USA > Louisiana > Orleans Parish > New Orleans > Standard history of New Orleans, Louisiana, giving a description of the natural advantages, natural history settlement, Indians, Creoles, municipal and military history, mercantile and commercial interests, banking, transportation, etc. > Part 68
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654
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
climate of our Southern States, and as to the best modes of packing them in order to insure their successful growth after they arrive.
"The points determined upon for obtaining said cuttings are near the river Demerara, in British Guiana, and on the high lands near Caracas, in Venezuela. At the former place there are no less than eighteen varieties of the sugar cane; but I would particularly call your attention to the kind known under the name of Labba. The reddish, purplish and violet colored sorts would probably suit our climate best. Therefore it would be advisable to confine your selections prin- cipally to them. There are at least three varieties near Caracas. Those of Japanese origin, with deep purple joints, are the kinds you should procurc. The cuttings should be taken from the middle portions of the cane towards their top, cut about three feet in length, including a portion of the leaves. The plants from which they are taken should be healthy, vigorous and not over-ripe, and free from injury from borers, other insects or "the blast." They may be packed in boxes in alternate layers, with cane leaves and common, finely-sifted earth taken from the fields in which they grow, or the cane plants may be pulled up by the roots, their tops doubled down or pinched off, and done up in bundles containing twelve or thirteen stalks in each, enveloping them entirely with small ropes, made by twisting together the leaves of cane. If the roots of these bundles could in any way be surrounded with moist earth taken from the fields, the vitality of the plants would be longer main- tained."
With these specific instructions, Mr. Glover, having placed aboard "one thou- sand and eight boxes," each about three feet in length, in which to put the canes, and other necessary material for the voyage, the brig Release sailed from the Brooklyn Navy Yard early in September, 1856. The expedition returned to New Orleans in the early part of 1857. Mr. J. Holt, Commissioner of Patents, in his annual report for 1857, says: "The cuttings of the sugar cane imported from Demerara by the government for the planters of the South, promise to attain a large size, and should they prove sufficiently hardy to withstand the climate of the regions where they are intended to grow, it is believed that they will amply com- pensate in the end for the trouble of introducing them."
In De Boré's Review, May, 1857, we find a severe arraignment of the parties engaged in the introduction of these canes. The following is quoted from the New Orleans Delta :
"The boxes were filled with miserable, trashy stuff, completely spoiled. . The heat in the hold of the vessel, it is said, was by the thermometer 120 deg.
655
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
F., or upwards. If this was the case why make the planters pay freight, when prices are so high, too, for a handful of West India pebbles ?
"A plain, unpretending overseer from this State would have saved the govern- ment much expense and have done something more, probably, for the planters than help to extract the few dimes from their pockets (in the shape of freights on trash), which they saved from the wreck of the last crop, to say nothing of the preceding ones." In another place in the same issue of the Review, is a letter from one of the largest planters, which handles the "officials" "without gloves." He says : "There never was such a failure. What a misfortune that Uncle Sam did not send a practical planter. Not a sound bud, from the stalks either in the hold or on deck."
The evidence here seems contradictory, but if any canes were grown from this importation it is not generally known to the sugar planters of this State.
