Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/540

LOUISIANA. the State, thus giving a range of over 100° in temperature. The earliest killing frost comes on the average to the latitude of Shreveport November 1st, to the middle of the State November 15th, to New Orleans December 1st. The average date of the latest hard frost is February 1st for the latitude of Baton Rouge, and March 1st for Shreveport, thus leaving the State on the average nine months free from frost. The precipitation exceeds 60 inches in the delta region, falling to 50 inches in the northern part. It is quite evenly distributed throughout the year. New Orleans shows a maximum in June, July, and August, and a minimum in October, while Shreveport has a slighter maximum in April and a lower minimum in August. Rain falls on the average 105 days in the year, over an area extending from Shreveport to Vicksburg, while 100 days is the average for the rest of the State. The sky is clouded 50 per cent. of the winter season and 40 per cent. of the summer.

The climatic conditions invite a very luxuriant vegetation, in which most of the warm temperate species are found, and in addition a large number of subtropical species, both herbaceous and arborescent. The swamps are filled with cypress trees, making a very valuable source of lumber. Many varieties of oak, including the live oak, as well as the sweet gum, tulip, black walnut, long-leaf pine, short-leaf pine, and cedar, abound, and trees are draped in Spanish moss. Roses, magnolias, oleander, and jasmine grow in profusion, and the list of fruit trees includes the orange, lemon, olive, fig, peach, and plum. For Flora and Fauna see these sections in the article .

. The entire State lies in the great Mississippi Gulf which in Cretaceous time extended to Cairo, and hence it is included in the coastal plain of recent geologic age. The oldest formation is Cretaceous, which is found only in a few outlying islets on the margin of the general plain of nearly horizontal Tertiary beds in the northwestern corner. The southeastern four-fifths of the area of the State consists of Miocene and later deposits in beds shelving gently seaward. The valley of the Red River from Shreveport down, an average of 40 miles in width, is alluvium of an age from Pliocene to recent. This is also true of the flood plain of the Mississippi River, which at the northern boundary has an extreme width in Louisiana and Mississippi of over 100 miles. A belt of the same alluvium extends westward from the Mississippi River through Avoyelles, Rapides, and Vernon parishes into Texas. The upper members of the Tertiary beds of clay stones and clay sandstones form a well-marked hilly upland region, extending northeast from the northern edge of Vernon Parish. Over most of the Tertiary area, calcareous marls and limestones give open prairies of rich soil. The Cretaceous outcrops are the red lands of the State.

. The only minerals of importance in the State are rock and petroleum. The former occurs in rich deposits on Petite Anse Island, in the Parish of Iberia, in the marshes of the coast. The product is wholly mined rock salt of fine quality. The output in 1895 was 159,775 barrels of 280 pounds, and in 1897 this had increased to 209,393 barrels.

The potable waters of the highlands are usually

hard in the limestone regions, and often are fetid where found in the dark clays and lignites.

Southwestern Louisiana shares with the neighboring Texas region in the possession of oil fields. A number of productive wells have been obtained, giving much promise of the future commercial value of the State's oil resources.

. Louisiana ranks second among the Gulf States in the total value of its fisheries. The last year for which a record has been obtained for the industry (1897) showed a slight increase over 1890, the value of the product for the former year being estimated at $713.587. There were in 1897 4403 men engaged in the industry, most of them on the ‘inshore or boat fisheries.’ The oyster fisheries are the most valuable on the United States coast south of Virginia, the yield having been worth (1897) $432,668. The oyster reefs extend almost continuously along the southern coast, from the border of the State of Mississippi to the mouth of the Atchafalaya River. The seine fishery, which is tributary to New Orleans, is of less importance than formerly, although the chief variety, shrimp, is taken in larger quantities than in any other State. The trot-line fishing for catfish is also the most extensive in the United States. In many districts the supply of alligators is becoming exhausted, and the catch is decreasing. Though the value of the hide has greatly increased, the annual amount received for the total catch remains about constant.

. Louisiana is exceptionally favored by the nature of its soil, rainfall, and temperature for the luxuriant growth of vegetation and the success of agriculture. The only uncultivable land is found in the region of the coast marshes, but even these afford fine pasturage. The alluvial soils of the river valleys are noted for their inexhaustible fertility. In 1900 the acreage included in farms was 11,059,127 acres, or 38 per cent. of the area of the State. This was a decided increase over all earlier decades. As compared with 1860, the increase in fann acreage since that year has been wholly in the percentage of farm land improved, which was increased from 29.1 per cent. in 1860 to 42.2 per cent. in 1900. As was true throughout the South, agricultural interests in Louisiana suffered a severe blow from the Civil War, and the slow recovery was attended by a change in the agricultural system. Especially noteworthy are the breaking up of the large plantations and the increase in the renting of farms. The average size of farms has decreased steadily from 536 acres in 1860 to 95 acres in 1900.

However, certain of the State's products are much more economically produced on a large scale, and the plantation system of cultivation is probably more extensive in Louisiana than in any of the other Southern States. In 1900 there were 1050 farms which exceeded 1000 acres in area, and the average per acre value of the products ($4.96) was greater than it was for the farms having between 100 and 1000 acres.

The increase in renting is due largely to the increased number of negroes who undertake farming on their own account. The number of colored renters is over two and one-half times as great as that of the white renters, while the number of colored farmers is less than one-quarter the number of white owners. In 1900, 25 per cent. of the farms were operated by cash tenants and 33 per