New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-07-13

lous district, ofwhich the number of inhabi-
tants in 1885, under the Spanish Governor
Miro, was then already set down at 7046, must
have been the most cultivated one from the
earliest time Of the colonial establishment.
This opinion seems to be warranted by the
extent Of large sugar and other farms which
had been there erected.
Then again we nave the district called .sLes
Cannes Brdl6es," the burnt cane settlement
often mentioned in the recital of old colonial
statistics, without giving you any exact rela-
ton of its actual locality, which in this latter
case we suppose to have been a subdivision OF
the before named district of the Tchoupitoulas,
and to have been situated probably at tbe site
Of the present parspet or breastwork fortifi-
cation. There the country no doubt in ancient
times must have been covered with a thicB
growth Of the foresi cane, and which the first
settlers would naturally set on fire in
order to clear the ground for agricultural pur.
pose. Now we have not yet mentioned the
manner in which tue primitive colonists, the
/ old French settlers, generally cultivated the
land in lower Louisiana and it NAV be also
IN upper Louisiant or even Canada. That
was upon the comnunistic principle or the
common ground culture. Our readers lnav
| perhaps not be awa1e that in the old European
countries, not to so back to Eastern regions.
this mode of cultiysting the ground has long
been an establishedone. Even at the present
day there are a number of agricultural com
munities that know of no other wav
OF cultivating tlBir fields and attend
ing to their farm pursuits than upon
the communistic ystem, that is to saw.
one general field bling inclosed by one com
| mon fence, and the area afterwards parcelled
out and sub-dividd among number Of
farm families, Nov in this way, we know that
most of the numerous small farmers, in the
upper river parishes in st. John Baptist and
St Jacques, as wei as on Bayou Lafourebe
had long carried ontheir simple agricultural
labors. Even so.in the old French settlement
OF Natchitoches, the first farming and landed
undertakings had been formed. Sneb a
method of establishing the incipient agricultu-
raj enterprises in a new country, and mostly
by people who lave nothing but their
'@-+@+~ w Sb1l4AS4SG Will, Is IuG ONLY
way to arrive at tie indispensable result
When, however, in process of time, more
means are acquired ty the different members
OF the colonial societ or when by family in
crease Or personal deterity, some of the CO.
partners outstrip the ,taers in capital or labor
forces, it then geneRlly happens that some
voluntary agreement nds the former comnlu-
nistie farm association, and new settlements
are made in other localities, to which d
part OF the former coartners, will shift their
ground, Thisis the Rason why, when we an
rived IN the countr,, we found none but
very extensive plantations in the upper district,
that is to say, the Tchupitoulas and g Cannes
Bralees which had ben so very populous in
former times.
The indigo culture and sugar cane had
enabled the richer families to buy out all the
great multitude of small land cultivators. who
moved away higher upthe river, or into back
concessions upon the inland bayous and |
water courses. This SINE process of trans |
porting their labor forces by the small families
into new settlements, after selling out to their
Weather neighbors then already cultivated
fields and landed tracts, las been Witnessed |
throughout our State Particularly do we
recollect whole neighborhods in the parish of |
Natchitoches thus transferred from the rich
bottom lands to the inlant regions or lands
upon the bayous and pineridges. At the pre-
sent day, perhaps, a contrary process NAV
take place-that is to sa.. the former largo
sugar and cotton estates nay again be divided
into small farming tracts, md thus be cult
waited by families with theassistance of some
labor hands. For this Development we must
wait, for at present everything is vet in n
chaotic state and conditio., and it is NOT yerv
clear in what manner louisiana culture will
be most advantageously arried on. As we
stated IN the forepart Of tbs number, the com
munistic system had bee. established along
our river parishes in the arly period of the
French colony. This WIS SO Tnucb more
because the mailing of the leFees
and keeping them in good repair, re-
quired more force tina, single moor
family could well afford for that purpose.
Then again, one common fence around the
whole field under culture, md leaving the rest
free as common pasture round for all the
cattle and working teams, vas the most eco
nomical plan. The great -aste of KEEPING IN
separate fences upon smalriYer farms. often
having not even half an apent front. bv run
ming the whole depth of tn sloping plain to
5he woods say forty, sixtyor eighty arpents
N length, will at one glaice convey to the
reader the immense. ADVANCE of the former
system of but one common ence all round the
'ommunistie plantation far1s. When then in
alter times the large sugar nd cotton planters
aad replaced the mulhtudeof small planters,
his system Of large encloares was kent M
IS an almost Indispensable Eeasure on aceount
If the peculiar locality or typography of the
over delta. 1t was otherwis inssuoh districts. :
II upon such bayous where he smallest tract q
VI eultivable land might be adequately pro- 9
ecEsd against foundations and fenced in i
gainsS the grazing cattle, without the i'm I
tense out2ay of costly cypres Enclosures. Infi,
1ch small laoded tracts pople might rear p
i sorts of family crops OF household pro- T.
sions, and live from thu yield Of fruit q
tehards which require little outlay and not
lch constant exertions the making
staple crops, We herefore read p
wv in our papers of some river farms ey
1on which the orange traa nro9,,ca RI