Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1866-11-10

story in a few words. While nearly every
city paper is taken up with articles spec.
uiating upon the cotton crop, and advis
ing this and that for its culture next
year, it is refreshing to read a well-writ.
ten article upon the staple which interests
US most in this section Of Louisiana. Let
but city papers wake up to the great i'm.
portance Of urging the reproduction OF
our great staple, and it will do much
good, while we Of the country will assist
with such means as are at our disposal.
SUGAR PROSPECTS.
Our sugar planters have got well un-
der way with their rolling, and through
out the saccharine region the cheerful
sights and sounds which proclaim the
commencement Of the cane harvest, afford
quite an encouraging relief to the gloom
aud sombre desolation which the late
war cast over our whole beautiful coast
1t is true the operations contrast quite
sadly with the grand scale in which this
culture was conducted in the ante beUum
times, Our last great crop reached the
high figure of 100000 hogsheads, which
was nearly equal to half the consump-
ton of the country. But for the war, the
crop would now exceed 600, 900 hogs
heads, as at the time the war broke out
this vas one Of the most promising and
productive branches of agricultural in
dustry in the Union. What was very
remarkable in relation to this culture, was
the low rate at which the sugar was sold.
and, we presume, ~proftably sold, not
withstandipg a high tariff on forign su,
gars. The great crop of 1861 sold chief.
ly for Confederate money, at from four to
seven cents. The great success Of our
planters before the war was due to the
enterprise and the liberal application of
mechanical and chemical agencies in the
manufacture and improvement of the su.
gar, by means of which the fact was pret.
ty satisfactorily established that, though
exotic, like cotton, and having serious
meteorological obstacles to encounter.
sugar could be cultivated and manufactu.
red in Louisiana of as good quality and
at as low rates as in the tropics.
The war inflicted a sad, and bv MANY
it vas believed a fatal blow, at this in.
dustry. In addition to it's ravages, of
which the sugar region had more than its
just share, and the reduction of a labor
system upon which it was believed cane
culture was believed to be more depend
ent than any other agriculture, there was
another cause which came lear extin.
gushing the whole sugar interest, and
destroying for years the means of it's re.
This was the cotton mania.
which in '62, '63 and '64, marked the vio-
OF the moSus mutticaulis frenzy of
thirty years ago. Under the influence of
the extraordinary prices of cotton in those
years, our sugar planters abandoned tbeirI
cane and plowed up their fields for cotton.
A very few of the older and more expert
enced planters, remembering former evil
dences OF the unsuitableness of the low
lands OF Louisiana for cotton, stuck to
their cane, and thus was the plant saved
from extinction and sufficient seed preser-
we'd to ensure q product this season of.
perhaps, $4,000 hogsbeads against eight
ar ten for last season. This is a gain
which exceeds that which followed the
great failure of 1851, when the crop sunk
10 76,0OO hogsheads, and so great an alarm
was felt about the failure of seed that
Congress passed an appropriation to i'm
port seed cane from the West Indies and
Brazil. But without this aid the sugar
culture soon righted itself, regained its
I'D Importance, and steadily advanced to
ne great prosperity it attained before
ne war. 1t is confidently believed that
I no very unusual and untoward event
occurs, a suficiency Of seed will be saved
rom the crop of this season to Justify an
estimate OF one hundred thousand hogs
reads for the yield of next year. Des.
ute the many difficulties and annoyapces {
nd terrible times of our planters, we do (
lot think such results ought to excite
dependency or discomfort, or drive Dur {
'u!tlvators to the abandonment of this
'aluabIe industry. It is very hard for a
'eople, especially for a class, to surren- a
Ter old Ideas, convictions and preiudices. t
'ut after the experience we have all had. .
behooves all sensible and reAectinS q
len to observe with patience, and to q
ear and examine with unprecedented Il
'lnds, and to give a fair trial and exam i.
'atlon OF all the new modes and expert S
tents which circumstances have forced a