Evening star., 1896-11-28

saved his money, made good investments
finally established big dry goods store in
New Orleans. and he row has the largest
establishment of this kind south Of Mason
many kinds. He owns stocks, bonds and
has gold galore. His Income from sugar
alone has in the past been enormous. Dur
ing single year he received. am told.
more than half a million dollars from
the government in bounties alone, and in
the year of 1s94-5, last year, he produced
more than 100000 pounds of white sugar
and turned out enough molaSseS, / venture,
to float an ocean steamer. Today Mr.. God
chauX Is a man of over seventy, but he
shows the same care in mis- business that
he did when he was peddler. and his plan
tations are as well managed as any in the
world They have the most costly ma
cbinery. There are twelve miles of rail-
road upon this plantation where l am writ
ing. and a little steam engine hauls the
cane from the fields to the great refinery
which squeezes out the juice and turns it
into sugar. Mr.. Godchaux has refineries
connected with nearly all of his planta-
his product as cheaply as any one In the
world.
Louisiana Sugar Farms.
Louisiana could easily supply the sugar
for the United States. 1t has vast areas of
sugar land which are not yet titled. I rode
through half dozen plantations in COM
ing here from New Orleans and 1 am told
that the plantations extend for hundreds Of
miles to the westward. 1t Is hard without
seeing 1t to appreciate the beauties of a
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 windows they are
solid TaSS CT green. You may have seen
fields of Indian corn. sugar plantation is
not unlike them, save that the crop Is
greener and more luxuriant. You ride for
long distance through fields of this kind.
"a cor ira U hc1 1nO lo6 = ,t<I
g1 cen save where here and there wide
roads cut their way through the fields
Now and than you see the smoke of great
sugar factory streaming out against the
tiue sky. and between the plantations YOU
pass woods loaded down with Spanish
moss. Some of the forests carry such mass
es of this moss that the trees have died by
the weight. The moss hangs from the
branches. 1t wraps itself about the limbs
1t covers the trunks, and clothes the dead
trees. as 1t were, In sbrouds of oxidized
silver.
The Cost of a Sugar Plantation
1t was from a forest like this that Leon
Godchaux made his big sugar plantation
The tire es were hundreds of years old, and
they stood in a swamp. He bought the
land for a song, but 1t cost him, am told
something like ST an acre to clear 1t. He
had first to get off the trees and then to
drain the land by running great canals
through it. Some of these canals are thirty
feet wide and almost river of water
passes through them. The canals have
water duIklg the tropical rains. After
draining the stumps were blown out with
dynamite and then the land was plowed
and redrained.
How Sugar Cane is Raised.
1t takes a great deal Of work to produce
q spoonful OF sugar. I had this forced
upon me during my trip over the planta-
ton. An intelligent creole was sent with
me and We drove behind one of Mr.. God
chaux's fast horses. We rode for miles
between fields Of cane which was ready for
cutting, and stopped for a time where the
land was being planted for the next years
crop. Suga.' cane Is not grown from seed
the stalks themselves are planted, and out
new stalk. The land must first be care
fully plowed and great furrows are run at
distance of seven feet apart from one
side of the field to- the other. Then stalks
of fresh sugar cane with their tops cut off
are lnid horizontally three side by side in
the burrows, the pieces overlapping each
other until each furrow has, as Ii were
three long pipes Of cane running from one
end of 1t to the other Then the soil is
thrown over these pipes with the plow.
This is done In the fall. In the spring all
but one inch of the earth Is scraped of.
and under the warm sun the little green
sprouts shoot out of the ground, making
long ribbons of green. as it were, against
the black field. They grow rapidly and
from time to time the dirt is thrown up to
them. By August the plants are six feet
in height. They grow on until the middle
Of October, when they are ready to be cut
and taken to the refinery for the making of
sugar. Sometimes the cane is planted in
the spring, but the method Of growing it is
much the same, the new cane in all cases
sprouting from the knots Of the old. It