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 69
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664
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
In the neighborhood of Alexandria, is the "Red River, Bayou Boeuf and Atcha- falaya" District, while around Shreveport, on the upper Red River, are the "Caddo" and the "Bossier" Levee Districts. These Levee Districts are controlled, each by a separate "Board," the members of which are appointed by the Governor of the State. With the assistance of the State Engineers, they build and maintain the levees of the State, utilizing the funds derived from taxes, self-imposed by the dwellers in each District, upon their own lands and products. They have succeeded, with the help of the national government, in erecting powerful levees everywhere, at a cost high up in the millions, and maintain them during flood periods. Such confidence is now re- posed in Levees, that the dwellers on the Mississippi River in flood seasons feel almost as safe as those who occupy the bluff and hill lands of the State.
This great obstacle, if not the greatest, to the sugar industry of this State is now happily reduced to a minimum, if not entirely removed.
TARIFF ON SUGAR.
The first duty imposed on sugar by the national government was in 1789, of one cent per pound on brown and three cents upon loaf sugars. These duties were aug- mented in 1790, 1797 and 1800. In the last year the duty on brown sugar was raised to two and one-half cents, and that of loaf sugar to five cents per pound. During the war of 1812, the duty was raised to five cents, but was lowered to three cents in 1816. These duties were imposed at a time when there was not only no sugar made in the United States, but when there were no lands within its limits suitable for cane culture. They were levied for "revenue only," and continued up to 1832, when the "compromise act" was adopted. This act gave a gradually reducing tariff each year. Under its operation prices of sugar fluctuated greatly, more in consonance with demand and supply, than in response to the tariff ; for it must be remembered that the world's demand for sugar at that time was exceedingly limited. A series of large crops both in Cuba and Louisiana, prior to 1842, had caused a serious depres- sion in the prices of sugar. At the same time the compromise act had reached its height and afforded but little or no protection. Accordingly an universal demand arose for higher protection, which resulted in the tariff of 1842, giving two and one- half cents per pound on brown sugar. In this connection, it may be of interest to many readers to insert a "call" to attend a meeting of the sugar planters at Donald- sonville, La., on May 16th, 1842. The call states : "It is confidently hoped that all those who are of the opinion that nothing short of effective Federal Legislation can save the sugar planters from the absolute ruin brought upon them by the struggle
.
Hinyou Call
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
of the last seven or eight years between them and foreign labor, will not fail to at- tend." This call was dated April 28th, 1842, and was signed by R. D. Shepperd, Louis Labranche, Etienne Lauve, A. B. Roman, S. M. Roman, J. T. Roman, V. Aime, Charles A. Jacobs, P. Landreaux, Andry & Boudousquie, A. Hoa, G. L. Fus- ilier, Charles Grevemberg, G. Derbigny, E. Roman, L. Millaudon, J. B. Oliver, Duncan F. Kenner, W. B. Kenner, W. W. Montgomery, P. A. Rost, P. M. Lapice, H. Lavergne, C. Adams, Jr., Gabriel Villeré, Calliste Villeré, Jules Villeré, Felix Villeré, Andole Villeré, Widow A. Fusilier, Samuel Fagot, C. Zeringue, Silvestre Roman, J. Toutant, and S. R. Proctor.
Many a reader will recall perhaps an ancestor or a relative in the above list of planters.
The tariff of 1842 was supplanted by another in 1846, which continued in oper- ation up to 1857. This tariff established a tax of 30 per cent ad valorem. This diminished tariff did not affect prices very materially for several years after its adoption, on account of the small crops in Cuba. However, when the crops of both Cuba and Louisiana increased yearly, culminating in Louisiana in 1853, in the un- precedented yield of 450,000 hogsheads, then prices fell to two and three and a half cents, and crops barely paid the expenses of making them. In 1855-56 short crops in both Cuba and Louisiana forced the prices up, which reached a maximum in 1856. In 1857 the tariff was lowered to 24 per cent, ad valorem, and so remained until the war. During the war it fluctuated from three-quarter cents to three cents per pound.
After the war, up to 1869, the rate of duty collected on brown sugar was three cents per pound. In the winter of that year a new schedule was adopted that re- duced the average collected to about two cents per pound. This reduction was quite severe upon Louisiana, and the years immediately following its adoption witnessed the failures of many merchants and planters.
