Proceedixgs of the Faemees' Club. 255 



Louisiana. 

 Mr. S. S. Connor, Amite City, La. — The proceedings of your body 

 awaken an interest and exert an influence throu2:liout the len£:th and 

 Lreadth of our country ; and there is no single feature in connection 

 with it of more general interest, perhaps, than tlie short correspond- 

 ence published descriptive of every locality throughout our wide 

 domain. Thousands of persons north and east, as well as in Europe, 

 are desirous of removing to more favored regions, and hence look 

 with eager interest to every source of information. For the benefit 

 of such, I beg to add a few words in behalf of this section. And as 

 there are so many doubters everywhere, I will premise with the state- 

 ment that I am fully prepared to substantiate, for the benefit of any 

 private individual who may choose to correspond with me, the truth 

 of all I write. This place is sixty-eight miles by railroad, above 

 New Orleans. For fine climate, good health, and beautiful streams, 

 it is unsurpassed by any locality in the south. It is not so fertile as 

 many other portions of this rich State ; but for fruits it seems especi- 

 ally adapted. Peaches grow ten or eleven inches in circumference, 

 and of most luscious flavor. Horticulture is in its infancy here ; 

 but I will state what may be seen on the grounds of Mr. Als- 

 worth, President of our agricultural and horticultural society. 

 Tired of cotton, he and a few others of us have turned our atten- 

 tion to grape-growing. Concord grape-cuttings made an aggre- 

 gate growth of forty and fifty feet of vine last summer, while 

 those grafted on the wild vine attained over 100 feet. Some 

 of the cuttings now have more than thirty bushels of grapes and 

 grafts seventy or eight}-. We expect to realize from fifty cents to one 

 dollar per pound in the Xew Orleans market, which will give a 

 handsome profit within one year and a half from the time the cuttings 



were stuck in the e-round. These cuttino-s were obtained from Mis- 

 ts o 



souri, and are the first of the Concord variety I ever saw. I obtained 

 some Jucmida strawberry plants from Mr. Knox, of Pittsburgh, and 

 set them out in the latter part of December, and on the last of March 

 was marketing fine berries from the same. We have no epidemics 

 here, nor any sort of climatic fevers, not even the ague, except rarely. 

 Musquetos are not troublesome more than two or three weeks in the 

 year. "We want to see our resources developed, and intelligent, 

 enterprising immigrants from any and every part of the globe would 

 be welcomed. 



