The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1888-01-21
BAYOU LAF0URCHE.
Address of Mr., John W. Bryant Before
the Rivers and HarbOrs Committee
A Large Amount of Produce
Without an Outlet.

| Rivers and HarbOrs Committee-Ih have
been commissioned by the planting,
laboring, mercantile and transporta-
l ton interests of the Bayou Lafourche
section of Louisiana to lay before you
the great hardship and the heavy los
ses from which they have suffered by
reason Of the unnavigable condition of
that bayou-their only outlet to mar
ket. and to beg that the Federal gov
ernment will speedily undertake the
work OF improving it. The Lafourche
country was one of the earliest settled
portions of Louisiana, and is as dense
ly populated to-day as any agricultu-
raj part of the Union. Along the bay
on the population ranges from 100 to
$50 to the square mile, and including
the brusles or back settlements, and
the swamps it will average nearly six
ty to each square mile of land. Every
tillable acre has been brought under
cultivation. The front lands are plan
ted Ill sugar cane, corn, oranges, pOta-
toes, onions, ramie and garden truck
the back lands in rice, while in the
! openings in the woods and swamps,
| the small white and negro farmers raise
stock, broom corn, cotton, vegetables
OF all kinds, poultry, and gather moss,
| and it is from this region that New
Orleans receives a large share of it's
| business.
In the last half dozen years tie La
fourche country has advanced rapidly
III cultivation and production; the
people have taxed themselves heavily
for public improvements, have estab-
!!s!ied an expensive, complete and
perfect system Of levees, which protect
them from overflow from the floods
of the Mississippi that pass down the
! Lafourehe. BY means of these levees
ana draining canals they have. drained
the back lands and brought under cul-
| tivation thousands of fertile acres
There were in the parish of Assump-
ton alone, which lies wholly i'll the
! Lafourche basin. 39,540 acres of land
under crop in 1880, and $1,000 acres in
1887, and the whole basin has increa-
sed its cultiyable lands fully $4,000
acres in seven years. With total
! population of II ,OOS in 1880 it produ-
ced crops of the value of $3,016,065,
which have been increased this yeaL
to $6,5O0,O0O. All this progress has
been seriously checked by the almost
complete interruption to transport.l-
ton, growing ont of the present un-
navigable condition of Bayou Lafour-
che.
Upon that bayou the people are al
most entirely dependent on the steam
boat for the means OF transportation,
both for travel and for freight. 1t is
their only route to market, the only
way in which they can ship their pro-
ducts and receive in return such pur-
chases as they may need. The South
ern Pacific Railroad crosses the La
fourche few miles below Thibodaux
and gives that immediate vicinity an
outlet, but for seventy-three miles be-
low and to the Gulf, the people have
no other means of communication, ex-
capt by steamboat, while up and to
the Mississippi, distance ef thirty
seven miles, its most highly and pro-
ductive part, there is no possible ront4,
on either side Of the bayou by which
anything can be shipped or received
except by boat, the bad condition Of
the roads in consequence of rains, du-
ring the season in which trade is the
busiest and transportation the most ur-
gently needed, precluding the possit,ili-
ty Of hauling by teams either t. or from
the railroad, near Thibodaux, or the
Mississippi river. Bayou Lafourche
has until late years, afforded cheap,
short, reliable and satisfactory ronte
to a market. For ever century boats
have piled upon that stream, and il
was to the ease and cheapness Of che
lintereoarse With New Orleans that the
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