A word here in explanation of this appropriation. In 1853-54, prices of sugar fell in New Orleans, under the enormous home supply (449,384 hogsheads), added to the large crop of Cuba, to two, and three and a half cents per pound, and for the next few years the crop of Louisiana but little more than paid the expenses of the different plantations." This created dissatisfaction at home and a loud cry against the sugar industry of Louisiana in Congress. It was thought by some that the seed cane of Louisiana had "run out" and should be renewed, and hence an effort on the part of Congress to import fresh seed cane. But the year the cane was introduced Louisiana had another large and profitable crop, from Louisiana cane. Hence the absurd notion that the previous failures were due to degeneracy of the seed, was no longer tenable either at home or in Congress. The Hon. Miles Taylor, of Louisiana, in a speech before Congress in defense of the local sugar in- dustry, in 1857, declared that "the crop of this year would be the largest ever made in the State. This declaration will excite surprise in the minds of those who infer from the appropriation made last year for the procuring of sugar cane for renewing the seed in Louisiana, that the plant had deteriorated then. . The cane has not deteriorated. The cane crop for the present year is planted with Louisiana cane, and the crop exceeds any ever before planted there. This appropriation, in consequence of which some of the declared enemies of the sugar culture have taken advantage to decry that culture as a forced one and altogether precarious in its results, was, I will not say a Buncombe affair, but it was one which was occasioned by newspaper representation coming from the inex- perienced, grew out of a desire to concentrate public sentiment and was, in my
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656
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
view, of doubtful expediency, and was more than doubtful inprinciple. I say it was of doubtful expediency because the cane which has been cultivated for many years in Louisiana, in my opinion, is better fitted for the production of certain and large crops of sugar than any which will be likely to be introduced." This last opinion expressed by the speaker has been fully sustained by subsequent experiments. In spite of an introduction and thorough trial of over one hundred foreign varieties, the purple and striped varieties are still occupying nearly all of our cane fields, and will doubtless remain unless superseded by some of the seedlings (mentioned below) now so full of promise.
Mr. P. M. La Pice, on his return from Java in 1872, brought back with him the white cane known by his name, and called in Java "Light Java" or Canne Pana- cheé. This cane is extensively cultivated and yields well both in quantity and quality of sugar and molasses.
Mr. Du Champ imported the Purple Elephant cane in 1875, and Mr. Palfrey, of St. Mary Parish, introduced about the same time the Bourbon variety, which has locally been styled the "Palfrey."
During Mr. Le Duc's incumbency of the Commissioner of Agriculture at Washington (1877), he had imported a peculiar variety of cane from Japan, called "Zwinga," or Japanese cane. It was a very hardy variety, but of no value to the planters of Louisiana.
In 1886, the Sugar Experiment Station, through the kind offices of Com- missioner Coleman, began the importation of foreign canes and now has growing on its grounds over seventy-five varieties.
But the efforts to increase our sugar yields by the selection and acclimation of foreign varieties has been entirely superseded by the discovery of the ability of the cane seed (heretofore thought to be infertile) to germinate and produce "seedlings."
Accordingly, every sugar country is now at work producing "seedlings" and selecting therefrom those promising the largest tonnage with the highest sugar con- tent.
The Sugar Experiment Station, of Audubon Park, has been experimenting with seedlings, and has already distributed large quantities of two of the most prom- ising varieties, Nos. 74 and 95, to the planters of the State. It is expected that these seedlings will greatly increase the output of our sugar houses when universally cul- tivated.
SUGAR OUTPUT OF LOUISIANA.
The success of Etienne De Bore's trials gave a powerful stimulus to the sugar industry of Louisiana. Slaves were imported in great numbers, plantations were
657
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
rapidly seeded in cane and sugar houses were erected. So great was the increase that New Orleans in 1802 received over 200,000 gallons of rum, 250,000 gallons of mo- lasses and 5,000,000 pounds of sugar. In 1818 the yield of sugar had grown to 25,- 000 hogsheads.
In 1822 another impetus was given the industry by the introduction of steam power for the crushing of canes. Thenceforward the industry grew gradually until 1844, when the crop was doubled. It is true that various causes, local and national, influenced a great fluctuation in yields during this time. Freezes, overflows and variations in the price of cotton and sugar, were some of the local disturbances ; while national legislation then, as now, had a profound effect upon the industry.
