New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-11-04
THE REFORMATION OF THE SYSTEM OF
~ SUGAR CULTURE IN LOUISIANA, -z7-

sugar culture mas Deen problem ever
since the war. Men have essayed to solve
it with more or less success in individual
cases, but out of all the experiments thus
far made there has arisen no satisfactory
general rule which planters may safely
adopt and follow. It is true we have dis
covered that on places of one class the
capital involved in sugar machinery and
apparatus is too great for the return pos
sible in series of years, and that on
plantations of another class the enormous
quantity and complication of labor and
material exceeds the scope that any one
pursuit should have or can have save at
undue risk of disaster. But these dis
coveries do not touch the vital principle
OF the problem. They teach us that
certain equilibrium of capital and pro-
duct must be observed, but they do not
show how, having established that equili-
brium, the investment is to be securely
and permanently protected. The planter
under the present system is farmer and
manufacturer both; he has large sums of
money in machinery and buildings, to
utilize which he must labor and labor sue
cessfully at agriculture. Misfortune with
him is failure in two capacities. The re-
verse which as farmer he might endure
touches him also as q manufacturer, and
becomes in that two-fold character calam-
ity. There is double chance of loss
against single chance of gain. The
sugar planter may by strict economy,
sleepless watchfuiness, unremitting in
dustry. and exceptional intelligence,
extract moderate interest from the CAPT.
tai he has at stake, but the odds are heav-
lily against him, and experience bears out
the statement that where one succeeds
dozen fail Investigation does. not
show that there is any essential vice
In the commercial aspect of sugar culture.
On the contrary, there is no business
which is safer or more remunerative. And
the same may be said of sugar manufac-
ture; it is simple and profitable. Never
theless the hct remains that he who asso-
clates the two pursuits, rendering them
interdependent, multiplies his risks rather
than his gains, and, as a general rule,
loses at each.
: Thus far the question is one of fact.
The history of sugar planting since the
war furnishes the data in ample quantity.
What is chiefly desirable now is to arrive
at some satisfactory explanation of this
result, and some intelligent and sound
theory of reform. We believe every
planter of an observing turn of mind, or |
indeed of any mind at all, will bear us out |
in the assertion that the cultivation
and the manufacture of sugarcane
10 not harmonic; that to farm effectively |
and thoroughly embarrasses him as q man |
1facturer, and uice versa. . That season of |
he year in which the most important of |
agricultural work should be performed is
he very season in which the manufac-
'uring department of the business must
absolutely be attended to. The sugar.
house can not safely stand idle after the
irst Of November. An untimely freeze
will destroy the result of the whole years
oil and expense, and the engines must
hasten to preserve and consummate it,
In order, then, to secure the fruits of one
Years industry the planter is forced to
neglect that which is necessary to prepare
he way for success next year. Concen-
rating his force. in sugar making, he has
40 time for fall blowing or fertilizing, or
or that most conservative of all measures,
all planting It is easy to cay that one
an do both, but 1t is difficult to show
hat one ever does both- impossible to
show that one can do both without push
ng expense beyond the margin Of profit.
IS there any reasonable doubt that the
rouble lies here? Last year Mr.. Brin-
yier, of Ascension parish, obtained
! wonderful yield Of cane from
special area of ground-a yield
'veraging from three to four hogsheads of
'ugar per acre. His explanation was that
he had fortified the land literally, plowed
I thoroughly in the fall, and prepared it
n every conceivable way for the reception
# the seed. Barring these preiminaries
t enjoyed no advantages over the rest of
he plantation. All was cultivated alike,
he intrinsic qualities of the soil were
inform, and yet this special area
# ground which had been thoroughly
Flowed and fertilized in the fall yielded
more than twice as much as any other
'qual area on the plantation. There is
o-day on the place of John B. Lyon,
ssq., IN st. Mary parish, the finest crop,
AXE it all in al, that has, been seen in
Louisiana beforsl or since the war. It
vas laid BY In May and stands now
throughout the whole extent, as thick as 4
he widest cane brake in the swamp. |
r ta1 awsHt st. estimate y * have heard made /
" persons Of lifelong experience &, thst.I
i xip lxiAld I'VE. and erhelf. hogt-ll
reads to the acre all -sround, snd
his, considering the size and quantity Of
be eans, the length Of time itahas had 10
ipen, and IT'S comparative and essential
qualities in general, seems moderate and |
'autious estimate. IN Is . phenomenal |
'rop, such one a. few remember to have