442 



LOUISIANA. 



whose duties were to fund all valid Auditor's 

 warrants which were to be declared fundable by 

 the constitutional ordinance, and such obliga- 

 tions of public institutions as provided for in 

 State ordinance, in bonds of the denomination 

 of $5 and coupons attached thereto, at the rate 

 of 3 per cent, per annum, interest from Jan. 1, 

 1880, and payable Jan. 1, 1886, or sooner, at the 

 pleasure of the State. The total amount of 

 bonds issued was $1,381,297.52. Of this issue 

 there are yet outstanding $1,281,472.52 unpaid 

 and unprovided for." 



State Institutions. From reports made to 

 the Legislature in May, it is learned that the 

 Insane Asylum had 700 patients. Funds are on 

 hand for additional buildings, which will afford 

 accommodations for 400 more. Some have al- 

 ready been refused admittance on account of the 

 limited accommodations. 



The State Penitentiary had over 1,000 inmates. 

 It has been run on the lease system, the board 

 of control and its officers receiving their pay 

 from the rental : but the Legislature passed an 

 act abolishing that system. 



The Institute for the Blind had a larger num- 

 ber of students than ever, as did also that for 

 deaf mutes, which had over 70. 



Many improvements had been made at the 

 Charity Hospital within two years. Among 

 others, an additional story has been added to the 

 annex of 1884, 160 feet long by a depth of 60 

 feet, for the use of the Training School for 

 Nurses. 



At the last report 713 patients remained 

 under treatment. During the year 8,330 new 

 patients were admitted, making a total of 9,043 

 inmates treated white 5,670, colored 3,373. 



The Charity Hospital at Shreveport has been 

 completed and has enlarged its work, yet the 

 report says the annual appropriation of $10,000 

 is sufficient for its needs. 



The Soldiers' Home, at New Orleans, had 69 

 inmates, as many as could be accommodated. 



Education. The number of public schools 

 in 1893 was 2,645, and of pupils enrolled 155,470, 

 of whom 62,654 were colored, and the average 

 attendance was 107,069, while the total school 

 population was 395,206. The small number of 

 pupils, compared with the total of school popu- 

 lation, is accounted for by the fact that a very 

 large number of children are educated in pri- 

 vate schools, of which full statistics are not 

 given. 



The State Board of Education sent out cir- 

 culars of inquiry in 1893 for the purpose of 

 gathering statistics for a comparison between 

 the cost of schools and the amount of expense 

 caused to the public by crime. Thirty-seven 

 parishes were reported. The total expense in 

 these for crime amounted to $205,866.54, while 

 the total of public-school expense was $115,- 

 716.54. 



The State Normal School had an attendance 

 in the spring term of 1894 of 193 normal stu- 

 dents, and 107 in the model department ; and 

 the State University and Agricultural and Me- 

 chanical College had 194 students, of whom 85 

 were in the collegiate course. 



The Legislature appropriated $8,000 for the 

 purchase of a tract of land in the parish of Jef- 

 ferson for the use of the agricultural depart- 



ment of the Southern University and Agricul- 

 tural and Mechanical College. 

 The Centenary of Sugar Manufacture. 



This was celebrated June 30. The ground on 

 which the first sugar house stood is now within 

 the limits of New Orleans, in Audubon Park. 

 The Louisiana Sugar School, connected with the 

 college there, is built upon the same spot, and its 

 first class, consisting of 3 members, was gradu- 

 ated on the day of the celebration. 



Sugar cane for several years in the nineties of 

 the last century had been grown in Louisiana. 

 and the planters who had experimented with it 

 had succeeded in making a sirup, but they had 

 secured no granulated sugar from it. In 1794, 

 on the 30th day of June^ Etienne de Bore, who 

 owned the land upon which the park now lies. 

 was able to make granulated sugar. The school 

 has a course of three years, covering chemistry, 

 mechanics, agriculture, sugar-making, and draw- 

 ing of sugar machinery. It has attached to it 

 an experimental farm. " This school is attended 

 not only by students from Louisiana and other 

 Southern States, but also from Spain, the Span- 

 ish West Indies, and Mexico. 



Agriculture. Of 25,000,000 acres in the 

 State, not quite 3,500,000 are under cultivation. 

 Upon these were grown last year products val- 

 ued at $75,000,000, distributed as follow: Sugar, 

 $35,000,000; cotton, $21,000,000; rice, $3,000,- 

 000; fruits and vegetables, $2,000,000: corn, 

 oats, and hay, $10,000,000; oranges, $1,000,000; 

 live stock and other products, $3,000,000. 



There are 3 agricultural experiment stations. 

 The first, belonging to the State University, is 

 at Audubon Park, New Orleans, and has an 

 equipment consisting of 45 acres, a complete 

 sugar house, with diffusion plant, a 9- roller 

 mill, double effect, vacuum pans, centrifugals, 

 and filter presses, a laboratory with complete 

 outfit for chemical and laboratory work, barn, 

 stable, boiler house, and residence. 



Experiment Station No. 2, at Baton Rouge, 

 consists of a farm for experiments; the horti- 

 cultural grounds, where all varieties of vegeta- 

 bles and fruits are tested; a botanical garden, 

 where small plats of all available plants are 

 grown ; a veterinary infirmary, for the treat- 

 ment of injured or diseased stock; and labora- 

 tory work in chemistry, botany, mycology, bacte- 

 riology, and entomology. 



Experiment Station No. 3, at Calhoun, is doing 

 a great work. Here there are field experiments 

 in every kind of crop, fruit or vegetable. Sev- 

 eral breeds of domestic animals are kept, and 

 the surplus sold to farmers at mere nominal 

 prices. This station has met with great su< 

 in growing the yellow-wrapper tobacco. 



The rapid growth of rice production of soul 

 western Louisiana is shown by figures given 

 an article in the development of that section 

 " This region did not come into public notice 

 until 1884, when it began to receive a considera- 

 ble immigration from Northwestern Slates. In 

 1884, 1 rice-harvesting reaper-and-binder ma- 

 chine was in use in the country there. In 1SS5 

 there were 5; in 1886 the number was 50: in 

 1887, 200; in 1888, 400; in 1890, 1,000; in 1S!M, 

 2,000; in 1892 there were 3,000 of these ma- 

 chines in use. The Southern Pacific Railroad 

 in 1884 shipped out of that region 250 cars of 



