New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-03-28

1856. 81 .6J2 600
Total. 705 ,3l7 500 $4,6l9, OOs
| call attention to the total export for the
eleven years, which was 705. 3l7 500 pounds,
valued at no less a sum than S24 9,OO9.
The average annual export for this period
was "a. 1872 pounds, valued at $2.25S W.;
and in the year 1860 the export was 81, 632, oOO
pounds. And this, Sir, was without any
duty which could be called protective.
These Fl gures are conclusive as to the ques-
ton whether in a healthful condition OF the
rice fields the American planter can com
pete successfully with rice planters else
where. | repeat here what l have before
said, that the quality OF our rice was 'he
best in the markets OF the world.
The total production of rice in the United
States was. in 1885, 2l5,3l3,iN pounds; IN
1860, 1877, l67 ,032 pounds.
In 1861 the war broke ont. and the coast
of the reproducing States was the nfst
theatre of that strife. Abandonment OF
MANY of the fields became an immediate
necessity of the situation. The culture al
most entirely ceased. or was carried on III
an irregular and imperfect manner during
the entire period of the rebellion.
To appreciate the injurious effect of the
abandonment and partial neglect of the rice
lands for so long time it is necessary to
know what rice field is; to understand of
how much thought and care and skill and
labor it is the result. A corn field, a cotton
field, potato patch, may lie neglected for
years, and perhaps the returning farmer
may find its productive power improved by
the neglect.
The labor of again preparing it for crop
is comparatively small. Not so with rice
lands; they have been reclaimed from the
waters. They have been diked, ditched,
and furnished with trunks SO that they can
be inundated or drained at the will of the
planter, as the necessity of the crop may
demand. At one period water must be put
on, at another it must be drawn Oft, and
several times during the season must this
alternate flooding and draining take place.
One portion of the crop must be flooded,
while another contiguous portion must be
dry. The incest judgment and the most
careful observation must be brought into
exercise to determine the duration of either
condition. No blunder can raise rice.
To carry out this process fields must be
divided up into sections, to each of which
trunks convey the water when necessary,
aud from which drains must be arranged to
draw it off at the proper time. This system
of banks, dikes, bitches, trunks. forms a
vast hydraulic apparatus. intricate, expen-
sive and requiring constant repairs. A
slight leak in a bank or dixie, fracture In
trunk, may do infinite mischief. A single
years abandonment, neglect or careless
supervision entails a loss and expense
which may sweep away the product of
years of anxious toll. A planter writes 20
me on this point as follows:
1.-THE rice plantations are. in reality, eX-
tensive hydraulic machines, have been re-
deemed from the waters at great cost and
are retained at considerable cost by con-
slant conflict with tie tides little neg
lect, and breaks occur difficult and expen-
sive to repair. As with the HOllaRders.
eternal vigilance and labor are the price of
security. Our apparatus of levels, Hood
gates. trunks. canals banks. bitches, is of
the most extensive kind, requiring for all
purposes skill and unity of purpose. AS
well might you attempt to divide ship
among its crew, or factory among its Ope-
ratives. as one of these large plantations,
depending for its irrigation and drainage,
for its waters of cultivation and its
whole result, upon the single Hood
gate and the single mind of the
director. Great and continuous OUTLAWS
have been necessary to begin to repair the
injury accruing from desertiOn and mis-
management and neglect during the war.
Storms occur, and, ike a ship. all hands
must be summoned to work under one head
to meet the danger and repair the damages
at once. One break one leak left open. and
the river would resume its old possessions.
and, under present circumstances. probably
forever. This outlay was for the purpose
of securing regular supply of the great
agent OF cultivation. fresh water. In all
other countries known to the writer, that
supply is from above by reservoirs and
tanks, and is, therefore. dependent. often
ruinously, on the clouds. With us in this
country it is the rising water"
The cost of originally retaining rice
lands from the waters, ditchng, and other
wise fitting them for rice culture, was just
about 500 per acre. Prior to the war the
annual cultivation of lands after they were
I. thus prepared was about $40 per acre, eX-
elusive of the interest on capital invested.
SO great had been the damage consequent
upon their neglect and abandonment during
the war, that about 81 per acre was neces-
sary to again prepare them for crop, and
the annual cost of cultivation since has av-
eraged from s.S to $50 per acre. The cost
of cultivation yearly decreases, and the
product per acre yearly increases as the
lands get back nearer and nearer TO their
former good condition. and as improved
modes of culture are more and more adopt
ed. The total area under cultivation has
also increased year by year since the work
was resumed in 1865. l give a table show
ing the annual product in Georgia, Louisi-
ana and the Carolina5 since 1863: