The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-06-21

helpless orphans, struggling for bare SUBJ
sistence, cultivating small patches Of corn,
rice, sweet potatoes, and peas, just enough
to stave off the cravings of hunger and
keep gaunt famine away.
Cannot something be done to save these
lands to the impoverished owners and to
make them again productivei To answer
this question in the affirmative is the desire
Of every pure, Christian heart. With proper
reflection upon the difficulties and obstacles
to contend with, there will como to us sug-
gestions and plans that will revive the
dropping spirits of our people, and soon
cause our fields to wave with ripening cane
Sugar is gold, for it cannot he imported
without sending gold to purchase it from
foreign countries. These sugar lands of
Louisiana are almost the only ones north of
tho Gulf of Mexico, and they are already
prepared for immediate use, and In few
years could produce half zniIlion hogsheads
of sugar! The production Of sugar cano is
the proper and almost exclusive use to
which our lands are adapted, and our main
object should be to resuscitate and encour-
age it's cultivation. To do this, the present
arduous and expensive duties of the sugar
planter should be divided, 20 that other
capital and industry and skill could be
brought to his assistance. In other words,
the labor of the planter should be confined
as closely rs possible to agriculture, and
other capital and skin be employed in the
manufacture Of the sugar.
If each wheat grower were forced to Grind
his own grain, We should not only have
miserable bread, but, actually, famine would
often prevail. If each grape grower pressed
his own grapes and fermented their juice,
we would have but few drinkers of claret,
and they would be very Z" vinegar faced"
But little of the immense sugar CROPS of
the Eastern Hemisphere would ever reach
the channels of commerce if the cultivator
was relied upon to manufacture the " beet
and cane juice"
A thousand reasons might be given WHY
the planter of cane should not be the manu-
factnrer of sugar; and a thousand thanks
will be heartily given by him if you relieve
him from the three months of toll, expense,
and anxiety that he invariably undergoes
during sugar making, and permit him, at
that most favorable period, to reap his hay,
gather his corn and potatoes, plough his
ground, and plant his cane, so that he could
heartily respond to the Christians salute of
" happy Christmas" and fairly start the
new year with a vigorous and sound
crop of seed cane in the ground. How
easily would he find time to plant and Gull
tivate corn, peas, potatoes, rice, ETC., in
abundance! And, when the hot summer
months came, and his crops were "laid by
how pleasant the reflection that there was
no wood to cut and haul to the cormorant-
of sugar-house!
But, aside from all these reasons why the
planter should abandon the sugar-house
to others, is the uncomfortable one of pov-
erty;" and we must turn our thoughts and
e1ertions to the best plans for accomplishing
the change and supplying the capital for the
new order of sugar-making. If the owner
of the soil were relieved from the necessity
of employing immense capital in manufac-
turing. he could turn his whole energy to
production and he could sell or rent por-
lions of his lands to others, at fair prices;
and, in few years, he would no longer see
- ruin and desolation " around him. But
ne must be assured Of n certain and fair
market price for his cane; and that must be
our next object of inquiry.
That Pic-Nic.