146 



SU&AE. 



operation, producing about 90,000 hhds. In 1844, the number of 

 hogsheads was 191,324, and of pounds, 204,913,000 ; but this was 

 exclusive of the molasses, rated at 9,000,000 gallons. In 1845 there 

 were in Louisiana 2,077 sugar plantations, in 25 parishes ; 1,240 

 sugar houses, 630 steam power, 610 working horse power ; and 

 the yield of sugar was 186,650 hhds., or 207,337,000 lbs. 



The introduction of the sugar cane into Florida, Texas, Califor- 

 nia, and Louisiana, probably dates back to their earliest settlement 

 by the Spaniards or French. It was not cultivated in the latter, 

 however, as a staple product before the year 1751, when it was 

 introduced, mth several negroes, by the Jesuits, from St. Domingo. 

 They commenced a small plantation on the banks of the Missis- 

 sippi, just above the old city of New Orleans. The year following, 

 others cultivated the plant and made some rude attempts at the 

 manufacture of sugar. In 1758, M. Dubreuil established a sugar 

 estate on a large scale, and erected the first sugar mill in Loui- 

 siana, in what is now the lower part of New Orleans. His success 

 was followed by other plantations, and in the year 1765 there 

 was sugar enough manufactured for home consumption ; and in 

 1770, sugar had become one of the staple products of the colony. 

 Soon after the revolution a large number of enterprising adven- 

 turers emigrated from the United States to Lower Louisiana, 

 where, among other objects of industry, they engaged in the cul- 

 tivation of cane, and by the year 1803 there were no less than 

 eighty-one sugar estates on the Delta alone. Since that period, 

 while the production of cane sugar has been annually increasing 

 at the south, the manufacture of maple sugar has been extending 

 in the nortii and west. 



Hitherto, the amount of sugar and molasses consumed in the 

 United States has exceeded the quantities produced — consequently 

 there has been no direct occasion for their exportation. In the 

 year 1815 it was estimated that the sugar made on the banks of 

 the Mississippi amounted to 10,000,000 lbs. 



According to the census of 1840, the amount of cane and 

 maple sugar produced in the United States was 155,100,089 lbs., 

 of which 119,947,720 lbs. were raised in Louisiana. By the cen- 

 sus of 1850, the cane sugar made in the United States was 

 247,581,000 lbs., besides 12,700,606 gallons of molasses ; maple 

 sugar, 34,249,886 lbs., showing an increase, in ten j^ears, of 

 126,730,077 lbs. 



The culture and manufacture of sugar from the cane, with the 

 exception of a small quantity produced in Texas, centres in the 

 State of Louisiana — where the cane is now cultivated and worked 

 into sugar in twenty-four parishes. The extent of sugar lands 

 available in those parishes is sufficient to supply the whole con- 

 sumption of the United States. Sugar cultivation was carried on 

 in Louisiana to a small extent before its cession to the United 

 States. In 1818 the crop had reached 25,000 hogsheads. In 

 1834-35 it was 110,000 hogsheads, and in 1844-45 204,913 hogs- 



