COTTON CULTURE. 171 



stand preeminent ; they are easily protected from overflow, 

 the soil is an alluvion, as rich in the elements of vegetable 

 life at the depth of fifty feet as at the surface ; the seasons 

 are well suited to the growth of corn and various other 

 edible crops; and this magnificent valley is flanked on 

 either side by a wide extent of pine forests, veined with 

 narrow but fertile creek bottoms, affording a broad range 

 for the stock of river plantations, and a supply of fuel 

 that it will take generations to exhaust. The objections 

 to this country are the miasms of the river bottom and 

 the absence of good water, requiring the construction of 

 a great number of cisterns, or of arrangements for filtrat- 

 ing the river water ; but with all due allowance for these 

 discounts, there are no lands in the world which offer 

 greater inducements than these of Red River, to the large 

 capitalist or the enterprising stock company who aspire to 

 brand their cotton bales by the thousand. A bale and a 

 half and two bales per acre is no uncommon yield ; for 

 something like eight months in the year the access to New 

 Orleans and the Gulf by steamboats is unembarrassed. 

 No part of the whole Southern country can present so 

 many instances of magnificent fortunes, accumulated by a 

 few years industry, as might have been found in 1860, in 

 passing as the traveler did for four hundred miles from 

 Alexandria up through a series of superb planting estates. 

 If, instead of descending Red River for the purpose 

 of reaching the Mississippi, the traveler should pass 

 directly east from Shreveport, in the direction of Vicks- 

 burg, he would for. some seventy-five miles ride through 

 pine woods broken here and there by a little strip 

 of fertile land. This section is marked green on the 

 cotton map. On approaching the valley of the Ouach- 

 ita, the scene undergoes a sudden and total change. 

 The pine hills suddenly stop, the growth becomes cy- 

 press, cane, sycamore, sweet gum, tupelo gum, and 

 poplar, all indicative of the richest soil and the most 



