New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-05-28

tho whole BASIN commencing at the Arkansas
| line, and bounded on the west by Red river and
on the south by Bayou Lafourohe. This region
embraces the finest cotton and sugar lands
in the State. In order to show its productive
capacity, table is given exhibiting the amount
of the agricultural products in 1859 Of the allu-
vial parishes subject to overflow by the waters of
the Mississippi. The list embraces twenty FIVE
parishes, but from four of these-St, Landry St.
| John, Jefferson and Orleans, no returns are
| given.
The remaining twenty-one parishes produced
! 294,O44 bales of cotton, 269,S2s hhds. of sugar.
665 bbls of molasses, s. l59,54s bushels of corn
and 2647T bbls. of rice The cotton, at $40 per
bale, sugar at sl70 per hid, corn at 81 90 per
bushel molasses at 81 90 per gallon, and rice at
| $50 90 per bbl. would be worth $l05 656 09S
This immense product was yielded by SIG, ,249 acres
Of cultivated land being a return of $120 per acre
The four parishes of Madison, Carroll Tensas and
Concordia, produced 205, 1855 bales of cotton and
l62 3O5 bushels of corn, of which 81 279 bales of
cotton and go 400 bushels of corn were the pr oduct
| of the parish of Tensas. The parish of St. Mary
alone produced Al 62S hhds of sugar, 55 102 bbls.
of molasses, and 800 bushels of corn, on
$4,000 acres of cultivated land, worth in the ag-
gregate, at the prices above mentioned, 50 122 49,
or a return of $3.50 per acre. The following are
the parishes which are subject to overflow by the
waters of the Mississippi in every portion of their
territory: Carroll, Madison, Tensas, Concordia
Pointe Ceupee, West Baton Rouge, Iberville, As
cension, Assumption, Lafourche, Terrebonne, ST.
James, st. John the Baptist, St. Charles, Orleans
St. Bernard, Plaquemnes and Jefferson. Esti-
mating the entire State at As 900 square miles, or
fourth Of its area. But many other parishes are
subject to partial inundation, both by the Missis
sipprand Red River These are, Avoyelles, Bos-
sier, Caddo, Caldwell, Catahoula, De Soto, East
Baton Rouge, Franklin, Lafayette, Morehouse
Natchitoches, Rapides, st. Landry, st. Martin, ST.
Mary Vermillion, Ouachita and West Fehciana
These parishes contain ls,491 square miles, or
1854, ,240 acres. They produced, in 1850 ITO O9O
hhds of sugar, with proportionato quantity Of
molasses, 3l2,3l0 bales of cotton and 6,653,606
bushels Of corn.
The Mississippi river runs five hundred and six
ty-fye miles through the State, and We have also,
Red River, the ouachita, the Atchafalaya, the
Plaquemine, the Lafourche, and numerous smaller
streams which are liable to overflow, and require
to be vigilantly guarded. There are within this
State fifteen hundred miles of leyees, which have
served to redeem vast body of land from the
waters, and have thus added immensely to our
productive capacity and taxable property.
As we have said, the commissioners believe that
the Federal government should take charge Of this
great work; but they likewise recommend to the
legislature the following suggestions.
1st. The creation of two bords of levee commits
sioners, to consist of - MEMBERS to be appointed
by the Governor for years. One board to
have the control and supervision of the levees be-
low the mouth of Red River, and the other board
to have the control of all levees above that line
Each district to have a chief engineer, to be Sc
lected by the board, and to be commissioned by
the Governor: the engineers to have the right to
appoint such assistants with the sanction of the
board) as circumstances may render necessary.
2. The authority for locating and building levees
to be given to the board; the minimum distance
from the bank of the Mississippi to be fixed by
them, according to some settled rule.
3. The authority to be given to the Governor to is
sue State bonds, not exceeding - millions of dol
lars, the proceeds of the same, together with the
sums derived from the sale ofswamp lands to be set
apart and to be used exclusively for the construc-
ton and repair levees the said bonds to be Sc
cured by special tax to beimposed on the lands
protected from overflow, and to draw an annual
interest of - per annum, payable semiannually
and the principal payable in --- years.
4. Each leVee district shall be entitled to the fund
raised by taxation on the lands protected by its
leyees; but the funds derived from the sale of
swamp lands Should be equally divided.