In 1873 the financial needs of the government led to the addition of 25 per cent to the above average, and made the amount collected about 2} cents per pound. This protection gave a healthy advance to the sugar industry which has continued almost without interruption ever since. In 1890 all tariff on unrefined sugar was removed and a bounty of 12 and 2 cents per pound was paid to every producer of domestic sugar. This lasted through the administration of President Benj. Harrison. Soon after the inauguration of Mr. Cleveland, the laws were changed, the bounties abol- ished and an ad valorem of 40 per cent, with differentials of one-eighth and one- tenth of a cent per pound, was levied upon sugars. This change of laws, just at a
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
time when the world's markets were overstocked with sugar, and when a financial panic prevailed everywhere, bore very heavily upon our planters, many of whom had large contracts for improved machinery, and sent a few into involuntary bankruptcy. However, the industry was too firmly established to be destroyed, and the planters had too much money invested in improved sugar factories to discontinue the cultiva- tion of cane. While a few planters made money under the Wilson tariff, the majority simply held their own.
Soon after the inauguration of President McKinley, the Dingley Bill was en- acted, giving to sugar the following protection, viz :
SCHEDULE E.
Sugar, Molasses, and Manufacturers of :
209. Sugars not above number sixteen Dutch standard in color, tank bot- toms, syrups of cane juice, melada, concentrated melada, concrete and concentrated molasses testing by the polariscope not above seventy-five deg., ninety-five one- hundredths of one cent per pound, and for every additional degrce shown by the polariscopic test, thirty-five one-thousandths of one cent per pound additional, and fractions of a degree in proportion ; and on sugar above number sixteen Dutch standard in color, and on all sugar which has gone through a process of refining, one cent and ninety-five one-hundredths of one cent per pound; molasses testing forty deg., and not above fifty-six deg., three cents per gallon; testing fifty-six deg., and above, six cents per gallon ; sugar drainings and sugar sweepings shall be sub- ject to duty as molasses or sugar, as the case may be according to polariscopic tests, provided that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to abrogate or in any manner impair or affect the provisions of the treaty of commercial reciprocity concluded between the United States and the King of the Hawaiian Islands on the 30th day of January, 1875, or the provisions of any act of Congress heretofore passed for the execution of the same.
210. Maple sugar and Maple syrup, four cents per pound ; glucose or grape sugar, one and one-half cents per pound ; sugar cane in its natural state or unmanu- factured, twenty per centum ad valorem.
211. Saccharine, one dollar and fifty cents per pound and ten per centum ad valorcm.
212. Sugar candy and all confectionery not specially provided for in this act, valued at fifteen cents per pound or less, and on sugars after being refined, when tinctured, colored or in any way adulterated, four cents per pound and fifteen per
667
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
centum ad valorem; valued at more than fifteen cents per pound, fifty per centum ad valorem. The weight and the value of the immediate coverings, other than the outer packing case or other covering, shall be included in the dutiable weight and the value of the merchandise.
This bill is now in operation, and but for local conditions, which produced an unusually "green" crop in 1898 and a very small crop in 1899 (described elsewhere) would have been of valuable assistance to our planters in their carnest efforts to en- large and improve their factories and to extend the area in cane. The crop of the present year will doubtless be a very large one, and if good prices of sugar prevail it will afford the means of accomplishing further improvements all along the lines of our sugar industry.
The following condensed table will show rates of duty on brown sugar since the establishment of the United States :
Act of
Cents per pound,
July 4, 1789.
1c. 1}c. -
Aug. 10, 1790.
Mch. 3, 1797.
2c.
May 13, 1800.
2}c.
July 1, 1812.
5c.
Apl. 27, 1816
3c.
July 14, 1832
Aug. 30, 1842
21c.
July 30, 1846.
30 per c.
Mch. 3, 1857.
24 per c.
Mch. 2, 1861.
ąc.
Aug. 5, 1861.
2c.
Dec. 24, 1861.
2}c.
June 30, 1864
3c.
Dec. 22, 1870
13c. to 23c.
Mch. 3, 1883
1ąc. to 2}c.
Mch. 3, 1890
Free; bounty given of 12c. and 2 cents.
Mch. 3, 1894
Mch. 3, 1898.
40 per cent and } and 1-10th. 1}c. to 1.95c.
