New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-28


rial wealth within three years, or at the
rate OF s., 0OO, 900 per snnum. -,
1t il estimted that the cotton crop TINS
year will be cut short 400, 600 balea, worth
$50 per bale. go, OOO, 900. The sugar crop will
fallshort Sc, 900 hogsheads, worth IS, COO. 0O0.
Total loss to the produced values
of the country, $29. 600 600. Ii we we're to
compute the Losses Of former years of foods,
and then add the Losses in the decreased
productions of the coun ny, the sum would
appear incredible.
We will take one other single item of loss.
Whatever appreciates the property of q
nation adds 90 much to the general wealth.
Whatever deteriorates its property, de-
stroys pro tantO SO much Of its wealth.
And here your committee again quote from
the able report of Mr.. M0rey to the Forty
third Congress-: assuming the &c. 363, $50
acres Of land to have been worth 81 25 per
acre unreclaimed on the fronts OF steams OF
the larger class to an average depth OF one
mile on each side, amounting to about 5000
square miles, equals 5,l20,OOO acres, the
whole would be worth $1,000. 600. Com
putting the residue as unstable, but worth
ten cents per acre, gives value OF $2,l24,-
352, and adding the two sums we have .
total value of the lands without lAvoes of
IS, 524.352. Glance now at their value with
the halt-perfected system Of levees extend
ing along some 1900 miles of river front.
The reclaimed lands were worth on an
average $50 per acre, and the $4,000
acres were worth $2l2, 443, $40, and tho re-
naming lands appreciated to $iO per acre
or $2l2, $50. and the real value OF the
whole area was 1896, 053, $50" Here, then,
was an addition by appreciation OF prop
country by reclamation through !evees
of over $355, 10000 Aud now, in fifteen
years. look 1T their condition and value.
Millions of acres have been sold for taxes;
others, after advertisement, have failed to
bring anything whatever, and it is safe to
say that the depreciation in the last sixteen
years has reduced the value of those lands
to less than 500, 000, 900. showing loss by
Of some $685., 100000. With a
loss of 429. 100000 in three years, from ma
teriar Losses and decreased production, or
at the rate of nearly $l0,000.000 per an.
mum, and loss in deprecated values OF
&255 200. 900 in fifteen years, how insane the
policy that will not prevent the one or re-
gain the other at the cost of q few millions
of treasure. Would any sane man trust
his business affairs to an agent who dis
played so little of thought, forecast or bust
ness management
In glancing at the probable results OF
reclamation, Mr.. MOrey's report concludes:
"Should the reclamation be completed, in
ten years We are confident that the total
value of both cultivated and uncultivsted
lands and the swamp lands would be double
this estimated value; and within ten years
thereafter the real value of the delta would
be, ifs they could he estimated in money,
worth the sum of 1872 0s6, GAO. What, then,
United States within fifty years if the allu-
vial lands of the delta are reclaimed and
utilizedl The treasure required to put and
keep in order the levees would be returned
in territory rescued by science, courage.
and enterprise from the delta sea, the most
valuable of the globe.
But again. In the reclamation of these
lands the federal government will find the
solution of her trade accounts with the
world, and your committee believe of her
financial embarrassments.
Let it be remembered that the delta in
cludes and embraces the very finest regions
of the cotton belt. and that cotton is our
chief export. The total supply OF this
staple produced in 1875 was near $500, 900
bales. and of this the United States pro-
duced near 1900, 900 bales. Taking advan-
tage of our civil strife, and the cotton
famine it produced, the English govern
menr stimulated its production il every
available country where it will grow.
But the statistics show that Amer
lean cotton can be raised cheaper be-
cause of the perfect adaptability Of our
soil and climate, while its staple is larger
and better for the purposes of manufacture.
The crop of cotton since the war has kept
nearly up to the stardard of the great crop
of IS60-61, which was about 4, 500, 600 bales.
But the reason of this lie, in view of the fact
that so much of our cOttOn.belt is now idle
that formerly produced the great bulk of
the crop, that q vast number of small
farmers in the uplands have turned their
attention to the culture of cotton who for
merly produced none. The protection of
the cotton region by means of the proposed
levees, will increase our crop, and will
leave no possible reason for the non-prOduc.
ton of 100000 bales as easily as 1000, 900
States government could command the
cotton market OF the world and enjoy q
monopoly of it's production and sale.
The balance of trade in her favor would
annually sum up to hundreds of millions,
while her own industries would be quick.
ened and fostered by the cheapness and
abundance of supply of the raw material
for manufacture.
With millions of gold profits on each
years commerce flowing into this country
from foreign trade, there would be no more
gold famines or gold speculation or black
Fridays. The currency OF the government
would appreciate to par with gold, because
of it's abundance and because the drain
would be toward us rather than from us, as
heretofore.
But glance one moment at another great
interest. In 1901, Louisiana produced
AGO 600 hogshesds of sugar. Last year (lS75)
her crop was something over 100. 900 hogs.
heads. We annually consume in the United
States about 900, 1000 tons. To protect our
sugar interests in Louisiana, q duty is lm.
posed on foreign sugars, which the con.
sumers-our own citizens-are obliged at
last to pay, and amounted, in 1875, to about
$34,000,0OO. For the sugar itself imported,
we paid, in 1875, sc ,0l5757. in gold.
Louisiana produced, IN 1861, about one
fourth of the amount, we now consume.
But then her sugar lands were not de-
veloped by three-fourths; only the lands
lying along the river fronts and upon the
bayOus were under cultivation. Developed
a. they could and would be by reclamation,
her sugar lands would free US from depend.
ence upOG foreign sugar, would save US an.
nually drain Of from seventy to eighty
millions Of gold. And this sugar interest is
likely to assume q serious shape at no dis.
tant day. The island of Cuba sends US
annually about $50, 900 tons of the sugar we
consume. We receive small quantity
from the Barbados and Martinique, and
Louisiana supplies the small remnant
for our consumption. Sugar is no longer q
luxury; it has become necessity.
The dissolution OF Spanish power in Cuba
and the emancipation Of the slaves are
questions only Of little time. Sugar is
raised only by slave labor on that island.
The abolition Of slavery and the slave trade,
against which the moral sentiment of the
world is arrayed, would in short time, in
the course Of few years only, result in the
paralysis of that fertile island as an ex.
porter of sugar. The civil CONNEXIONS of
that unhappy island, which for now more
than six years have convulsed it; the de.
struction of the finest estates, the turning
OF the attention of its planters and laborers