146 
Southern Products. 
raised on this coast sufficient to produce all 
the olive oil consumed in the United States. 
I am indebted to Mr. Dupuys for my know¬ 
ledge of the ju-jube also, who has several 
hearing, as well as many other choice fruits 
not mentioned. The pomegrante yields very 
abundantly here. The orange and lemon are 
bearing in many places along the coast, but 
not in large quantities, as they would require 
here some attention when our winters are 
very severe. 
The great reason why this country has 
made but little progress in agriculture, is 
owing to the fact that the population has been 
very sparse, and the whole country covered 
with grass that supplied plenty of cattle and 
sheep, both winter and summer, sufficient 
for food, and a great many to sell in the 
New-Orleans and Mobile markets. The fish 
and oysters in great abundance on the sea 
shore, and about the bogs and tide water 
bayous where our people mostly reside, sup¬ 
ply us with a great portion of our food ; as 
also, much game—turkeys, deer and bear, in 
the woods, with wild geese, ducks, and a va¬ 
riety of sea fowl about our coasts. The ar¬ 
ticles of cord wood, charcoal, and tar, being 
easily obtained, are sent to the New-Orleans 
market, and bread stuffs and other articles 
of necessity obtained and brought back as 
return cargo. The climate being warm, 
but little clothing is absolutely necessary; 
hence our real wants being so easily supplied 
without exertion, I consider the great reason 
why it has never been made to develope here¬ 
tofore, the agricultural resources of this 
country. There is an abundance of decom¬ 
posed vegetable matter in and about the mar¬ 
gins of creeks and low places, to manure the 
lands, and, from having tried it, I know it to 
be very fine. The Sea Island cotton grows 
finely in this country, and will yield about 
160 to 200 lbs. net cotton per acre, which is 
very near as good a crop as the Mexican cot¬ 
ton on our best land in the interior of the 
state ; and if health, comfort and cheapness 
of living were taken into account, is perhaps 
better. But the doctrine which has prevailed 
and made the world crazy for the last few years, 
of fortune making, instead of providing for a 
comfortable living, has been fatal to agricul¬ 
tural improvements to a great extent. 
I have a grass here very much like the 
Bermuda grass, well known in Louisiana, 
which I brought from Guinea, on the south 
side of Cuba, in the year 1839, which I have 
tried here, and it has succeeded beyond my 
most sanguine expectation. I have planted 
it on the white sand beach, and it has grown 
and covered over where it appeared impossi¬ 
ble it could have taken root at all. It is an 
excellent pasture grass, and, I'think, will be¬ 
come profitable, particularly in raising sheep 
in this country, although at present and for 
years to come, almost any quantity of sheep 
can be raised in the woods, without any food 
winter or summer, but the natural grass. 
The turnip I have seen as fine here as I ever 
saw any where, on land where cows have 
been penned ; also, good cabbage. I have 
sfent for the herba spagna grass seed to Ita¬ 
ly, which Dr. Cartwright, of Natchez, a very 
intelligent and scientific gentleman of much 
experience and great practical observation, 
assured me would do well in this country, 
and raised reveral crops in a year, and at each 
crop a ton of the finest hay per acre. If this 
grass succeeds half equal to Dr. (7s. expect¬ 
ations, it will add more to the wealth, real 
prosperity, and happiness of the country, 
than the turning of half our sand into gold. 
Another great source of wealth yet to be de¬ 
veloped in this country is the making of spi¬ 
rits of turpentine, which has never yet been 
attempted, except merely to tap a few trees 
to prove that they will run as well and abun¬ 
dantly as those in N. Carolina ; but this I do 
not conceive of importance, if our people 
would give proper attention to the cultiva¬ 
tion of the soil, the improvement of their 
stocks of hogs, cattle, sheep, horses, &c. 
These things properly attended to, would in 
a few years supply abundantly all our ration¬ 
al wants, and would greatly improve our 
mental and physical energies. As for health, 
we have that to our heart’s content. 
But our country wants an addition to its 
population of some of those economical, pru¬ 
dent, intelligent and industrious farmers from 
the northern and eastern sections of the 
Union, or from Europe, to set us some good 
examples, and who know how to live \vell 
and comfortable without making a large crop 
of Indian corn. It is a hard matter for a 
man raised in one of our western or southern 
states, to live in a country when he cannot 
make 50 bushels of corn per acre, and that 
his principal crop. 
Whether my hopes will ever be half real¬ 
ized with regard to this country, I know not, 
but of one thing I am confident, that is it ca¬ 
pable of all I have said or hinted : I have at¬ 
tempted no fancy sketch of its merits. Al¬ 
though the soil is poor and sandy, indeed all 
sand near the sea shore, yet its products are 
astonishing, and I have never seen any land 
so poorly cultivated any where. I have nev¬ 
er seen land that would bear a drought so 
