DE BOW'S REVIEW: A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT, STATISTICS, ETC., ETC. ESTABLISHED JANUARY 1, 1846. VOL. XIV. MARCH, 1853. No. III. ART. 1.-EXTENSION OF THE SUGAR REGION OF THE UNITED STATES. SOME REMARKS ON THE QUESTION: "HOW FAR NORTH THE CULTURE OF THE SUGAR-CANE CAN BE PROFITABLY EXTENDED IN THE UNITED STATES?" and the climate and soil most suitable for its production. Because the cane and cotton plants grow in the tropics where there was no frost, Spanish logic arrived at the conclusion that those plants could not be profitably cultivated in any region subject to cold, frosty weather. True science, guided by experience, has already proved the reverse in regard to the cotton plant, and it will no doubt demonstrate the same thing of the cane. It will prove, that a little frosty weather is as essential to the perfect maturity of the one plant as the other, and that neither comes to perfection without it. Cold nights and hot days, near the period of maturity, give strength and elasticity to the staple of cotton, and have a favorable effect upon cane, preparing the liquid sugar in it to mature sooner and better, and to crystallize, when defecated, in firmer, harder, and dryer grains than it does in tropical climates. I HAVE interrogated facts and science on the question, and they say, that the sugar region, proper, extends much further north than is generally supposed. A false theory, in regard to the climate the best for the cane, has limited its culture, in the United States, mostly to the 30th parallel of latitude, and a little beyond. But one fact is worth many theories. A thousand hogsheads of sugar was made last year, 1851, on a plantation the farthest north of any other sugar estate in America, and this sugar, I am creditably informed, brought a better price. and the molasses sold for two cents on the gallon above any in the market. The plantation is owned by Mr. Calhoun, and lies in latitude 31%, nearly half a degree north of Alexandria, on Red River. While theory would limit the sugar region in the United States to 30, actual experiment has found, in latitude 31° 30', not only as good, but a better climate for the production than that further south. A The further north the cane plant can similar erroneous notion, about the best be made to grow and mature its juice, climate for cotton, kept the culture of the better will be the sugar, and the the cotton plant within and on the bor- higher its value, because its grain will ders of the tropics for more than two be better, as proved by the sugar made hundred years. It would have been on Mr. Calhoun's plantation, situated a there still, if science had not interposed degree and a half north of the supposed and proved the folly of the traditional limits of the sugar region. Every sugar opinions derived from Old Spain. From broker in New-Orleans is apprised of the the same old non-progressive country fact that Louisiana sugar is far superior we have got, until recently, all our ideas to that made in the West India islands. about sugar-its culture, manufacture, Some years ago, before I was aware of VOL. XIV. 1 this fact, a personal friend in Indiana ment, to the domestication of an agriculsent me a good horse, and requested me tural product, for which our country is to send his value in the best quality better adapted than any other on the Orleans brown sugar. Wishing to show globe-requiring nothing more than my gratitude for the good horse, I aimed temporary aid to become, like cotton, at sending a superior article to that or- one of the heaviest and most profitable dered, and purchased a number of boxes of our exports. of the best white Havana in market. But the truth, that our country is betBut I found he did not like it, and ob- ter adapted than any other on the whole jected to it as being neither so sweet nor globe for the profitable culture of the palatable as what he called Orleans cane, should first be made to appear. sugar-the product of Louisiana planta- The errors which have been thrown tions. This I attributed at the time to a around the question by a certain class perverted taste and want of judgment, of politicians, who opposed the acquisibut subsequent investigation proved that tion of Texas, and those favorable to he was correct. The prevalent idea, got forcing upon the country by high tariffs, up by politicians to get protection, that various branches of industry, without sugar is a forced product in Louisiana, discriminating between seed sown on and the cane plant a sickly exotic, de- stony ground, and that in which it would feated its object, and was ruinous to the take deep root and sustain itself, must sugar interest of the southern states, as first be removed. Thus, it has been it caused the duty to be reduced to the assumed by the Hon. Joel Poinsett, and revenue standard, and prevented that politicians of that class, who opposed protection which the introduction of a the re-annexation of Texas, and at pres new agricultural product, requiring an ent assumed by the opposers of the fair immense outlay of capital, needed and acquisition of Cuba by purchase, that would have got, and no doubt will get, the cane of Cuba is eight times as rich when the truth becomes generally as that of Louisiana, and that the lands known, that our soil and climate are the of