The Saint Paul globe., 1896-11-29

with a peddler's pack upon his back,
and he sold goods on many Of the rich
plantations which he now owns. This
was in the days before the war, when
the planters had their negroes and
money was squandered like water.
The madams and misses bought Of the
French peddler, never dreaming that
the day would come when he could
buy them out. 1t did come, however.
He saved his money, made good in
vestments, finally established big
dry goods store in New Orleans and he
now has the largest establishment of
this kind south Of Mason and Dixon's
line. He has interests Of many kinds.
He owns stocks, bonds and has gold
galore. His income from sugar alone
has in the past been enormous Dur
ing a single year he received I am
told, more than half million dollars
from the government in bounties alone,
and in the year of 1894-5,la year, he
produced more than 900 pounds
OF white sugar and turned out enough
moiasses, l venture, to float an ocean
steamer Today Mr.. Godchaux is a
man of over seventy, but he shows the
when he was peddler, and his PLAN
tatfons are as well managed as any
in the world They have the most
costly machinery. There are twelve
miles Of railroad upon this plantation
where | am writing, and a little steam
engine hauls the cane from the fields
to the great refinery, which squeezes
the juice and turns 1t into sugar. Mr..
Godchaux has refineries connected
with nearly all of his plantations. and.
as his son told me, he can make his
product as cheaply as any one in the
world.
LOUISIANA SUGAR FARMS.
Louisiana could easily supply the
sugar for the United States. IT has
vast areas of sugar land which are
not yet titled L rode through half q
dozen plantations in coming here from
New Orleans, and / am told that the
plantations extend for hundreds of
miles to the westeward. 1t is hard.
without seeing it, to appreciate the
beauties Of big field Of sugar cane.
The stalks are Of the greenest green.
They grow ten feet and upward in
height, and as you look at them from
the car windows they are a solid mass
of green. You may have seen fields
OF Indian corn. A sugar plantation is
not unlike them, save that the crop is
greener and more 1uxuriant. You ride
for & long distance through fields of
this kind, the car track being walled
as 1t were, with green save where here
and there wide roads cut their
way through the fields. Now
and then you see the smoke
of a great sugar factory stream
ing out against the blue sky, and be-
tween the plantations you pass woods
loaded down with Spanish moss. Some
Of the forests carry such masses of this
moss that the trees have died by the
weight. The moss hangs from the
limbs, 1t covers the trunks, and
clothes the dead trees, as it were, In
shrouds of oxidized silver
COST OF A PLANTATION.
1t was from a. forest like this that
Leon Godchaux made his big sugar
plantation. The trees were hundreds
of years old, and they stood In a
swamp. He bought the land for a
song, but 1t cost him, am told, some
thing like $27 an acre to clear it, He
had first to get off the trees and then
to drain the land by running great
canals through 1t. Some Of these ca
nails are thirty feet wide and almost
river of water passes through them.
The canals have high banks or levees
to keep back the water during the
tropical rains. After draining the
stunps were blown out with dynamite
and then the land plowed and re-
drained.
HOW SUGAR CANE IS RAISED.
It takes great deal Of work to pro-
duce spoonful of sugar. had this
forced upon me during my trip over
the plantation. An intelligent creole
was sent with me and we drove be-
hind one OF Mr.. Gedchaux's fast
horses. We rode Tor miles between
fields OF cane which wss ready for