518 



LUTHERANS. 



for the olive, which loves the driest hill-sides. 

 The cotton-seed produces an oil which is man- 

 ufactured to a large extent in New Orleans. 

 Refined, it compares well with olive-oil in 

 flavor, and is exported to Europe in large quan- 

 tities and employed to adulterate olive-oil. 

 During the past year a process has been in- 

 vented by which it can be manufactured into 

 a species of vegetable butter. The Morus mul- 

 tt'-(i>ili*, the mulberry-tree on which the silk- 

 worm thrives, grows in Louisiana, and during 

 the year much attention has been paid to the 

 breeding of the worms, with a view to engag- 

 ing in silk-culture. 



The State has not suffered from any pesti- 

 lential diseases. The temperature during the 

 summer, though high, was uniform. It is the 

 rapid vicissitudes of heat and cold, moisture 

 and dryness, apparently, which give support to 

 pestilence and propagate climatic disorders. 



Commerce, relieved of this check, has flour- 

 ished. The imports, during the fiscal year end- 

 ing September 1st, amounted to $12,413,270, 

 against $10,915,042 for the preceding twelve- 

 month. The exports reached $104,150,450, 

 against $93,335,880 for 1879-'80. 



The jetties maintain their complete success. 

 A recent survey shows that the shallowest spot 

 in the channel gives a depth of twenty-six and 

 a half feet, while between the jetties them- 

 selves there is nothing shoaler than thirty feet. 



The principal feature in the annals of this 

 year is the railroad development. The con- 

 nection between New Orleans and the Pacific 

 Ocean has been perfected. The last spike 

 needed was driven at Blanco Peak, about nine- 

 ty miles east of El Paso, on the 1st day of De- 

 cember, at an altitude of some five thousand 

 feet above the city of New Orleans. The 

 Texas Pacific began at Fort "Worth, and five 

 hundred and twenty-one miles were built in 

 five hundred and twenty-one days, uniting 

 with the Southern Pacific at Blanco Junction. 



What is known as the Erlanger Syndicate 



have made their arrangements to enter New 

 Orleans. This line of railroad will connect the 

 city directly with Cincinnati. The line of rail- 

 road extends from New Orleans to Meridian 

 in Mississippi, and thence through Tuscaloosa, 

 Birmingham, and Chattanooga. This connec- 

 tion is new, and the traversing of so wide 

 a lake as Maurepas by a railroad is deemed a 

 feat in engineering. This syndicate is com- 

 pleting the connections of Shreveport and 

 Vicksburg, and these with Savannah and 

 Brunswick. The completion of the railroads 

 into Texas brings New Orleans in connection 

 with the Nueces and into prospective connec- 

 tion with Tampico and the city of Mexico. 



According to the census of 1880, Louisiana 

 is the twenty-second State in population in the 

 Union. It numbers 939,946 souls. The city 

 of New Orleans has a population of 216,140. 

 It is generally conceded that this is an under- 

 estimate, the census having been taken in June 

 of the summer succeeding the epidemic of 1879, 

 when there was a large absenteeism due to the 

 possibility of a recurrence of the scourge. 



The negro population shows a more rapid 

 increase than the white in all the Southern 

 States, Alabama alone excepted. In Louisiana 

 the census shows a gain of 26 per cent in the 

 whites, while 33 per cent is the negro gain. 



The public schools in Louisiana suffer from 

 irregularity in payments, and throughout the 

 country parishes from the sparseness of popu- 

 lation, who live on distinct plantations, and 

 are not often gathered into considerable vil- 

 lages and towns. The city of New Orleans 

 was divided into three public-school districts, 

 each with a separate board of directors, at the 

 time of its consolidation. Two hundred thou- 

 sand dollars are annually appropriated by the 

 city for the support of these schools. From 

 1874 to 1882 the city was in arrears $481,- 

 719.70. 



The following statement shows the popula- 

 tion of the State, by parishes, in 1880 and 1870 : 



LUTHERANS. The following is a summary 

 of the statistics of the synods and the general 

 bodies of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 



the United States, as given in the " Lutherischo 

 Kalender " of Brobst & Diehl, Allentown, Penn- 

 sylvania, for 1882 : 



