Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1861-08-08
A LOUISIANA SUGAR PLANTATION.

w llluln IL huSSell llle SpeCldl correspondent
of the London Times in letter written at
Natchez, Miss, June 14th gives very inter
esting description of a large sugar plantation
in Louisiana, which is better and more graphic
than any we remember to have before seen on
the subject. After numerous troublesome ef-
forts to get ferred across the Mississippi he at
last got under way. He continues:
bade good bye to my friend, and sat down
in my boat, which was soon forced up along the
stream close to the bank, in order to get good
start across to the other side. The view, from
my lonely position was curious, but not at all
picturesque. The landscape had disappeared at
once. The world was bounded on both sides
by high hank. and was constituted by broad
river-just as if one were sailing down an open
sewer of enormous length and breadth. Above
the bank rose, however, the tops of tall trees
and the chmneys of sugar-hJuses. A row of
quarter of an hour brought us to the levee on
the other side. / assembled the bank and di-
rectly in front of me, across the road, appeared
a carriage gateway, and wickets OF wood pain
ted white in line of park palngs OF the same
material, which extended up and down the road
as far as the eye could follow and guarded
widespread fields of maze and sugar-cane. An
avenue of trees, with branches close set droop-
ing and overarching walk, paved with red
brick, led to the house, the porch Of which was
just visible at the extremity of the lawn, with
clustering flowers, rose, jessamine, and creepers
clinging to the pillars supporting the verandah.
The proprietorj who had espied my approach,
issued forth with a section of sable attendants
in his rear, and gave me hearty welcome.
The house was large and better than the res
licences even of the richest planters, though it
was in need of some little repair and had been
built perhaps fifty years ago, but it had belong
ed to a wealthy family, who lived in the good old
Irish. fashion, and who built well, ate well, and
drank well, and-fnay paid very well. The
view from the Belvedere was one of the most
striking of its kind in the world. If an Eng
ish agricutnrist could see 5000 acres of the
finest land in one field. unbroken by hedge or
boundary, and covered with the most magnif-
cent crops of tasselling Indian corn and sprout-
ing sugar-cane, as level as billiard table, he
would surely doubt his senses. But here is
literally such a sight. Six thousand acres, bet
ter titled than the finest patch in all the 10th
ians, green as Meath pastures, which can be
cultivated for hundred years to come without
requiring manure, of depth practically unlim-
tied. and yielding an average profit on what is
sold off it Of at least 2M an acre at the old
prices and usual yield of sugar Rising up in
the midst of the verdure are the white lines of
the negro cottages and the plantation offices
and sugar-houses, which look like large public
edifces in the distance And who is the lord
of all this fair domain? The proprietor of
Houmas and Orange grove is man, a self
made one, who has attained his apogee on the
bright side of half a century, after % years Of
successful business
When my eyes "uncurtained the early morn
ing" might have imagined myself in the magic
garden OF Cherry ond Fair Star, so incessant
and mutifarious we've the carols of the birds.
which were the only happy colored people saw
in my Southern tour, Notwithstanding The as
| surances of the many ingenious and candid gen.
tlemen who attempted to prove to me that the
palm of terrestrial felicity must be awarded to
| their negroes. As ] stepped through my win
dow upon the verandah, a sharp chirp called
my attention to a mocking- bird perched upon a
rose-bush beneath, whom my presence seemed
to annoy to such degree that | retreaed be-
hind my curtain whence | observed her flight
| to a nest cunningly hid in creeping rose traed
around neghboring column of the house,
where she impaired breakfast of spiders and
grasshoppers to her gaping and camorous Off
spring While was admiring the motherly
grace of this melodious fycatcher servant
brought coffee, and announced that the horses
were ready, and that ! might have three
hours ride before breakfast At Houmas les
1OulS sc SNceII et sc TCSScHtOtcfu, ana an
of the first will serve as a type for all, with he
| exception of such variations in the kitchen and
cellar produce as the ingenuity and exhsustless
hospitality of my host were never tired of fram-
ing.
If regretted the absence of our English
agricuturist when beheld the 5000 acres of
cane and 900 of maze unfolded from the Bel
vedere the day previous, | longed for his pres
ence still more, when saw those evidencrs of
uxuriant fertility attained without the aid of
phosphates or guano. The rich Mississippi
| bottoms need no manure, a rotation of maize
with cane affords them the necessary recupera-
tive action. The cane of last wears plant is left
in stubble, and renews its growth this Spring
under the title Of ratoons. When the maize is
in tassel cow-peas are dropped between the
rows, and when the lordly stock, of which
measured many IL and even l5 feet in height
bearing three and sometimes four ears--is
topped to admit the ripening sun, the pea vine
twines itself around the trunk, with profusion
| of leaf and tendril that supplies the planter
with the most desirable fodder for his mules in
trolling time" which is their season of trial.
Besides this the crn blades are culed and
cured. These are the best meals of the South
ern race.horse. and, constitute nutritious hay
without dust. The COW pea is said to strengthen
the system of the earth for the digestion of a
new crop of sugar.cane. A sufficient quantity