mr. robinson’s tour.—no. 9 . 
283 
fashion—and 
fanning mill. 
cleaned in the ordinary way with 
The yield was 130 bushels per acre. 
By 130 bushels at 50 cts. 
By straw, 
EXPENSE OF CULTIVATION. 
One day’s plowing at $1.50, 
One and a half days’ harrowing and 
rolling at $1.50, 
Two days’ harvesting, 
One day’s carting, .... 
Half day’s hauling manure, 
Sowing 25 cts., five and a half bushels 
seed at 62£ cts. per bushel, 
Six days’ threshing and cleaning at 
75 cts.,. 
Interest on land at $50, . 
Total expense, „ .... 
Profit, ...*.. 
$65.00 
4.00 
$69.00 
$1.50 
2.25 
2.00 
2.00 
0.75 
3.69 
4.50 
7.54 
$24.23 
$44.77 
MR. ROBINSON’S TOUR.—No. 9. 
Louisiana .—There are a good many small rice 
farms along this coast of the river, on which the 
seed is usually sown broadcast, in March or April 
and flooded in June or July, three or four inches 
deep, if the state of the river admits; and if it does 
not, it grows dry, as there is not energy enough in 
the Creole population, who plant rice, ever to fix 
any kind of machinery to elevate water to flood 
the rice fields. Mr. Andrew Knox, a very intelli¬ 
gent gentleman, with whom I spent a night, is of 
opinion that all of the back lands might be very 
profitably cultivated in rice, by using windmills to 
drain the land, and the same cheap power to flood 
the fields, when needed. Some plant in drills, and 
cultivate with plow and hoe. This produces the 
best crop, but requires labor, which is very objec¬ 
tionable among “ white folks.” The rice sown 
broadcast has to be wed with sharp hoes or 
knives. The crop is cut and stacked like wheat, 
in September, and is threshed, or trodden out, now 
and then. It is sometimes winnowed with a fan¬ 
ning mill, but oftener with a blanket, somewhat 
after the manner of the old Dutch fan. The hull¬ 
ing machines are equally primitive. A mortar and 
pestle being the most common. An average crop 
is about 30 bushels of paddy to the acre, weighing 
60 lbs. to the bushel; and is worth about 75 
cents a bushel, or 2£ cents per pound, clean. 
Four years ago, Mr. K. bought 1,240 arpents, 
for $2,100, without fence or buildings—an old-field 
pasture—340 arpents cleared land—700 tillable— 
800 now in wood. It cost him $20,000 and one year’s 
labor with 35 hands, (except making a small crop 
of corn,) to get ready to make sugar. But he has 
so renovated the old fields, that he made last 
crop, from 240 arpents of cane rolled, 325 hogs¬ 
heads of sugar, and the unusual quantity of 85 
gallons of molasses to the hogshead, (27,625 gal¬ 
lons.) worth 18 cents a gallon, and sugar four 
cents per pound will make $15,210, while the 
value of the place has increased so, that, compared 
with late sales in the vicinity, it is worth $100,000. 
This is certainly much better than letting such 
land lie an idle waste. His annual expenses are 
about $6,000, as he buys nearly all his corn, as 
well as meat. He works 24 mules and 6 yoke of 
oxen, and uses good tools. Notwithstanding he 
has plenty of timber, he has ordered wire to fence 
his front, because he thinks it will be the cheapest. 
Cypress pickets, or rails, for post and rail fence, 
with which nearly all fences are built, are worth 
from $5 to $7 a hundred, and posts $10, and 
will not last over ten years. So that it is easy to 
see that wire is the cheapest. I am glad to per¬ 
ceive that Messrs. Aliens are prepared to furnish 
it to order in any quantity; as I think that, as 
soon as its value and cheapness as a fence be¬ 
comes known, the whole coast will be fenced 
with it. 
To show what judiciously-applied labor is capa¬ 
ble of producing, I will state a few facts relative 
to the plantation of Mr. Wm. Polk, a very enter¬ 
prising and intelligent young man, from Tennessee, 
whose place is about 24 miles above New Orleans, 
on the “west coast.” He bought the tract about 
four years ago—an old Spanish grant—of some 
7,000 arpents, running back near nine miles, much 
of it on a ridge, upon which cattle can be enclosed 
by a wire fence, back of the cultivated lands. 
Upon this tract, he intends to put a large stock of 
cattle, that will live upon the cane. He found 
upon the place an old dwelling, the shingles of 
which, though still sound and nailed with wrought 
nails, attest its age. There were about 310 arpents 
of cleared land, part in rice field, and balance old- 
field pasture, with but one ditch upon the place, 
the whole not worth the annual taxes. In 1846, 
he broke up the land deep, with four and six 
mules, by incredible hard work, and planted corn, 
and made about half a crop; which some of his 
neighbors said was because he plowed his land so 
deep that he had spoiled it. But he said, it was 
because it never had been plowed so deep before, 
and could not be expected at first to produce so 
well; and, secondly, because he had not yet got it 
perfectly ditched. In the winter of 1846-7, he 
gave it another thorough plowing, planted cane, 
and completed the ditches, laying it into squares 
six rods on a side, having a fall of twelve feet in 
105 arpents back from the river. The next crop 
made him 445 hogsheads of sugar, besides seed 
cane. In 1848, he had 320 arpents in cane, 285 
of which he rolled, and made 525 hogsheads of 
sugar, and about 36,000 gallons of molasses, work¬ 
ing 55 field hands, (90 negroes in all,) 37 mules, 
10 carts, 3 wagons. 14 double plows, and no oxen. 
His sugar house cost $17,000, besides the labor of 
his own hands making brick and doing most of the 
work, estimated at $9,000 more. Much of the 
worst of the ditching was done by hired Irish 
laborers. He feeds his field hands 6 lbs. of pork 
and 12 quarts of Indian meal a week, besides 
molasses, sweet potatoes, and other vegetables; 
and, although they were from the north, he finds that 
they keep healthy and strong upon this high feed¬ 
ing, without complaining of lassitude, as is usual 
among those brought here while acclimating. 
He confidently expects to derive a profit from 
grazing cattle upon his extensive back lands, and 
