The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1867-09-14
NUMBER "a.

4 fact, like every thing else, land
! has no fixed price. A Brazilian
i can buy for $3.50 what would cost
4 an American $1O00.h There are
several large tracts of land owned
i In this way. 1t seems that long
: time ago, how orby whom, nobody
knows, these lands were divided
4 into shares, and each share sold
4 for SO much man buying a
share or the portion of one, has
the right to go anywhere on the
land, not then occupied, build him
a house and cultivate as much
! land as he chooses, and to cut tim
| Der or use any water power that
he likes. ForI50 or 100 mil reis
one gets the right to- cultivate one
acre or one thousand, according to
his means. Ii the lands should
] ever be divided, each man will be
entitled to his pro rats share, in
clnding his house lot and lands
adjoining. Some of the Ameri-
cans have bought these shares.
lands with improvements 5cost
much more than without, the full
fvalue of the improvements being
lput in. .o s7asus1ti1
/ At this place, cattle are pretty
dear; milch cows at from $50 30
1850; yoke of oxen from 80 to $75;
/ beef cattle from 30 to $50; fat
hogs from is to $40; mules from
40 to 5000; the latter animal
varying in price according to the
softisess of the purchaser, there is
in fact, no fixed price for anything.
Mrs. Merriweather gets potatoes
at 81 per bushel, whilst Mrs. Oil
yer, one mile off, pays %. Some
pay 10 cents for chickens, others
20 cents, Sc, sc. @as ys5r
h. The country has some very seri-
GUS drawbacks, not the least of
which are the grazing ants; they
are about the size of the large
black ants that you sometimes
see in Red River bottom, with the
head enormously out of proper
Ition with. the body, they eatral-
ImOst any sort of green thing; but
are particularly fond of cotton and
garden vegetables, in fact it is
only in particular spots where you
can pretend to have a garden.
j Mrs. Merriweather planted out
lqnite large piece of ground when
she first came; ], they eat it all MP
except some mustard and Irish
potatoes. Others near her, in
sandy land have had better sue
cess, The people think that plow.
ing will run them off; as it is,
there are quite a number of men
who make it their business to, kill
ants for so much a hill. They do
it by forcing into their tunnels the
fumes of burning sulphur, with a
bellows. These tunnels are some
times many hundred yards in
length, and as much, as three or
four inches in diameter. A re-
ward Of 800, 600 is offered to any
lone who will devise means for
! their certain destruction; the ex-
pertinent has been tried of colonis-
ling a little black ant inimical to
them, but the red ones whip them
out. / believe they do not injlife
corn, though one of them can
shoulder a grain and double quick
! with all ease to his den. Another
draw back is the dificultyoftrans-
lportation, there is only a tOlerably
good road to the terminus Of the
Railroad at Jundiahy, some fifty
: miles distant, at present rates it
costs about 3 cents a pound to
! send cotton to the seaport at San
/ tos the charges. on, the railroad
are SO heavy, that many people
prefer to send their produce on
mules all the way, it being alittle
: cheaper, and they say quite, as ex-
Ipnditious. For farming purposes
Oh decent scale, you may just as
well say there is no such thing as
/ free labor in that country. The
: conscription has either taken all
! the young men into the army, or
!, run them into the wood, where
! they are now lodging about keep
: ing out of the way. The few Amer
|. leans out there have raised the
price of negroes a good deal, they
,, , are paying from seven to nine
! ! hundred dollarsfor good men, such
! : negroes can be had there at from
five 10 seven hundred /; and on the
1 Rebeira, before Me- cMullen's people
! got there (don't know how il may
: be now at from three to five hun
!. dred. The Paraguay war has de-
! struyed the free labor of Brazil to
2 a very great extent, there are ten
!. times as many men hiding about
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