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

scores Of "pcaninnies," who seem jolly con-
gregation. under the care of crones, who here
as in an Indian village, act as nurses of the
rising generation destined from their births To
the limits of a social Procrustean bed. The
increase Of property on the estate is about 5
per cent per annum by the birth Of children
We ride an hour before coming upon any
"hunds" at work in the fields. There is an air
of fertile dcsolation that prevails in no other
cultivated land. The regularity of the cane,
its gardenlike freedom from grass or weeds
and the dd unguem finish and evenness of the
furrows would seem the work of nocturnal far
ries did we not realize the system of "gang
labor" exemplifed in field we at length reach
where some thirty men and women were giving
with the hoe the last polish to the earth around
the cane which would not be molested again
until gathered for the autumnal banquet of the
rolling g-mills.
Small drains and larger bitches occur at al
most every step. All these flow into channel,
some Is feet wide, which runs between the
plantations and the uncleared forest, and car
ries of the water to \ "bayou" still more re-
mote. There are twenty miles of deep ditch
ing before the plantation, exclusive of the canal
and as this is the contract work of "Irish nav
vies," the sigh with which our host alluded to
this heavy item of plantation expense was ex-
pressive. The work is too severe for African
thews, and experience has shown it bad policy
to overtask the slave. The sugar-planter lives
in apprehension of four enemies. Those are
the river when rising, drought too much or
unreasonable rain, and frost. The last calls
into play all his energies, and tasks his utmost
composure In Louisiana the cane never ripens
as it does in Cuba, and they begin to grind as
early in October as the amount of juices will
permit. The question of a crop is one of early
or late frost. With two months exemption
they rely, in fair season, upon a hogshed of
1900 pounds to the acre. and If they can run
their mills until January, the inc. ease is more
than proportionate, each of its latter days in
the earth adding saccharine virtue to the cane.
AT an average of a hogshead to the acre,
each working hand is good for seven hogsheads
a year, which, at least years prices, 8 cents per
pound for ordinary qualities, would be yield
of El40 per annum for each full field hand
Two hogsheads to the acre are not unf'e-
qucntly, and even three have been, produced
upon rich lands in a good season. Estimat-
ing the sugar at seventy per cent and the refuse,
6dgdsse at 80 per cent, the latter would give
us two tuns and a quarter to the acre, which
open ones eyes to the tireess aciv' ty of nature
in this semi tropical region.
From the records of Houmas find that in
1887, the year of its purchase at about f300,.
| j
600, upon the investment.
In the rear of this great plantation there are
$4,000 additional acres of cane-brake which are
being slowly reclaimed, like the fields now re-
jocing in crops, as fast as the furnace OF the
sugar house calls for fuel Were it desirable
to accelerate the preparation of this reserve for
planting, it might be put in tolerabe order in
three years at cost of fl5 per acre. We ex-
tended our ride into this jungle, on the borders
of which, in the unfinished clearing, | saw
plantations OF "negro corn," the sable cultva-
tors of which seem to have disregarded the
symmetry practised in the fields of their mas
ter, Who allows them from Saturday noon until
Mondays cockcrow for the care of their private
interests, and, in addition to thi-, whatever
hours in the week they can economize by the
brisk fulflment of their allotted tasks. Some
of these patches are sown broadcast, and the
corn has sprung up like Zouave tiraiteUs in
their most fantastic vagaries, rather than like
the steady regimental drill of the cane and
maize we have been traversing.
Corn, chickens and eggs, are from time i'm
memorial the perquisites. of the negro, who has
the monopoly of the two last named articles in
all well-ordered Louisiana plantations Indeed,
the white man cannot compete with them in
raising poultry, and our host was evidently de-
lighted when one of his negroes, who had
brought dozen Muscovy ducks to the mansion
refused to sell them to him except for cash.
"But, Louis, won't you trust meP Am | not
good for three dolars?" "Good enough, mas
sa but dis nggcr want de money to buy -four
and coffee for him young family. Folks at
Donaldsonville will trust massa-won't trust
niger" The money was paid, and, as the ne
gro left us, his master observed, with a sly,
humorous twinkle, "rhat fellow sold forty dol
lars worth of corn last year, and all of them fed
their chickens with my corn, and sold their
own"
There are three overseers at Houmas, one of
whom superintends the whole plantation, and
likewise looks after another estate of 5000
acres, some II miles down the river which our
host added to his possession some two years
since, at a cost of fl50,000 In any part Of
the world and in any calling Mr.. S Il do
not know if he would like to see his name in
print would be considered an able man. Mr..
5. attends to most of the practice requiring i'm
mediate attention. We visited one of those
hospitals, and found half dozen patients i'll of
fever, rheumatism, and indigestion, and appar
emily well cared for by couple of stout nurses.
The truckle bedsteads were garnished with
musquito bars, and was told the hospital was
favorte resort, which its inmates leave with
reluctance. The pharmaceutical department
was largely supplied with variety oil medicines,
quinine and preparations of sulphites of iron.
"Poor drugs" said Mr.. s., "are poor econo-
N.Y."
have mentioned engineering as one of the
requisites of a competent overseer. To explain
this must observe that Houmas is esteemed
very high land, and that in its cultivated
breadth there is only fall ef eight feet to car
ry off its surplus water. In the plantation of
Governor Manning, which adjoins it. an expen-
siye steam draining machine is employed to re-
lieye his fields of this encumbrance, which is
effected by the revolutions of fan-whee some
twenty feet in diameter, which laps up the wa
ter from Il narrow trough into which all the
drainage flows, and tosses it into an adjoining
bayou.
On Governor Manning's plantation we saw
the process of clearing the primitive forest, of
which $50 acres were sown in corn and cotton
beneath the tall girdled trees and awaited the
axe, while an equal greadth on the other side
of a broad and deep canal was reluctantly
yielding Its tuhed and fbrous soil, from which
the jungle had just been removed, to the
ploughs of some 80 negroes, drawn by two
mules each. Another season of lustraton by
maize or cotton and the rank soil will be ready
for the cane
The cultivation of sugar differs from that of
cotton in requiring much larger outlay of
capital. There is little required for the latter
besides negroes and land, which may be bought
on credit, and years clothing and provisions.
There is a gambling spice in the chances of n