In 1828 there were 308 estates, with an invested capital of $34,000,000. Of these estates 82 used steam power, and the rest horse. These estates were cultivated by 21,000 slaves. Mention has been made of the occasional interference of the cot- ton crop with the sugar industry. Growing side by side with sugar in the upper sugar parishes, it has invaded or retreated from the sugar area, just as the prices of the two fluctuated. If cotton was high and sugar low, cotton was cultivated, and if the reverse sugar was grown. In 1835 sugar fell to six cents per pound, a price then regarded as too low for the profitable cultivation of this crop, and many sugar planters turned their attention to cotton,assisting in increasing this crop in Louisiana for 1836 to 225,000 bales. This condition of affairs prevailed until the price of sugar, stimulated by the tariff of 1842, had again risen, and cotton, from overpro- duction, had declined. Thereupon numerous planters again deserted cotton and resumed the cultivation of cane. We therefore find in 1843 and 1844, 762 sugar es- tates (of which 408 were using steam power) with a capital of $60,000,000, and cul- tivated by 51,000 slaves. The following table, taken from the Patent Office report of 1844, will show the parishes, with yields in that year :
Hogsheads.
Hogsheads.
St. Mary
15,311
Jefferson
5,453
Ascension
10,633
West Baton Rouge
3,087
Iberville
9,644
St. Martin
2,621
St. James
9,350
East Baton Rouge
2,334
La Fourche
6,732
St. Bernard 2,026
Plaquemines 6,641
Lafayette 908
Terrebonne
6,366
Orleans
778
Assumption
6,256
St. Landry
395
St. Charles
5,822
Pointe Coupee
246
St. John the Baptist
5,743
Total 100,346
658
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
The industry had then covered very nearly the same territory now occupied by it.
The industry made rapid strides in the early forties, both local and national, conditions being propitious for large crops with remunerative prices. In 1845 there were 737 old sugar houses and 367 new ones, or a total of 1,104. Most of the new houses were erected on former cotton plantations, and it is recorded that many small cotton planters became cane growers, and not having the means to erect sugar houses on their own places had the cane ground at the mills of their neighbors. During this year (1845) seventy-two engines were added to the sugar houses of the State.
During these years many of the former cotton plantations of East and West Feliciana, Pointe Coupée, Avoyelles and Rapides, were converted into sugar estates, and it was found that the abandoned cotton lands of the Felicianas, which had been in cultivation for thirty years, and were too badly worn to be further profitable in cotton culture, would grow luxuriant crops of cane. The Daily Delta records the cane as the equal to any found in the rich alluvium of the Mississippi, "a fact which comes as near raising the dead as anything we have ever witnessed." The first suc- cessful experiment of converting a cotton plantation into a sugar estate was made by the Messrs. Perkins, and was soon followed by scores of the leading planters of East and West Feliciana parishes. This successful extension of the sugar industry into the cotton fields alarmed the planters of the coast, who positively asserted that in the near future their most formidable competitor in the production of sugar would be found in the entire cotton region of the State, and would cause a radical change of views of the planters as to the necessity of a tariff on sugar. Some even asserted that the tariff of 1842 would impel the whole cotton region of Louisiana into the cultivation of cane. In 1849, in spite of crevasses on the Mississippi and its out- lying bayous, and the destructive overflow of the Red River, there were made 269,- 769 hogsheads in 1,455 sugar houses; 113 new plantations were brought under cane for the first time, "62 of which will make sugar in 1850 and 19 in 1851." This csti- mate did not include six new cane plantations in the parish of Concordia, Louisiana, and the county of Wilkinson, Mississippi. Texas, too, was increasing her areas in cane, and this year had 35 estates yielding 10,000 hogsheads of sugar. There were 355 new sugar mills and engines introduced in Louisiana between 1846 and 1849.
In 1850 crevasses in Pointe Coupée and West Baton Rouge parishes and the Bonnet Carré of St. John, did great damage to the sugar crop. These, with early fall freezes, including the "severest remembered" on 7th December "destroying all standing and greatly injuring the windrowed canes" materially shortened the crop
659
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
of this year, notwithstanding the increased culture on old plantations and the open- ing of many new ones, 1,490 sugar houses making only 211,201 hogsheads.
