The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-01-26
TN THE LAND OF SUGAR.
"A Visit to Louisiana's Biggest Plantation
and it's Immense Sugar Refinery.
Special Correspondence of The Republic.


are miles of sugar cane. | can stand
ia the fields and see nothing but su-
gar, sugar. sugar as far as my eyes
can reach. am on the chief sugar
plantation Of Leon Godchaux, and
Godchaux is the sugar king OF the
South. He, has more sugar land than
any other man in Louisiana. He owns
J 2. 200 acres here, and has II other big
plantations, aggregating in all more
than 80, 900 acres, Of which fully lO,-
900 acres are now in cane. 1t takes
something like 1000 men to run this
plantation, and his army Of employees
all told is greater than that of Keno
phon when he made his famous re-
treat. Leon Godehaux lives in New
Orleans. He is now worth many mil
lions of dollars. He came to Louisi-
ana when he was boy Of II, with a
peddler's pack upon his back, and he
sold goods on many of the rich plan
tations he now owns. This was In
the days before she war, when the
planters had their negroes and money
was squandered like water. The
1nadames and misses bought of the
French peddler, never dreaming that
the day would come when he could
buy them out. It 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
sof this kind souSh of Mason's and
Dixons 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. During single year he
received, I am told, more than half
million dollars from the government
in bounties alone, and in the year
1S94-95. last year, he produced more
than 27 900. 900 pounds of white sugar
and turned out enough molasses, |
venture, to float an ocean steamer.
To-day Mr.. Godchaux is man Of over
seventy, but he shows the same care
in his business that he did when he
was peddler, and his plantations are
as well managed as any in the world.
They have the most costly machinery.
There are twelve miles Of railroad up
on this plantation where I am writing,
aud little steam engine hauls the
cane from the fields to the great re-
finery, which squeezes out the juice
and turns it into sugar. Mr.. God
chaux has refneries connected with
nearly all Of his plantations, and, as
his son told me, he can make his pro-
duct as cheaply as any one in the
world.
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 a
dozen plantations in coming here
from New Orleans, and am told that
the plantations extend for hundreds
of miles to the westward. 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 10 feet and upward in
height, and as you look at Them from
the car windows they are 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 luxuriant. You
ride for long distance through fields
of this kind, the car track being
walled. as it 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 streaming out
against the blue sky, and between 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
branches, it wraps itself about the
limbs, it covers the trunks and
clothes the dead trees, as it were, in
shrouds of oxidized silver.
1t was from 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
song, but it cost him, | am told, some
thing like s27 an acre to clear it. 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 90 feet wide and almost