60' 



nine thousand hogsheads, or two hundred and twenty-five tons of 

 sugar, which supplied forty per cent, of all the sugar consumed in 

 the United States, amounting, in 1865, to four hundred and three 

 thousand one hundred and nine tons. It is believed by men con- 

 versant with the subject that during this crop season there will be 

 one thousand one hundred and seventeen sugar houses in operation, 

 against one thousand two hundred and ninety-one at the commence- 

 ment of the war, and eight hundred and seventeen in 1869. 



Good sugar lands will produce from a thousand to fifteen hundred 

 pounds of sugar and seventy gallons of molasses to the acre. Under 

 the present system of labor, one hand can cultivate, besides the other 

 crop, ten acres of cane, which, at ten cents for sugar and sixty 

 cents for molasses, produces the handsome sum of one thousand 

 three hundred and thirty-six dollars. Sugar growing is, therefore, 

 one of the most profitable agricultural operations, and is alone suffi- 

 cient to make Louisiana one of the richest States of the Union, 

 provided the money were not, in great part, carried away by 

 Northern merchants and speculators, who make fortunes by South- 

 ern commerce, and build palaces in New York, where they and their 

 families live in magnificence and splendor. 



Cotton (G-ossypium herbaceum) is one of the principal agricultural 

 products of Louisiana, second in importance only to sugar. It is an 

 article of commerce of such great value that it places New Orleans 

 in the first rank of the exporting cities of the world. Herbaceous 

 cotton is chiefly cultivated in the Southern States and the East 

 Indies. It grows from two to eight feet in height, is rich in foliage, 

 and its fibrous seeds are preceded by flowers of pale yellow and 

 crimson color, like that of the hibiscus, for it belongs to the mallow 

 family. As the flowers fall, a capsule is found containing the fibres 

 of cotton which constitute the covering that envelop the seeds. 

 Cotton was cultivated in the East Indies five centuries before the 

 Christian era. The clothing of the Hindoos consisted chiefly of 

 garments made of this vegetable product. But the India cotton is 

 of shorter staple, and consequently much inferior to that of the 

 Southern States. In Borneo and many of the tropical regions, the 

 plant on which the cotton grows is flourishing in a wild state. In 

 the West Indies, in Brazil and in Egypt it is produced from a shrub. 



There is also a variety of herbaceous cotton called Sea Island cot- 

 ton, which grows nowhere else except in Florida and the islands on 