At the end of this year the improvement in the price of cotton deterred many from entering into the sugar industry and caused some planters on the "border" to return to cotton. Very few new engines and mills were bought.
In 1851 only 1,474 sugar houses were in operation and the output was 235,547 hogsheads. The cane was very green, 70 gallons of molasses being obtained to every 1,000 pounds of sugar. There were crevasses on the Mississippi and one each on Bayous Plaquemine and La Fourche. In 1852 the crop was fair and sugar content large, the juice everywhere weighing 9 deg., to 10g deg. Baumé, 1,481 sugar houses yielding 321,934 hogsheads. Only two small crevasses reported.
In 1853 prices of sugar were very low, wood and coal very high, former $5.50 per cord, and the latter $2.00 per barrel. Much sickness among the negroes. The crop was, nevertheless, very large, 1,437 sugar houses turning out 449,322 hogs- heads.
The low price of sugar drove planters back to cotton, so that in 1854 there were only 1,324 sugar houses, with an output of 346,635 hogsheads. In 1855 a frost on October 23d was very destructive and reduced the sugar yield in 1,299 houses to 231,427 hogsheads. But the climax of low yields was reached in 1856. The freeze of the previous October had destroyed stubbles and injured seed cane, and the severe storm of August which inundated "Last Island" with destruction of many lives, aided by the cane-borer which had been introduced into Louisiana only a few years before, all combined to reduce the crop of sugar to 73,296 hogsheads made in 931 houses, "over 400 houses doing nothing." This was a year of disaster and gloom to the sugar planters of Louisiana. It occasioned the National appropriation for the renewal of seed cane described elsewhere.
Hon. Judge P. A. Rost, father of our present president of the Sugar Planters' Association, in a letter to the Louisiana State Agricultural Society, in January, 1857, strives to picture better prospects for the future, and recites the destruction of the cane-borer by the severe cold of 1855, the excellent quality and unusual quantity of seed cane for 1857, the liberal aid afforded by general government in procuring new varieties from abroad, and closes by asserting that the cane crop was as certain as any other that could be grown and would continue to increase in the future as in the past.
His prophecy was fully verified, for in 1857, despite a frost on April 2nd, "which cut the young canes to the ground" and the severe frost of 19th and 20th of November, 1,294 sugar houses turned out 279,697 hogsheads.
66c
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
In 1858 the Bell and LaBranche crevasses, with frost in the upper parishes early in November, reduced acreage and yield, yet 1,298 sugar-houses yielded 362,- 296 hogsheads.
The crops of 1859-60 were again small, but the crop of 1861, made after the out- break of the war, was unprecedented in Louisiana's history, 459,410 hogsheads.
With the war came destruction, complete and effective. The slaves were freed, sugar houses destroyed, many of the owners killed, or died during the war. Land values were greatly reduced, labor disorganized and credit absolutely destroyed. The industry was thrown back where it was in 1795 directly after De Boré's success, with this difference, then (1795) labor was organized and abundant, lands plentiful and planters ready and eager, and financially able, to embark in the sugar industry.
In 1865-66 the lands, and the willingness of the planters to re-establish the sugar industry, were the only potent factors. Labor and capital were wanting, and both had greatly to be coaxed ere a beginning could be made. But "human fortitude is equal to human calamity," and many a brave heart and strong arm undertook to recuperate his lost fortune and restore the sugar industry of Louisiana. But the changed relations of proprietor and laborer, of the merchant and planter, caused many a failure and hence a rapid transfer of estates from old to new owners. No- where in the South was there presented a sadder spectacle than that enacted in Louisiana soon after the close of the war, by the forced abandonment of so many ancestral homes by Creoles of the highest type of gentility and blood. During and after the war up to 1870, the sugar industry was very precarious, at no time did the yield reach 100,000 hogsheads. In 1870, notwithstanding late planting, and frosts in November, 1,105 sugar houses yielded 144,881 hogsheads. Fifty-two of these sugar houses had vacuum pans or other improved methods of evaporating. Throughout the seventies, the sugar crop fluctuated between 89,498 hogsheads in 1873, and 213,221 hogsheads in 1878. In 1873 there were large crevasses, and in 1874 there were destroyed 25,000 acres of cane by overflows. In 1875 many planters went into rice culture. There were 91,761 acres of cane ground in the mills this year, which were increased over twenty per cent in 1876.