Mexico, on the authority of Humboldt, best for it in the world. Nothing more yield twice as much sugar per hectare is needed to give to the southern states as the West India islands. Hence the the same monopoly in the production of inference was drawn, that the acquisisugar that they have in cotton, than a tion of either country would ruin the knowledge of its natural history general- sugar planters of Louisiana. Most of ly diffused among our people, and a our planters believed, and still believe, sufficient protection of the sugar interest the policy of acquiring territory further to induce our agriculturists to make the south, to be suicidal to their pecuniary first outlay in the expensive machinery interests; yet many of them, glorious and buildings necessary in the culture patriots! were foremost in advocating it and manufacture of the cane into sugar. as a public good, although to be reached After capital and labor have, by a by their own bankruptcy. Happily, wise governmental encouragement, however, the assumption, that the cane been once extensively diverted to that is a sickly exotic in Louisiana, yielding branch of industry, it would need no less saccharine matter than that of the further aid, and instead of being an ex- West India islands, or any other country, tensive importer of foreign sugars, the is without foundation. The statement United States would soon become as quoted from Humboldt, and published in great an exporter of that product of our Vol. III. of De Bow's Industrial Resources soil as of cotton. However parties may of the South and West, page 284, that " differ on the tariff question, touching hectare of the best land in Mexico will the sugar interest, while that branch of produce no less than 5,600 pounds of raw industry is paraded before Congress, sugar," is admitted as a truth. It is dressed in the false colors of a sickly also admitted that Humboldt may be beggar, to be a perpetual tax upon other right in the statement, that that is double interests, without the hope of any ul- the amount produced from the same terior and remunerating benefit, there quantity of land in Cuba. But before could be no essential differences of opin- permitting these facts of Humboldt to ion in the tariff and anti-tariff parties in be used any longer as a bugbeau for regard to the question of not only giving political effect, it is necessary to ascerencouragement, but ample encourage- tain how much sugar a hectare of land "a Comparative Superiority of the Sugar Lands of Louisiana. 199 in Louisiana will produce. If it will produce only 350 pounds, as agreed by Poinsett, and Cuba will produce 2,800 pounds, then would the acquisition of that island break up the sugar culture of Louisiana. A hectare of land is about two and a half acres. By referring to the Picayune newspaper of this city of the 29th of December, 1852, it will be perceived, that Mr. James Wafford, of St. Mary, Louisiana, made, the past season, on forty acres of land in that parish, 190 hogsheads of sugar of 1,000 lbs. each, or 11,775 lbs. per hectare-beating the best land of Cuba or Mexico more than two to one. By referring to the Banner of the 25th of December, published in Franklin, La., it will be seen that many planters in the vicinity of that town have just made upwards of three hogsheads of sugar, of 1,000 lbs. each, per acre, or 7,500 to the hectare-exceed ing Humbolt's highest figures by a thousand pounds per hectare. I have the best authority for stating, that W. W. Wilkins, Esq., of the parish of St. James, made, the past season, 48 hogsheads of sugar on twelve acres of ground, or ten thousand pounds per hectare. Col. Preston, of Assumption, averaged 3,000 lbs. per acre (7,500 lbs. per hectare) on 200 acres of ground. Harpour, of Pointe Coupee, made on some of his land this season 10,000 lbs. per hectare, nearly doubling Mexico. The other as sumption, that the cane juice of Cuba is eight times as rich as that of Louisiana, is positively disproved by direct experiment, viz. the analysis of Louisiana cane juice by the learned and neglected Avequin, of New-Orleans. (See De Bow's Review, July, 1848, "Avequin on the Sugar-cane.") boratory, and had the quantity of sugar contained in the juice accurately ascertained by the same process as that employed by Prof. McCulloh. It was found to average from fifteen to sixteen per cent. of pure crystallizable sugar. W. P. Riddell, A. M., perfectly familiar with such matters, made the examination, Prof. Riddell looking on. ; Avequin makes the general average of Louisiana cane juice 15.35 per cent. specific gravity, 1061.5, corresponding with 8 Baumé's saccharometer. According to McCulloh's analysis of the juice of canes in Cuba, on one of the best plantations in the island, selected by him from canes nearly twice as old as those of Louisiana, it did not exceed in richness the general average of Louisiana cane juice more than 234 per cent., instead of being eight times as rich, as Poinsett and other politicians opposed to the acquisition of southern territory have been led to believe on incorrect testimony. But if it be admitted, for argument sake, that Louisiana cane juice, expressed from canes from seven to nine months old, be a little less rich in sugar than that of Cuba, expressed from canes from fourteen to eighteen months old, it must