less on the cotton for income,” directors explained, “with less danger of loss of crops.” The farmers brought in agricultural agents, fruit supply companies, and railroad executives to learn about the transportation and sale of melons. At the initial meeting, 250 acres were devoted to cantaloupes, with more to be added. If California could grow fruit, North Louisiana could, as well. That figure soon grew to more than 500 acres with over 100 farmers participating in Ouachita Parish alone. The Fruit Supply Company of St. Louis, Missouri, and the Missouri Pacific Railroad, the companies who would sell and transport the cantaloupes, predicted the unqualified success of the new product, assuring farmers that the investment would be worth their while. The seed would be offered on loan by the Missouri Pacific until a successful crop came to St. Louis to be sold under the brand name “Crown.” The Truck Growers’ Association, in conjunction with the various corporations, sought to develop a crop that would be ready after the fruit harvest in South Louisiana and before Arkansas’s similar experiment with the melon. By February 1, more than 800 acres had been pledged to the project, with the Truck Growers emphasizing that other “truck” crops could come later. “The idea,” said Thomas J. Sandridge, board of directors member for the organization, “is to include in our program those crops which will market best.” The cantaloupes were supposed to be ready by June, “when the only competition of any consequence is from California and Arizona.” The Fruit Supply Company pledged crates and packing supplies along with seed loans, and the Parish agricultural agent, E.R. Strahan, produced a pamphlet with planting, cultivating, and fertilizing recommendations. The cantaloupe seed arrived on March 10 and was housed at the Chamber of Commerce in the downtown Virginia Hotel. Agricultural agents assured the public that “the shortage in peaches will cause a corresponding increase in the demand for cantaloupes.” Planting was to begin on March 25. The floodwaters had long receded when the plan failed. While the agricultural agents preached the compatibility of North Louisiana soil with the nutritional needs of cantaloupe seeds, they neglected the area’s humid climate. Cantaloupes are unique among melons in their susceptibility to fungal diseases, making the arid air of places like California, Arizona, or Colorado necessary. Years later, strawberries would grow successfully in Ouachita Parish, but in a year when new pools of water inundated an already overly humid region, the saturated air never created the conditions needed for the Truck Growers diversification plan. Winter 2007-08/LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES 33 FROM COTTON TO CANTALOUPES OUACHITA PARISH DIGITAL ARCHIVE, OUACHITA PARISH PUBLIC LIBRARY, MONROE

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007 Contents Friends Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Katrina: Days of Terror, Months of Anguish Paintings by Rolland Golden The Historic New Orleans Collection The Great Ouachita River Flood of 1932 Jazz Notes Louisiana Architecture Louisiana: Where Land Meets Water Louisiana State Museum Through A Lens Sharply: An Interview with Michael Lewis MR-GO: A “miracle” mired in controversy Louisiana Foodways Louisiana Association of Museums New Orleans: An Autopsy Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007

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