The year 1877 was marked by a storm in September and a freeze in November. The Sugar Planters' Association was organized on 27th of November of this year, with Hon. Duncan F. Kenner as president. The year 1878 was notable for its large cane crop and for the extensive epidemic of yellow fever throughout the South. In 1879 twenty-two new vacuum pans were erected. In 1880 syrups were sent in con- siderable quantities for the first time to the refineries to be worked into grained sugar.
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661
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
The crop of 1881 was small and gathered from a decreased acreage, but the year is memorable in the history of the sugar industry by the creation by national legis- lation of the Mississippi River Commission, with an appropriation of $5,000,000 with which to improve the navigation of the Mississippi and works connected there- with. This action promised great assistance (which has been fully realized) in the construction and maintenance of our levees, and sent thrills of joy to every planter's heart, that had so often suffered from the disastrous floods.
In 1882, notwithstanding the "great" overflow which destroyed about 47,000 acres of cane, there was harvested the largest sugar crop then made since the war ; 1883 followed with nearly as large a crop. The crevasses and floods reduced the crop of 1884 very materially. In 1885 a fair average crop was made. This year is memorable for the International Exposition held in New Orleans, and for the establishment by the planters of the State of "The Sugar Experiment Station," now domiciled at Audubon Park, New Orleans.
The crop of 1886 was materially injured by the very severe freeze of January, the thermometer falling as low as 15 deg. F. at New Orleans. Since that year the sugar industry has gradually grown in acreage planted, in improvements in fertiliz- ing and cultivating the cane, and in the efficiency and capacity of the sugar houses.
The drouth of 1889 greatly reduced the crop and caused much discussion as to the efficacy of irrigation, which has since been permanently adopted on several plan- tations.
The heavy and continuous rains of the fall and early winter in 1898 gave a very "green" crop, which was harvested at great expense.
The unprecedented freeze of February, 1899, the thermometer going down to 6 deg. F., at New Orleans, destroyed the stubble and injured the seed cane, cutting the crop short fully two-thirds. The number of sugar houses in this State are gradu- ally diminishing, but the aggregate capacity is steadily increasing In October, 1891, under the operations of the bounty, there were about 700 sugar houses in this State, now (1900) there are not more than 350 in actual operation. The prospects for the present crop (1900) are very flattering, and with favorable seasons the largest crop in our history may be expected.
662
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
The following table from Bouchereau shows the quantity of sugar raised in Louisiana for the years 1823 to 1899, inclusive of both years, in tons of 2,240 pounds each :
Years.
Tons.
Years.
Tons.
Years.
Tons.
Years.
Tons.
1823.
15,401
1843.
51,347
1863.
39,690
1883.
128,318
1824.
11,807
1844.
102,678
1864.
5,331
1884.
94,372
1825.
15,401
1845.
142,723
1865
9,289
1885.
127,958
1826.
23,101
1846.
70,995
1866.
21,074
1886.
80,858
1827
36,450
1847.
123,214
1867
19,289
1887 157,970
1828
45,178
1848
112,964
1868
42,617
1888.
144,878
1829
24,642
1849
120,465
1869
44,382
1889.
128,343
1830.
1831
1851.
115,197
1871.
65,635
1891.
160,937
1832.
35,931
1852
164,312
1872
55,891
1892
201,816
1833.
37,482
1853
224,188
1873
46,078
1893.
265,836
1834
51,339
1854.
177,349
1874.
60,100
1894.
.317,306
1835
15,401
1855.
113,664
1875
72,958
1895.
237,720
1836.
