CHAPTER XIV.

KENNER, LA., SOUTH ITALIAN TRUCK GARDENERS.

INTRODUCTION.

Kenner is situated 10 miles west of New Orleans in Jefferson County, La. Two lines of railroads pass through the town, making it easy of access and allowing the town ample means for sending its garden crops to the outside world. There are located in and around this town 150 Italian families, all of them natives of Sicily.

With its rich soil, excellent transportation facilities, and good roads to New Orleans, this region has been easily opened to the production of all kinds of vegetables. The farms are small, varying from 2 to 10 acres in area, many of the Italians possessing only a building lot in town and owning or renting a few acres of land a mile or so away. Practically all of them are farmers, very few having any outside occupation.

HISTORY OF SETTLEMENT.

In 1888 Mr. Maggion, the first Italian, arrived in Kenner. He had been engaged in the oyster business near New Orleans, but for a few years had been unsuccessful and decided to engage in farming. Hearing of some vacant land near Kenner, he purchased it. From this origin dates the Italian settlement. At that time (1888) all of the land was in large plantations on which sugar cane and cotton were extensively grown.

In 1894 more Italians began to move out from New Orleans and from the near-by sugar plantations, and from that time on the incoming of the Italians has been steady. No reason is assigned for the movement except that friends and relatives of the first comers heard of their success and came to share it, bringing in turn their friends and relatives. Many of these Italians migrated directly from New Orleans, where they had been employed at various kinds of unskilled labor, while others came from the sugar-cane farms in the southern and southwestern portions of Louisiana. All knew something of farming and it was only a question of a few years before they were able to produce all kinds of garden crops, following the methods of cultivation. and harvesting employed by the old-time Italians.

The holding of the land in large plantations caused the settlement. to develop slowly. A large percentage of the land advanced to a high price as soon as the owners learned that many Italians desired to acquire property in the locality. Many of the foreigners were able purchase only an acre, and those that felt able to pay a small balance down on more land were required to complete the payment in three years with 8 per cent interest.

About eight years ago there were some desertions, owing to a peculiar disease which attacked the mules and horses, causing the sudden death

of the animals so affected. To the tenant on rented land and to the landowner as well this was a very serious blow, and several Italians were obliged to sell what property they had. This has been the only ! serious reverse the colony has suffered since its foundation. Being so near New Orleans, with its large Italian population, many Italians came to Kenner and rented land for a year or two simply to see if they could earn more on a farm than they were receiving in their previous occupations. For this reason part of the population is more migratory than the rest. But there have been many Italians who, after two or three years of truck growing, have saved enough to buy a small plot of land and settle down, obtaining a living return from the few acres they have purchased.

SOIL, CLIMATE, AND TOPOGRAPHY.

The land in this region is low and flat, and at high water the bayous overflow into the numerous swamps of the neighborhood. These swamps support a heavy growth of cypress and the swamp areas are more extensive than the cleared area. Much of this swamp land would be cultivatable if it were only drained, and the problem of drainage is perplexing the minds of the drainage engineers of Louisiana.

The climate of this area is subtropical. The summers are long and uniformly hot. The proximity of the Gulf of Mexico and the saltwater lakes of Pontchartrain and Maurepas exert a modifying influence upon the climate. Cool breezes spring up during the heat of the day and there is generally a fall in the temperature at night. These conditions make summer much more endurable here than in many places farther north.

The following table was made from the United States Weather Bureau records of the New Orleans station, and represents the summary for the past forty years. The average date of the first killing frost in autumn is December 15 and the last in spring, January 24. The earliest killing frost on record in the autumn was November 11. 1877, and the latest in spring, March 27, 1894.

Average monthly and annual temperature and precipitation, New Orleans, La.

The soil on which the Italians have settled is fairly rich. Following the bank of the Mississippi northward from Kenner is a strip of soil about a mile wide known as the "Yazoo sandy loam type.' This consists of a fine brown sandy loam, having an average depth of 15 inches. The drainage of this soil is generally good. This type is purely alluvial and was formed before the levees were built along the banks of the river. Cane thrives well on this soil. Truck is grown

extensively for the early market, and the Yazoo sandy loam is the soil of the area best adapted to this purpose. Onions, eggplant, tomatoes, and cabbage are the vegetables that succeed best.

The town of Kenner itself seems to be built on the Yazoo clay type. This consists of a surface soil of dark-brown, silty, clay loam, having a depth of 6 inches and underlaid by a brown or waxy clay. The small percentage of fine sand and silt has modified the tenacity of the top soil and rendered it more easy of tillage than the Sharkey clay of the lowlands. This type is highly productive and well adapted to agricultural industries, such as dairying and growing of garden truck. Grass, which grows luxuriantly on this soil and without any care, affords good pasture and a fair grade of hay. Truck of all varieties thrives admirably.

The Sharkey clay type is found more extensively than any other soil in the locality. The soil is a heavy black clay to a depth of 5 or 6 inches. The dark color is due to the large content of organic matter which has been derived from the heavy growth of vegetation as the clay was slowly deposited. This has a markedly beneficial effect on the soil when the ground is opened to cultivation. Much of this soil is not cultivable, on account of the marshes and swamps where it is found, but the area near New Orleans, where the land has been reclaimed, supports many large dairy and truck farms. The fertility of the Sharkey clay is almost inexhaustible, and when well drained it is adapted to any crop which requires a fertile clay soil."

AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS.

Nearly every variety of garden truck can be grown successfully and profitably in this section. Here, however, as elsewhere, some varieties are more profitable than others. Lettuce, beans, radishes, onions, tomatoes, and cabbage are grown with profit. The Italians on their small farms raise all varieties of vegetables that the market demands. On some of their farms one sees a very intensive system of hand and hoe cultivation. They are not satisfied with one crop a season, hence as soon as one vegetable crop is harvested the land is quickly plowed and another variety planted. In some years three crops of vegetables are taken from the same ground in the course of a year. It is by means of these companion crops that the Italian is able to make the profit per acre that he does.

For truck gardening the careful preparation of the ground is of the utmost importance. The Italians spend a large amount of time in cultivating and pulverizing the soil before it is planted. Hand cultivation is employed almost entirely, both because the nature of the crops requires some hand labor and because hand tillage is the only culture familiar to the Sicilian.

The Italians have introduced no new ideas of agriculture into the community; some Americans were raising vegetables before the first Italians came in, so the newcomers simply followed in the footsteps of the natives. In Sicily the majority of them were either farmers for themselves or on their parents' farms. In Italy they had been taught to make every inch of ground produce something, and when

United States Department of Agriculture. Field Operations of the Bureau of Soils, 1903. (Fifth Report.)

they bought small garden plots in this country they followed their parents' teachings.

Many of the Italians secured only house lots when they came to Kenner and have since bought a few acres of land at some distance from their houses. In one part of the community the houses are built close together, forming a small village. The Italians living here all have additional property near by where they raise their garden crops. This group is immediately in Kenner; outside the farms are so small, and in consequence so close together, that from a distance the settlement has the appearance of a scattered village or a very thickly populated countryside.

The houses are three, four, or six room frame houses, most of them in good repair outside, but all in need of paint. The barns are simply sheds, forming a humble shelter for the limited live stock and farm implements. Some of the Italians raise corn and hay to feed their ive stock; others raise only corn and depend on the grass that grows along the levee bank for hay.

Transportation to and from Kenner is excellent. The town is on the main line of the Illinois Central and the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroads, both roads providing outlets to the northern markets. The good roads between this town and New Orleans make it convenient for the Italians to haul their crops to market. New Orleans, with its 375,000 inhabitants and its growing suburbs, affords a magnificent market for every variety of garden produce. Some of the Italians drive into New Orleans during the night with loads of produce and take their stands in the Old French Market ready for the morning trade. When there is a large quantity of a certain variety of vegetable, several farmers may club together and send a refrigerator-car load to one of the northern cities.

Strawberries are sent out by the crate. Sometimes the potatoes, beans, peas, etc., are packed in wooden bushel boxes. Other times they are shipped in wicker hampers, or even ordinary market baskets. Potatoes, bunched beets, carrots, etc., are sent to market in barrels.

PROPERTY.

As has been said before, the farms are small, the houses and barns built closely together, and the entire acreage devoted to crops. Over 75 per cent of the Italians own property. During the first years many hired land for $6 per acre per year and devoted all their time to their crops. Some of the Italians still do this, although many of them are buying land and clearing it; each year the price of rented land rises; formerly rented for $6, now $8 to $20 per acre per year must be paid for good land. Ten or twelve years ago land in this neighborhood could be bought for $20 to $40 per acre. Now it is worth $100. This is due to the fact that Italians are succeeding and are creating a demand for all vacant land. Most of the Italians own their property free from debt, many having bought farms, mortgaged them for 75 per cent of their value, and paid the debt within three years, with 8 per cent interest.

A few of the Italians place their money in the savings banks of New Orleans and keep it there as an investment. A number invest in land, but the increasing values of land make this form of investment less and less possible except for the more well-to-do. The

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Vegetables, chickens, and twat erostitute their food. cipal food is vegetables and almost every item so home garden. This means a very substantial outlay.

As to the healthfulness of the rection and ile general good health of the Italians, the following is to the point:

A most serious check to the attraction of a destrable ciss of inmines to the section is the impression that has et abroad as to the unhealthfulness of the dw That this idea had some foundation in the past an ne be deriod, but sich a vrniem, nation can not now be applied to the State as a whole or to this particular vicinity The records of the medical board of New Orleans show that the city has an excellent health record for a city of its size.

This statement, made several years ago, is apparently confirmed by the health of the Italians at Kenner to-day. The Italians in Kenner, however, appear as healthy as those in Tontitown, Ark., or in Connecticut. Many of them suffer from malaria, but this disease yields to treatment and for the most part the Italians contract it through carelessness.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR EMPLOYMENT.

In the immediate vicinage there is little opportunity for outside labor and most of the men work at home, since some variety of market-garden crops can be produced every season of the year. Those who wish outside employment find ample opportunities in New Orleans about the docks or as day laborers on public works. When working in New Orleans a man can come home on Saturday night and be with his family every Sunday, returning to work on

United States Department of Agriculture. Field Operations of the Bureau of Soils, 1903.