EXCELSIOR. 
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NEW YORK CITY AND ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
onrirrc- J‘*l I’nrli llow, New York 
OillCEl). ]||||f a | 0 Ht.. Hoeliosler. 
Y0L. XXII. NO. 19. 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, N0Y. 5,1870. 
WHOLE NO. 1085. 
f Entered according to Act of CoriKress, In the year 1870. hy 1). I). T. Moork, In the office of the Librarian of ConaroMH, at Washington.] 
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W. CO'LTON I *1 lANTA'l'ION WT THB) MO U P 
li lOI) LtlVKK, I jOUISIANA. 
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FACTS ABOUT LOUISIANA. 
BY A. N. WAT,T,ACE. 
The Colton Production, 
The production of the snowy fiber that 
nearly clothes the world,—that to-day com¬ 
prises three fifths of our combined exports, 
and is doing more to balance our exchanges 
ill Europe titan nil other branches of indus¬ 
try combined,—is attracting attention com¬ 
mensurate with the position it occupies 
among our vast resources; even its claims to 
royalty were not entirely without merit in 
tile past, but now, joined hand in hand with 
the development of our immense wealth, 
under the new regime, its power and strength 
are none tiie less felt among the values and 
exchanges of the world. 
It is said that in 1784 an American vessel, 
having seventy-one bags of cotton on hoard, 
was seized at Liverpool on the plea tliat so 
large an amount of cotton could not have 
been produced in the United States ; and an 
old planter, on picking Ids crop of fifteen 
bales, was so surprised at the amount, that 
lie exclaimedWell, well, I have done 
with cotton; here is cnougli to make stock¬ 
ings for all the people in America." In 1791 
the export was less than 5,000 hales; In 1800 
it was 3,812,:ur> bales; in 1801 the total pro¬ 
duction had reached the enormous amount 
of 4,500,000 hales, estimated as seven-eighths 
of Uie production of the world. 
About one-half of the Stale of Louisiana, 
°f all tlmt portion lying north of the Red 
Kivcr, is comprised in and known as the 
continuation of the Cotton Belt of the South¬ 
ern States, the face of the country present- 
all the variety of hills and valleys, forests 
and prairies, lakes and rivers, of the more 
Northern States. Hero, too, can the planter 
surround himself with all the comforts of a 
country home—the orchard, garden, vines 
and flowers, the rare and more delicate 
fruits which only mature in a milder cli¬ 
mate. Underlaid chiefly by a cretaceous for¬ 
mation, the rich alluvium is composed of 
Band and vegetable mold, line as iho silt of 
ocean’s bed, warmed and watered by the 
heat and moisture arising from the Gulf— 
the location and Home of the cotton plant. 
(lotion Cultivation. 
The preparation and subsequent cultiva¬ 
tion of the land for a crop is of ordinary 
character, closely resembling that of other 
hood crops, and admits of a greater portion 
of labor, both in producing and marketing 
tin: crop, being done by machinery. The 
ground is usually plowed in ridges, the 
width depending upon the probable size of 
the plants, which varies from eighteen 
inches to half as many feet in bight. The 
greatest yield is generally secured by so 
graduating the distance that the plants at 
maturity will cover the ground and slightly 
interlock their branches. The distance 
usually adopted in Louisiana is from four to 
live feet. The seed is planted In drills, at a 
depth of from one-half to one inch. In 
about ten days, if the weather is favorable, 
the plant will make its appearance. As soon 
as the third or fourth leaf cornea out, the 
hoeing or scraping, as it is termed, com¬ 
mences, cutting away the superfluous plants 
and destroying the weeds. It usually re¬ 
quires about four to live months for the 
plant to mature. The planting season com¬ 
mences about the first of April and contin¬ 
ues to the fifteenth ; and the gathering sea¬ 
son, or when the bolls open, begins about 
the middle of August and lasts throughout 
the season, or until the last bolls have 
ripened. One hand can cultivate ten to 
(llleen acres, (besides other crops for his 
support,) which, with good cultivation, 
should net him one hundred dollars per 
acre. lie would hardly lie able to pick that 
amount, however, without assistance. In 
consequence of the little expense or outlay 
of capital required to produce a crop of cot¬ 
ton, this branch of industry oilers peculiar 
advantages to men of small capital, yet with 
larger means it has always proved remunera¬ 
tive at very much less price than it now 
bean. 
The accompanying illustration gives an 
excellent view of a Cotton Plantation situ¬ 
ated near the mouth of Red River, and 
long known as one of the finest in Louisiana. 
