SOLON ROBINSON, 1848 177 



mention, as does Mr. Felix Reine,^ in whose garden I 

 found a great abundance of very large and most delicious 

 sweet oranges, which are rendered quite unsaleable, even 

 at the low price of 40 cents a hundred, by the alarm of 

 cholera in New Orleans, with the idea that indulgence in 

 fruit is dangerous. 



Mr. J. Gasset,- from Kentucky, at Bonnet-Carre Bend, 

 with whom I spent a night, lives in the house built by the 

 old Spanish Commandante, 70 years ago, which is still in 

 a sound condition. It is built of red cypress, which is as 

 much more durable than white, as is red cedar more dur- 

 able than white cedar. Mr. G. has the first draining ma- 

 chine that I have met with. It is a steam engine and 

 wheel which elevates the water five feet, and cost $5,000. 

 He has 600 acres in cultivation, ditched every half arpent 

 (about 100 feet). The machine works on an average 

 about three days a week, at an expense of 300 cords of 

 wood a year, which is worth $2 to $3 a cord, and one hand 

 to tend. If run constantly, it would drain 500 acres. Mr. 

 G. has plenty of wood, but it is in a wet swamp and trou- 

 blesome to get out. He has used green bagasse to boil 

 sugar, as he thinks to advantage, by mixing it with half 

 the usual quantity of wood. The cost of drainage would 

 be greatly lessened, if a united interest could be brought 



many years in the lower house of the state legislature, was a 

 member of the Constitutional Convention of 1844-1845, and later 

 served in the state senate. Although an old-line Whig, was 

 elected by a Democratic constituency. "Brief Biographical 

 Sketches of Members of the Convention," in New Orleans Daily 

 Picayune, September 1, 1844; Louisiana House Journal, 1837- 

 1844; Senate Journal, 1850; Journal of the Constitutional Con- 

 vention of Louisiana, 1844-1845; "Directory of the Planters of 

 Louisiana and Mississippi," op. cit., 318. 



* Felix Reine, probably a member of "Marin Reine & Co.," own- 

 ei*s of a sugar plantation in St. John the Baptist Parish at Bon- 

 net Carre Bend, thirty-nine miles above New Orleans, Used 

 improved machinery. Ibid., 350; Champomier, op. cit.; Pike, op. 

 cit.; map of Plantations on the Mississippi River. 



* Probably J. Gosset, of Hollingsworth and Gosset, owners of a 

 large sugar plantation on the east side of the Mississippi River 

 at Bonnet Carre Bend. Pike, op. cit. 



