The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1874-05-02

all estimates for cattle, hogs and gar
dens. The population of these nine
parishes Is 20,394 whites and I,033
blacks, according to the census of 1870.
In the sugar producing parishes, as.
certained facts discover an equal, II not
Il greater amount of ruin and suffering.
These parishes are Pointe Coupee, East
! Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Iber-
vile, Ascension, Assumption, La
fourchc, st. James, st. John the Bap-
tiste, st. Charles, Terre Bonne and
Plaquemines. The overflow in these
parishes covers nearly 100000 acres
of titled and untitled land, including II
production of 100000 hogsheads of
sugar, besides u large product of rice
and crops of small farmers, of whom
there are many hundreds, who have
lost their stock and pretty much every
thing else they possess. The popula-
tion of these parishes, according to the
census of 1870, was 50,35S whites and
72,24l blacks, making "A total of 122 ,60G,
from which must be deducted the pop
ulation of East Baton Rouge, as u small
portion of that parish has suffered from
overflow; that deduction being made,
the parishes named contain Il popula-
ton of l03, ,G0G.
In all the parishes named ii is
believed that more than $4,000 people
are now in actual suffering for the
necessaries of life, and in less than sixty
days the number of those, whose Cir
cumstances will reqnire alienation,
will increase to more than $4,000 per-
sons. Above we present all the facts
aS far as ascertained by the relief COM
tn - Ia |
Glow, of st. Landry parish, in n note
referring to the above says: L have just
seen in the Times, of this morning, an
approximate estimate of the extent of
damage which has resulted from the
overflow in nine northeastern parishes
of this state, which includes only the
parishes north of Red river, and then
passing at the south of said river to
the parish of Pointe Coupee. The esti-
mate includes all of the parishes
between the Mississippi and Atchafal-
ava rivers to the Gulf, which is all very
correct as far as it goes. But resulting
from the immense body of water
which is coming down the valleys of
the Mississippi, Ouachita and Black
rivers, it passes across Red river some
forty miles from its mouth, and meet
ing with no obstruction until it reaches
the levee on Bayou de Grace, it sweeps
with irresistible force over its feeble
barrier, and occupying breadth of
country from twenty-five to thirty
miles wide through the eastern
portion of Avoyelles and st. Laundry
parishes, and covering all the lands in
that region, which includes within its
limits a larger portion of the most pro-
ductive lands in those two parishes,
beginning at Moreauville, washing
around what is called Big Bend of
Bayou de Glace, down to Simsport, q
distance of more than forty miles by
meanders of the bayou, which Is
thickly settled; thence down the low
lands on the western side of the Atch-
afalaya riyer, behind the plantations on
that river, and inundating them from
behind. Within thelimits of the lands
thus submerged there are not less than
ten thousand souls, including whiteand
black, mostly of the laboring class.
But no doubt some of the proprietors
are in n suffering condition on account
of the almost total failure of the crop
of both cane and cotton caused by the
wet weather of last year.