From 1890 to 1893 is the only period in the history of the United States that brown sugar was admitted free. All other times it has had a duty averaging about two cents per pound. The tax on sugar was sometimes low, but this important
668
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
source of revenue was never entirely discarded save during the existence of the bounty. The highest rate ever imposed was five cents temporarily during the war of 1812. The Act of March, 1861, imposed the very low rate of ? cent per pound following the ad valorem of 24 per cent which had been in force for four years. War exigencies speedily brought about an increase, which in 1864 was placed at three cents.
PROGRESS OF THE SUGAR INDUSTRY.
The first impulse to improvements in the sugar house was given by the intro- duction of the steam engine as a propelling power of the sugar mill, by Mr. John J. Coiron, in 1822. The first engines and mills were extravagant in price, costing $12,- 000 and were imported, chiefly by Gordon and Forstall. This large cost deterred many planters from using them. Soon, however, foundries in this country began their manufacture and reduced the price to $5,000-$6,000 placing them within the reach of the less wealthy planters. The planters began to purchase freely and by 1828 there were 82 estates using steam power. The number gradually increased until to-day steam power is virtually used all over the State; only four horse mills are reported as making sugar, in Bouchereau's Sugar Report for 1898-99.
In 1845 there were 72 engines and mills introduced into Louisiana, coming from Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia and Richmond. Mr. T. A. Morgan, of Orange Grove Plantation, of the lower coast, had the honor of first introducing the vacuum pan in 1830. Almost simultaneously Mr. Valcour Aime and Messrs. Gordon & Forstall followed Mr. Morgan's example. The results of the vacuum pan were watched with an interest scarcely less than that exhibited in De Boré's first attempt at sugar making. It was a success from the start. Mr. Valcour Aime, of St. James, and Messrs. Gordon & Forstall, along with the pan, imported other improved machinery and the best chemicals for refining purposes. Their experiments were wonderfully successful, producing a very high grade of refined sugar. Mr. V. Aime continued his refinery up to his retirement from active life in 1854, when he turned it over to his son-in-law, Mr. Fortier. His first men- tion of refining sugar was in November, 1834.
It is recorded that a shipment of refined sugar by Gordon & Forstall to New York at this time, attracted much attention, secured a gold medal for its ex- cellence and changed the trend of opinion on the tariff in Congress. Messrs. Livingston & Johnson had recently, on the floor of the Senate, in response to in- terrogatories of Eastern men who were clamorous for the removal of tariff on refined sugar, confessed the inability of Louisiana producers to make refined sugar.
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. 669
The arrival of this sugar on the market of New York controverted the above state- ment and induced Congress to continue the tariff with the hope and expectation that Louisiana would soon furnish all the sugar required by the United States.
Mr. Valcour Aime, in a review of McCulloh's Report in De Boré's Review, says : "I attempted without success some expensive experiments for making white sugar in 1830. I tried, in connection with a common set of kettles, in 1832, the bascule pan, and in 1833 the serpentine test, and ascertained that with good canes no definite advantage can be derived from either. In 1834 I bought moulds, pro- cured the bag filters of Taylor, to filter my cane juice when boiled in the common kettles to 30 degrees Baumé, ordered from London one of Howard's vacuum pans, and began to refine." In 1840 his sugar maker "was sent to Europe for the filter Peyron," but "he returned with another on Dumont's plan." "In 1845 I procured Derosne's apparatus." "In 1846 Mr. Lapice put up one of Derosne's apparatus, made at 'Novelty Works, New York,' with tigers when I kept to my moulds."
It may here be remarked that Mr. V. Aimé records his first use of coal as a fuel in 1840, and his first centrifugal in 1852, and his first bagasse furnace in 1853.
He records the blossoming of sugar cane in 1803 and 1843 on his own plantation.
Mr. P. M. La Pice reports in 1846 that he had "a double pressure mill which extracts nearly all the juice from the cane and fits the bagasse in the best possible manner for manure, which is fit for immediate use."
In 1844 Mr. Norbert Riellieux, a native of Louisiana, but educated in France, invented what was known as the Riellieux apparatus, and now familiar to us under the "double," "triple" and "multiple" effects, and installed one on the Packwood plantation, now Myrtle Grove, below the city. In a letter to the Commissioner of Patents at Washington, Mr. Riellieux claims that this apparatus would make 12,000 to 18,000 pounds of sugar, with only 14 gallons of molasses to every 1,000 pounds of sugar; that with the bagasse from cane, only one cord of wood was necessary to make 1,000 pounds of sugar.
In 1846, a committee of the Agricultural and Mechanical Association of Louisiana, upon sugar, gave the prizes for best sugar as follows: First, to Pack- wood; second, to Packwood & Benjamin; third, to Verloin Degruys; first and second made by Riellieux's patent sugar boiling apparatus, and third by N. Riel- lieux's vacuum pan. The committee says that next year the following estates will use Riellieux's apparatus : Armant, of St. James ; A. Lesseps, of Plaquemine; Verloin Degruy, of Jefferson, and Chauvin & Levois, of St. Charles."
670
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
In 1847 a Riellieux apparatus of the largest size was erected in connection with a refinery on the plantation of Mr. J. B. Armant, of St. James Parish, and Mr. P. M. Lapice, of the same parish, has erected a magnificent sugar house and refinery on the largest scale, with the apparatus of Derosne & Cail in its most im- proved form, and these experiences will decide the question of superiority in point of efficacy between the two systems. (J. P. Benjamin in De Bore's Review.)
Avequin first explained the action of lime as a defecating agent and discovered the presence of "cerosin" on the stalks of cane.
In 1849, Mons. Melsens, Professor State Veterinary and Agricultural College, Belgium, took out patents for the use of bisulphite of lime in clarifying canc juice. Soon after, the Melsens process was tried by many planters in Louisiana.
In 1854 Thompson's Bagasse Burner was introduced on Gossett & John- son's plantation, at 19-Mile Point, on the right bank of the Mississippi River. It was claimed for this burner that the green bagasse from the mill, without the aid of wood or blowers, would furnish ample steam for running engine and other purposes.
In 1855, Mr. F. D. Richardson, of St. Mary Parish, patented a process for drawing the masse cuite from the kettles by means of a pipe rivetted to the bottom and penetrating the wall, enclosed by a stop valve, which is raised when the kettle is to be emptied.
The first steamboat that ever floated on the Mississippi entered the port of New Orleans in January, 1812, being the steamer New Orleans from Pittsburg. The growing sugar industry soon availed itself of this method of transportation and up to a few years since, steamers transported nearly all of the sugar and molasses of this State to market. Now the railroads transport by far the greater part.
Since the war, so many new inventions and devices have been tried that it would require more space than can be spared in this article to enumerate them.
Mr. John Dymond, of Belair, was the first planter to adopt the scales for weighing his cane. The Cora Plantation had erected the first nine-roller mill. Five or six rollers had been common before the erection of this mill. Crushers and shredders are now extensively used for preparing the canes for the mill. Various devices have been patented for transferring cane from carts to cars and from cars to the carrier. Filter-presses, both mud and juice, are now universally used. Crystallization in movement is practiced upon several plantations. Vari- ously constructed sulphur machines are to be found. Superheaters are used in many sugar houses.
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
Diffusion was first introduced in 1873, but was not successful; was again experimented with by the government in 1886, and since that time eleven batteries in Louisiana and Texas have been erccted and are now in successful operation.
THE PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURE
has been very marked in recent years. The first record of the use of guano as a fertilizer was in 1853. To-day thousands of tons of commercial fertilizers are used annually. The large turn and disc plows invert the soil with its cover of cow peas. Improved disc and other cultivators are used by nearly all of the planters. Stubble shavers and diggers supplant hoe labor in the stubble crops of cane. Fertilizer distributors deposit the fertilizers upon both sides of the row at once. Improved lister or double mould-board plows aid in reduc- ing the cost of bedding land. Heavy double rollers compress the dirt on planted canes. Harrows of every kind are available in our markets.
The cane cutter or harvester has not yet materialized, although a standing prize of $2,500, by the Sugar Planters' Association, awaits the successful inventor.
THE GROWING OF SUGAR CANE AND ITS MANUFACTURE INTO SYRUP, SUGAR AND MOLASSES, AS AT PRESENT PRACTICED IN LOUISIANA.
Sugar cane is a gigantic grass of the genus "Saccharum." All cultivated varieties are classified under one species, "Saccharum officinarium." Cane goes to seed in tropical countries, but the seed are small and often infertile, with much adhering pappus and are very difficult to germinate. They are never used for planting the crop, but are germinated in experimental work for originating new varieties (seedlings). The cane crop of the world is propagated by planting the stalks, as in Louisiana, or the tops of the stalks, as is practiced in many tropical countries.
