281 



possessed by them is their capacity to hold and appropriate the irregular rains 

 of the season, for, equally with heat, the great want of the cotton plant, is 

 moisture, though it will not endure stagnant water in the soil. 



Alabama had, in 1860, 55,128 plantations and farms, averaging 346 acres, 

 one-third improved, though no less than 696 of them exceeded 1,000 acres 

 each, and 2,016 of them had between 500 and 1,000 acres each. Average 

 price of lands $8 15 per acre. 



It is a fact illustrative in the industrial progress of this State, that, in the ten 

 years preceding the eighth and last census, the *' farms " increased in num- 

 bers 13,164, and that in the same period the increase in average size was 57 

 acres, and the increase in the quantity of improved laud was 1,950,110 acres. 

 The production of cotton increased from 464,429 to 989,955 bales. 



The number of slaves was 435,080, averaging eight (nearly) to each planta- 

 tion or farrn. 



Bushels of corn, 33,226,282; bushels of wheat, 1,218,444; number of horses, 

 127,063; of mules, 111,687; of oxen, 88,316. 



The average value of agricultural implements to each farm, $131. 



LOUISIANA. 



Louisiana is very rich, but with a diversity of character and divided interests. 

 Much of the portion east of the Mississippi is pine barrens ; much of the south- 

 ern is splashed with lakes and lagoons and covered with marshes ; the most ac- 

 cessible arable lands are appropriated to cane-growing, leaving the bottoms of 

 the northern and north-western section for cotton-growing. And it is here, Tensas 

 parish, for instance, opposite Grand Gulf, where the greatest results, the largest 

 number of bales in proportion to the amount of improved land in farms is ob- 

 tained of all the cotton-yielding lands of the United States, with the exception 

 of San Augustine county, in Texas. Claiming only 117,355 acres of improved 

 or "cleared" land, the parish produced 141,493 bales of cotton, while a sufficient 

 proportion was occupied by corn to produce 579,650 bushels; and other crops, 

 buildings, farm yards, and unoccupied patches encroached still further upon the 

 cotton fields, which must have achieved an average between one and a half and 

 two bales per acre. 



The following stand first in the list of parishes for quantity of cotton : 



Acres imp. 



Tensas 117, 358 



CarroU 118,116 



Concordia 87, 406 



Rapides 108, 839 



Madison 104, 383 



Bossier 91,583 



Nachitoches 80, 616 



Point Coupee 82, 932 



The size of plantations increased in the last decade from 372 to 536 acres. 

 The average of improved land was increased fifty per cent., and of unimproved 

 one hundred p^ cent., and the number of farms grew from 13,422 to 17,328. 

 The average valuation is the highest of any of the Gulf States — $22 per acre ; 

 and that of implements and machinery is excessive, averaging 81,076 — a fiict 

 due to the expense of the machinery employed in the sugar manufacture. The 

 State comprises an area of nearly thirty millions of acres, of which less than a 

 third is in farms. A large portion of the State is yet public domain, with no 

 inconsiderable portion of water. 



