Remarks on Agriculture and Agricultural Productions [pp. 382-391]

SOME REMARKS ON AGRICULTURE
In the hands of Spain, the sugar industry nearly perished in' Louisiana, and
was not revived until 1791, when the first sugar house was put up under
this goverment. " Nobody," says Judge Rost "imagined that sugar could
be made of the juice, and when Mr. Bore tried his experiment, hundreds from the city and -coast assembled to witness. To use his own
language' but they remained outside of the building, at a respectable
distance from the sugar maker, whom they regarded as a sort of magician.
The second strike was out, the sugar maker (from the West Indies,)
stirred carefully the first, and then advancing towards the assembled
crowd, told them with all the gravity of his craft,'it grains;' and from
the Balize to the Dubuque, from the Wabash to the Yellow Stone, the
great, the all absorbing news of the colony was, the juice of the cane had
grained in Lower Louisiana.' "'*
It is difficult to determine the sugar crop of Louisiana in the years between the American purchase and 1820. In 1818 it is stated at 25,000
hhds. It was not until 1822 that steam power was introduced by
Messrs. Gordon & Forstall.
Until 1831 it was supposed Lower Louisiana was unfit for refining, and
even so admitted by its Senators in Congress, but a shipment to the
north at that time, which took the premium, decided the question.
Since this period, the culture and manufacture of sugar-cane have gone
on advancing from year to year, and the most extraordinary improvements have been made in the agricultural, and by the march of chemistry in the manufacturing departments.
ToBAcco.-The history of tobacco is altogether modern. It is not
quite three centuries since its first introduction into Europe from Mexico,
or from Tobago in the West Indies, thus deriving its name, according
to some. The American savages at the period of discovery, were in the
habit of using it, and its smoke they conceived an acceptable burnt offering to the Great Spirit. We are all familiar with the strong opposition
made to the use of this weed in its early history, by those in authority.
It required more than King James' tobacco blast to check the growing
demand, or Pope Urban's bull.
Tobacco was first cultivated by the colonists in Virginia in 1616, and
by 1622 the product from the colony was 60,000. In an account of
Carolina, 1680, it is said that tobacco of an excellent sort grew well, and
sold from 5 to 8 shillings a pound, though as Virginia supplied the whole
European demand, little was cultivated. It, therefore, does not appear according to Dr. Ramsay, among the exports of Carolina till 1783, and then
only 643 hhds. The export by the close of the century reached as high
as 10,000 hhds., but soon began to deline for the more profitable results
in cotton, and is now nothing at all.
In 1639 the Assembly of Virginia ordered the whole crop of tobacco,
exceeding 120,000 pounds, to be burnt. The report of commissioners
in 1709 gives the export of the previous ten years, annually, 28,868,666
pounds, about 11,000,0000 of which were consumed in Great Britain.
By 1776, the annual export reached 40,000,000, of which but 7,000,000
were used in Britain. In 1775, the export of the colonies reached
101,828,617 pounds, of which 27,000,000 remained on hand, or were
*Ag. Address
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