The stalks are made of joints and at each joint is a bud or eye, which de- velops by planting into a stalk. Each stalk soon tillers until a bunch of stalks is produced.
PREPARATION AND CULTIVATION.
The ground is thoroughly broken with disc or mould board plows, drawn by four to eight mules; rows five to seven feet wide are thrown up with two- horse plows. An open furrow is made in the center of the row with a double mould board plow. Into this open furrow are deposited two to four continuous lines of cancs. These are covered by a plow or cultivator, followed by hoes, and
672
STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
the process of planting is completed. Two to six tons of canc are used to plant an acre. As soon as the cane begins to sprout, the rows are off-barred on each side with a two-horse plow and the dirt covering the cane partially removed in order to hasten the process of germination. When a good stand of cane has been secured the dirt is returned, the middles of the rows are opened and the process of cultivation begins. This is accomplished with plows, cultivators and hoes, and continued until the cane is large enough to shade its rows and prevent the growth of weeds and grass when it is laid by. The ditches are then well opened and the quarter-drains cleaned. This is the final act in cultivation. Cultivation is best accomplished by the use of cultivators, the disc to straddle the row of cane, and the "diamond toothed" to split out the middles.
Cane is planted at any time between September and April, that the conveniences of the planter and the weather and condition of the soil will permit. It is usually laid by in June or early in July. After "lay by" the cane grows rapidly, particu- larly if frequent showers at short intervals conspire with warm weather.
In Louisiana the general harvest begins in October, and lasts till January. On account of the severity of our winters, cane must be harvested in the fall and early winter, or be killed by the frost. It is therefore only about eight or nine months old when worked in the sugar house.
There are two processes of extracting the juice from the cane, by pressure and by diffusion.
PRESSURE.
The juice from the sugar cane is usually extracted by passing the canes through heavy iron rollers driven by powerful engines. A combination of from three to nine rollers constitutes a sugar mill. The more numerous the rollers, other conditions being the same, the greater the quantity of juice extracted. Many sugar houses have in front of their mills, crushers or shredders, which prepare the canes for the mill. Frequently after the canes have passed through the first set of rollers (usually three) they are saturated with water or steam and then passed through another set of rollers. By this process, known as "maceration," a larger extraction of juice is obtained, and it is universally practiced in large mill houses, giving extractions of 75 to 84 per cent of juice on the weight of the cane.
The second process is by
DIFFUSION.
Beets have always been treated by the diffusion process to extract the juice. Recently the same process has been used with sugar cane. The process, briefly
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STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS.
told, is as follows: The canes or beets are cut up into small pieces by specially designed knives and carried into large cast-iron cells, known as diffusors. There they are treated with hot water under pressure. Ten to sixteen cells constitute a battery. The juice is driven out by force from cell to cell over fresh chips, until it contains nearly as much sugar as the natural juice in the plant, when it is drawn off and sent to the juice tanks to await the treatment described further on. When water has passed over the chips a sufficient number of times to remove nearly all the sugar (a fact determined by chemical analysis), the cell is opencd from its lower end and its contents dropped on a carrier, which conveys them away. When the cell is again closed below it is at once refilled with fresh chips from the top. In the continuous march of diffusion work, one cell is being emptied and one being filled all the time, the rest being filled with chips and closed, through which a constant flow of juice is circulating. To each cell is attached a heater or "calorisa- tor," and through this the juice is made to flow in its passage from cell to cell, and while passing is heated by the steam circulating in the inner pipes.
CLARIFICATION.
The juice obtained by mills or diffusion is subjected to the following treat- ment : If white or yellow sugar be desired the juice is treated with the gas obtained by burning sulphur. This bleaches it. It is then drawn into large copper vessels, holding from 400 to 1,500 gallons, with steam coils at the bottom, called "clarifiers." Here it is treated with milk of lime until the acidity of the juice is neutralized and then heated to near the boiling point of water. This treatment brings to the surface a heavy blanket of impurities, which is brushed off into another receptacle and finally sent into a filter press, where the juice is expressed and the solid im- purities remain imprisoned between the plates of the press. When the filter press is full of this solid substance, it is emptied and made ready for fresh work. Super- heated-clarifiers are used also in many factories.
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