The scene,—with the steamer leaving, loaded 
to the water’s edge, with nearly throe thou¬ 
sand hales of cotton (an actual occurrence)— 
is vivid and stilUeieully descriptive to render 
further comment unnecessary. 
The It ice drop 
is now becoming one of the chief staples of 
Louisiana, it having reached the last year 
something over one hundred thousand bar¬ 
rels. The fact of its being a very sure and 
remunerative crop, while its cultivation ami 
harvest occur at a time when the labor is 
not required on the cane and cotton crops, 
makes the profits arising from it a clear gain 
to the planter. So well is it adapted to the 
Climate and soil, with the facilities for irriga¬ 
tion, that enough might he produced to feed 
the whole continent. An acre will yield 
from eight to ten barrels of clean rice of two 
hundred pounds each, of quality equal to 
that of South Carolina. From seventy five 
to one hundred barrels is the product of one 
baud. Its cultivation is of the simplest 
character, (resembling that of oats or barley 
at the North,) and with implements of the 
simplest description, requiring little manual 
labor until the threshing and hulling, 
which are especially laborious for the want 
of good machines to do the work. Willi the 
use of improved implements, as at the North 
in the production and preparation for mar¬ 
ket of similar crops, the result, per hand 
might he quadrupled, thus rendering it one 
of the most remunerative of crops. Neither 
as is generally supposed, is the rice section 
so unhealthy as many would believe. With 
the rapid Mississippi on the one side, and the 
sell breezes from the Gulf on the other, the 
rice lands, unlike those of Georgia and the 
Carolinas, are among the most healthy in 
the Slate. 
The Timber Section. 
A large portion of the upland and alluvial 
region of the State is covered with the finest 
forests of pine, cypresB, live oak, white oak, 
ash, gum, and other valuable timber trees, 
and might furnish employment to hundreds 
of mills and thousands of workmen to sup¬ 
ply the increasing demand for home, West¬ 
ern and foreign trade—which, with the fa¬ 
cilities of water transportation, make it an 
item well worth an examination. There 
was an exhibition at the Louisiana State 
Agricultural Society’s Fair, held last winter 
in New Orleans, a fine display of the timber 
products of that State, among the more no¬ 
ticeable of which was the cypress in cabinet 
work, doors, etc., that would rival even the 
ash, oak, or butternut of the North in beauty 
of grain and finish. The pitch, or long-loaf 
pine, from its hardness and great durability, 
is particularly valuable in eases of exposure 
or contact with water, and is much esteemed 
for building purposes. 
Rtoclc (••'owlnir. 
Throughout the State horses, cattle, mules, 
hogs and sheep are raised without care 
or expense, the spontaneous growth of the 
soil affording abundant subsistence through¬ 
out the entire year. 
Fruit* ami Vegetable*!. 
This lucrative branch of agriculture, re¬ 
linking hut a small capital and productive 
of quick cash returns, is capable of an almost 
indefinite extension. With a climate and 
soil of sufficient variety to produce almost 
every kind of fruit and vegetable grown in 
the country in their most perfect maturity, 
it must become a great source of supply to 
less favored latitudes. If it is profitable to 
ship fruits from California to the Eastern 
States by rail, how much more profitable 
would it be to ship from Louisiana by wafer 
transportation, where the fruits grow the 
year round —the oranges ripening from < )cto¬ 
iler until March, strawberries from Decem¬ 
ber until June, figs, peaches, pears and 
melons in June. Vegetables also grow the 
year round. The sweet potato yields from 
two to three hundred bushels per acre, and 
with careful cultivation has been known to 
reach as high as six hundred bushels—five 
or six times as much as can he grown of the 
Irish potato at the North. 
Vnrleiv of Unmp. 
For the sportsman there are great num¬ 
bers of deer, cranes, wild geese, brandt, 
ducks, quails, woodcock, snipe, doves and 
squirrels The waters of the Gulf, lakes, 
rivers and bayous teem with the finest fish, 
oysters, turtle, crabs and shrimp, 
Mineral Wen lib. 
It is hardly a recognized fact that, Louisi¬ 
ana lias any claim to mineral wealth ; yet to 
the mineralogist her recent developments of 
buried treasure arc as interesting as they are 
wonderful, and give rise to various conjee 
tures as to its cause and origin. One of the 
greatest natural curiosities Is the salt mines 
of Petite Anse, or Avery’s Island, on the 
Gulf coast, is a deposit of almost chemically 
pure muriate of soda or cryslalized sail, con 
tabling actually less than two per cent, of 
foreign mutter. Its area has not been fully 
ascertained, but it la known to underlie some¬ 
thing over four hundred acres, and In sonic 
