The Vast Resources of Louisiana [pp. 274-285]

THE VAST RESOURCES OF LOUISIANA.
hogsheads to the hand, or about 7,500 lbs. was the average crop under the old system, and this allowed for the cultivation, besides, of
corn and potatoes. This, with the molasses at present prices, would
give $1,344 as the product of one hand. Sorghum flourishes better
in Louisiana than in any other State of the Union, and may be
profitably raised in every part.
CoTToN.-Every portion of the State is adapted to cotton, though
it has been more profitably raised in the Northern portion. Sea
Island, or long staple cotton, has oeen successfully raised everywhere
along the coast, although the difficulties attending its management
have deterred extensive or continued cultivation, the same lands being better adapted to the more manageable crops of sugar and rice.
Seven bales (450 pounds to the bale), besides sufficient corn and
meat, were considered an average yield per hand. At present prices
this would give $1,102.50 for each hand.
TonAcco is indigenous to Louisiana. The Spanish and French
found it here growing wild and cultivated by the Indians. The celebrated Natchitoches tobacco for snuff, and the Perique for chewing
and smoking, exhibit the superior qualities of our tobacco. It grows
here in every variety of soil, and the yield when well worked is
enormous. There have been no extensive tobacco plantations heretofore, but every plantation and family raised sufficient for its own
use. Every variety of tobacco is grown here from the best light
Cuba to the heaviest Virginia. The Cuba tobacco grows throug(hout all Lower Louisiana, while the heavier varieties grow in all parts.
The leaves frequently measure three feet six inches in length, and
two feet nine in width. Maize, or Indian corn, is raised everywhere,
and forms the principal item of food for men and working stock.
The yield is twenty bushels per acre. This would give 400 bushels
to the hand, which at present prices would be worth $400.
RICE.-lt is usually believed that lowlands alone are suited to rice,
but every acre of Louisiana is adapted to its culture. By planting
in drills and cultivating like cotton a larger crop can be raised in the
uplands than can be produced by irrigation. It is extensively raised
for home consumption in this way in all North Louisiana. Rice is
cultivated on a large scale in the alluvial region by irrigation, and
the quality is now equal to the South Carolina product. Before the
war, on the large plantations below New Orleans, a hand could cultivate ten acres, and raise in addition more than a subsistence of
corn, potatoes and meat. An acre will produce nine barrels, or
eighteen bushels of clean rice, which, at 60 lbs. per bushel, would
give 1,080 lbs. per acre, or 10,800 lbs. for the labor of each hand,
worth now $1,1S88.
The cultivation of the leading staples, sugar, cotton and rice, having heretofore absorbed all the slave labor and the capital of the
wealthy and enterprising planters, no attention was anywhere given
to the cultivation of the great cereals beyond some few experiments.
But when the war broke out and the blockade followed, the people
of Louisiana were compelled to attempt the cultivation of wheat,
278