Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/105

97 now said to be reduced to only eight feet of water on the bar.

The productions of Louisiana are cotton, sugar, rum, indigo, rice, corn, furs, and peltry. It also affords lumber, tar, pitch, lead, horses, and cattle. The fertility of the soil admits of great increase of these and an additional supply of many other articles. The culture of the sugar cane, which has already become considerable, may doubtless be carried to a very great extent. At present, cotton is the largest and most profitable production. Indigo is on the decline. Further north than the Iberville, the sugar cane is liable to be injured by the cold, and the crops rendered uncertain; but all the lands southward, susceptible of improvement, and adapted to that kind of culture, will produce the cane in good perfection. In some parts it is already became a staple commodity. Some planters employ about one quarter of their plantations in the production of sugar cane, and the remainder in pasture, and raising provisions. It is estimated that one hundred and eighty feet square will produce, on an average, twelve hundred weight of sugar, and fifty gallons of rum. Calculating on this data, it is presumed the lands under present cultivation, suited to this culture, would produce about fifty thousand hogsheads of sugar, and twenty-four thousand puncheons of rum. It is believed by some, that as a full and regular supply of provisions may be easily obtained from above, on moderate terms, 9