The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-10-10


1t is no light responsibility that In.
wolves some effect, be it more or less,
upon the welfare of commercial In.
terest agregatirg in value nearly $500,
0OO, 900 annually, and increasing In a
ratio of not less than Is per cent. each
year, as shown by the comparative
tables of the statistical report covering
"a series of years.
The second duty imposed upon you
by the law is one less comprehensive
apparently in the scope of its effects
than the first; but, upon close fnvestf.
cation, they will be found to embrace
essential features that are interClepend-
ent.
The second duty is, in the phrase of
the law, "to prevent destructive floods"
Upon this point may speak with
more emphasis than L have hitherto
INDUCED in, for the reason that it in
wolves in its primary sense concern
of peculiar moment to the people whom
1 have the honor to represent.
Secondarily, indeed, there is to ac-
crue from this feature of your opera
tions vast general good In the sense
that whatever increases the productive
capacity of any section advances the
material prosperity of the whole coun-
try. But, to consider the primary ben
eft, first let us treat of the region that
is directly riparian aud subject to the
ravages of tsdestructive floods"
For the sake of convenience let US
call this region the great Food Basin
of the lower Mississippi Valley.
Roughly it may be geographically
north, an irregular line drawn from
the mouth of Ponchartrain to Yazoo
City on the east, the Gulf of Mexico on
the south, and another irregular line
drawn from Bayou D'Arbonne to Lake
Mermenton on the west; comprising,
as nearly rs can be calculated, an area
of thirty-five thousand square miles, or
over twenty-five million acres of land.
OF this vrst territory, at least nine
million acres, with proper protection
from overflow and with drainage
which such protection would render
possible, would be susceptible of cult
walton in cotton and corn, and in fruits
and vegetables of almost every de-
scription, and large share of the re-
mainder in sugar cane, producing the
best and most merchantable article of
sugar and molasses.
At this time, including many plan
tations carried on at constant risk of
overflow at any stage of water above
the mean floods, not more than one
sixth of this vast tract is under any
sort of cultivation, and not more than
one twelfth is cultivated to advantage.
Gen. Abbott estimates that two and
half millions of acres could be added to
the sugar producing, and seven mill
lions of acres to the cotton producing
area, of this great al!uvial basin, by an
adequate system of protection from
overflows. This, I will in passing,
would, at a value for land
improved-at 500 per acre of itself, ag-
gregate $4,000, ,OO0-a sum vastly
greater than the Government will ever
be called upon to contribute to the
work before you. But, to retrace my
steps little; in 1878, the present cane
growing area Of Louisiana produced
150, 900, 900 pounds of fsugar, and Is ,OO0,-
900 gallons of molasses, worth between
S., 100000 and $s, ,5OO,O 900. In the same
year we imported from foreign coun-
iries 1 500, 100000 pounds of sugar, at a
cost of $4,000, 900, and q, 100000 gal
Ions Of molasses, worth, nearly, ST.
100000.
Now, the protection and reclamation
in the conception of the
law under which you act, would, In a
very lew years, OOuDle, ana In the
course of a decade quadruple the sugar
products alone in Louisiana and the
same may be said of the other great |
staples in the alluvial basin. In the
matter of the formerit would not COM
pete with the industry of any other
section OF our own country, but would
simply be the growing at home of say
500, ,OOO,O 900 pounds of sugar and 5O,-
)OO,O 900 gallons Of molasscs, which we
low import from abroad. The result
If this Of itself would be to add to the
Internal wealth of the nation about
go, 100000 per annum, which must
low be drained from our other indus
ries to pay for sugar and molasses
'aised on foreign soil. 1 am aware
hat to the average thinker figures so
tupendous as these are practically in
and hence likely to be
Ineffective; but to the members of your
honorable body they need no explana-
ion, if, indeed, it Is not, in view of
your own studies and researches, a
upcrfluous undertaking altogether to
present them at all.
1t is, of course, not pertinent at this
lime and in advance of your surveys,
10 speculate as to the probable cost of
The Improvements that you may re.