see our way more clearly ; but the yearly repairs would 

 amount to sums that would, in many respects, be 

 greater than the value of the sugar cane grown and 

 thus protected. We can only cite a letter from Mr. 

 Norbert Lange, St. Charles Parish, in speaking of the 

 ruin of these lands : " On my place, before the cre- 

 vasse of Bonnet Carre, my crop ordinarily was from 

 200,000 to 300,000 pounds. The crops of seven of my 

 neighbors were in the aggregate 2,600,000 pounds. 

 All these lands, as also those of thousands of others 

 adapted to the culture of the sugar cane, remain unal- 

 tered, for the reason that every year they are inundated 

 by the waters of the river." We can only say, in addi- 

 tion to Mr. Lange's remarks, that if these sugar lands 

 had any actual value they could not possibly be pur- 

 chased for $ 1 5 to $20 per acre. Those interested assert 

 that 2,000 and even 5,000 pounds of sugar may be 

 obtained from cane grown upon them. These figures 

 simply mislead the novice, as the average yearly produc- 

 tion per acre was only 1,200 pounds; whilst in the West 

 Indies it frequently runs up to 7,000 pounds per 

 acre. On the island of Mauritius the latter yield is of 

 very common occurrence. In the countries just men- 

 tioned, the production of sugar rose in ten years from 

 750,000 tons to 1,050,000 tons. During the same 

 period the increase of beet-sugar production in Europe 

 was two hundred per cent. The increase in the East 

 Indies during the same time was forty-four per cent. 

 Why are such results obtained in the above-mentioned 

 climes and not here ? Is the destruction of the jetties 

 above referred to the sole cause of the trouble in 

 Louisiana? or is it that the handling of the bagasse 

 is not as scientific as elsewhere ? or, again, has the 

 successive planting of the same seed resulted in a 

 deterioration of the stock ? To actually bring about 

 a reform, the entire system of cultivating the cane 



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