35,937
1856
36,813
1876
85,102
1896 .282,009
1837
28,925
1857
137,542
1877
65,835
1897
310,447
1838
35,927
1858.
185,206
1878.
106,909
1839
59,049
1859
113,410
1879.
88,836
1840
44,065
1860.
117,431
1880.
121,886
1841.
46,257
1861.
235,856
1881.
71,304
1842
71,878
1862.
1882.
136,167
OBSTACLES TO SUGAR CULTURE.
are many and varied, and a recital of the trials endured and successes fully mastered by the sugar planters from the day of De Bore to the present time would fill more space than allotted us. Many of these obstacles are such as are encountered in the cultivation of any one crop. Drouths and excessive rainfalls are injurious to crops everywhere, while severe cold frequently destroys the wheat crop of the North. From a climatic standpoint, therefore, the culture of sugar cane presents no more obstacles than accompanies the cultivation of other crops. Year in and year out it is about as certain as our cotton or wheat crops, and no one has ever yet assigned a failure in either of these crops to their being exotic and unadaptable to our climate.
LEVEES.
The most serious obstacle our planters have encountered in the past has been the occasional crevasses and overflows, destroying the growing crop of cane. A plantation cannot be renewed in cane as quickly as with cotton. Frequently our cotton planter follows the receding flood waters, sowing cotton seed, and sometimes our largest and best cotton crops are made from sowings thus made, following an
1898.
.245,511
1899. Not known.
1850
103,111
1870
75,369
1890
215,843
663
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
overflow. But not so with sugar cane, where the stalks arc planted. It requires from two to six tons of canes to plant an acre, and when an entire plantation of grow- ing cane is destroyed, several years will be required to grow seed enough to replant it and re-establish the prevailing rotation. Hence crevasses and overflows, serious even to cotton growers, are almost fatal to sugar planters. In the past our levees have been temporary, and broke in almost every high water. The great floods of 1874, 1882 and 1884 remain as horrid nightmares in the memories of our planters.
Fortunately, the national government, after years of neglect and indifference, recognized its obligation to the riparian dwellers of the Mississippi in the creation of the Mississippi River Commission in 1881, whose duty it is to improve the naviga- tion of the river and works connected therewith. It therefore includes the construc- tion and maintenance of the levees. This action on the part of the national govern- ment was promptly seconded and supplemented in Louisiana by the creation of Levee Districts in various portions of the State, each to be governed by a Levee Board, with power to issue bonds, collect specific taxes and erect and maintain efficient levees. From the issue of bonds and the procceds of levee taxes, supple- mented with appropriations from the Mississippi River Commission, the levees of the State have been rebuilt, strengthened and raised three feet above the highest waters known. It has been clearly shown that dirt properly placed, and an abundance of money, can keep the Mississippi from our lands even in the highest floods. It is believed that the day of overflows is gone. It is true that caving banks, crayfish holes, etc., may even now occasionally produce a crevasse and temporarily overflow a restricted area of land, yet a general overflow, caused by extreme high water, is now believed to be impossible. There are several Levee Districts in the State. On the right bank of the Mississippi, running close to its mouth, is the "Buras." Above this, and extending up to the intersection of the La Fourche with the Mississippi River, is the La Fourche. Beyond the La Fourche and running up to the Atchafa- laya River, is the "Atchafalaya." Beyond the Red River and extending up to the Arkansas Line, is the "Fifth Levee District." In the interior of North Louisiana, extending from the Bayou Macon on the East, to the Ouachita on the West, is a sec- tion of country which is flooded whenever the levees on the Mississippi in lower Arkansas are broken. This section is incorporated into the "Tensas Levee District," and uses its funds to protect the levees in Arkansas. Returning to the left bank of the Mississippi, the "Ponchartrain" District begins at Baton Rouge and extends to the upper limits of the city of New Orleans. The city of New Orleans is a separ- ate Levee District. From the lower limits of the city southward to the gulf, is the "Lake Borgne" District.
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