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of stopping the machinery from want of hands to attend to the 

 manufacturing manipulations. There are many other necessary 

 conditions which it is unnecessary to mention here and which are 

 wanting in North Louisiana. 



It would be advisable that the planters of that part of the coun- 

 try employ their surplus capital to advance the agricultural and 

 commercial interests and to render their land more productive and 

 its yield more profitable, and home manufactures will follow, by the 

 natural order of things, in the wake of the general improvement of 

 the country. It only remains for me to give a succinct outline of 

 the botanical features of north Louisiana. The forest growth is 

 principally composed of short-leafed pine and a considerable variety 

 of oaks, among which the black jack, post oak and black oak pre- 

 dominate. The Pinus tacda and the Pinus inops give, however, the 

 characteristic features to the forest of the hill lands. Hickory is 

 very abundant, and the Magnolia lanca (bay laurel) and the Zan- 

 thoxylum Carolinianum (prickly ash) are frequently met with, but 

 the Magnolia grandiflora, so common in the swamps, is entirely 

 wanting. On the banks of the Ouachita the Robinia pseudo acacia 

 (flowering locust) fringes almost every where the water's edge, and 

 this is the only part of the State where I found this tree grow wild. 

 TheVerbascum Thapsus (common mullein) and the Verbascum 

 blattaria (moth mullein) are very common. The first covers whole 

 regions of waste land in Ouachita and other northern parishes; the 

 last is found principally in Webster parish. Both are introduced 

 plants — they are not indigenous to the State. The prevailing sum- 

 mer weeds are the Helenium tenaissolium and the Monarda punc- 

 tata (horse mint.) The first of these is the most wide spread plant 

 in Louisiana, it probably occupies as much ground as all other 

 flower-bearing plants together. 



The general botanical features of this part of Louisiana are nearly 

 the same as those of the pine lands where the orange sand forma- 

 tion prevails, with some marked difference, however, for in many 

 localities I found numerous specimens never seen before in any 

 other part of the State. 