be admitted that this difference in richness is more than made up by the greater amount of juice yielded per ton of cane in Louisiana over and above the quantity of juice yielded by the same weight of cane in Cuba. Almost all the writers on the subject, among whom is Avequin, seemed to take for granted, that the greater yield in juice per ton of cane in Louisiana than Cuba, was owing to the mills and machinery being better in the former than in the latter. But, according to McCulloh, the mills and machinery are better in Cuba than in Louisiana. Five experiments, each made on 1,000 lbs. of cane, on the plantation of Marmillion, St. James, Louisiana, gave from 63 to 64 per cent. of juice, as reported by Avequin; whereas the yield in juice of Cuba cane, reported by McCulloh as ascertained by the Prof. of Chemistry of the University of Havana, was only 45 per cent. on Count O'Reilly's plantation, 57 per cent. on Don Montalvo's, and 35 per cent. on Don Diagro's. It would therefore appear that Louisiana cane is from 10 to 20 per cent. richer in juice than that of Cuba. Prof. McCulloh (see his "Report to Congress") found the cane juice of one of the finest plantations in Cuba, the Ingenio Saratoga, near Matanzas, to contain 18.07 per cent. of sugar. No reliable author who has written on the subject has ever made it exceed 25 per cent. Prof. McCulloh strangely omitted to test the quantity of sugar in Louisiana cane, and left Poinsett's statement (Avequin's) uncorrected. To supply that omission, and to test the correctness of Avequin's statements, last November I took various specimens of Louisiana cane, picked up at random from the sugar plantations in the vicinity of New- The juice examined by the Riddells, Orleans, to Prof. Riddell's chemical la- at my instance, was found to average 159 grammes of pure crystallizable sugar per litre, or 7119 gms. per gallon. By referring to Porter's work on the Culture and Manufacture of the Sugar-cane, (p. 59, second edition, London, 1843,) it will be seen that a pound-that is, 7000 gms. -of sugar from a gallon of West India best cane juice is considered a good yield. On a plantation in Jamaica, for eleven years, the annual average yield rose a little above, and fell a little below, a pound of sugar per gallon of cane juice. În St. Vincent and Grenada the yield was no more. On all the islands, the juice from cane only twelve months old did not exceed half a pound per gallon; whereas the Louisiana cane juice, from plants less than nine months old, yielded upwards of a pound of pure white sugar per gallon. The question, whether Louisiana is within or without the boundaries of the sugar region proper, should first be settled before the northern boundary of that region can be ascertained. That Louisiana is the heart and centre of the sugar region proper, is proved by the facts that it not only produces more sugar to each laborer, and more to each acre, than any of the West India islands, any part of the East Indies, Mauritius, Demerara, or Mexico, but a better article. It is well known that two hogsheads to the acre, and eight or ten hogsheads of sugar to each effective operative, is no uncommon yield of Louisiana plantations. As high as four and three quarters have been made, the last season, per acre; and three hogsheads have been very common. An acre of well-manured and well-cultivated ground in the West Indies and in other tropical countries, will sometimes yield as much, or more than that; but then it is to be recollected that the canes are not cut in tropical climates until they are from fourteen to sixteen months old, whereas in this country they are cut at from seven to nine months old, and the same acre will produce a crop every year, instead of every two years. The biennial crop of an acre in tropical climates ought to double the annual crop of our temperate climate to be equal to it. But, so far from doubling, it does not equal our annual crop, as will appear by reference to G. R. Porter on the Cane Culture in the West Indies. By referring to the first edition of that standard work, which edition contains the statistical tables, it will be seen that the average quantity of sugar produced per acre on those plantations from which reliable statistics were obtained, is so small, that any Louisiana planter would abandon the culture if his land did not produce more to the acre and more to the hand or laborer than the West India plantations. Thus, (see page 328, first edition,) eighty-nine negroes and 135 acres in cane only produced 120 hogsheads of 1,000 lbs. each. On the same page, a brag plantation, with half the land in cane and 150 negroes, we are informed, made 185,600 lbs. of sugar, or 185, hogsheads. Now, the Orange Grove plantation, a little below Donaldsonville, made the last season, with only 106 negroes, old and young, men, women, and children included, 725 hogsheads of first quality sugar, and 175 hogsheads of inferior brown sugar-900 hogsheads in all, of 1,000 lbs. each. Five of the above-mentioned negroes walk on wooden legs. At page 326, we find that, in Barbadoes, 86 grown negroes, 38 girls and boys, and 26 children, produced 185 hogsheads of 1,000 lbs. each. Now, Mr. Wilkins, of St. James, the last season, made 900 hogsheads of sugar with sixty hands. At page 323, we have the statistics of a plantation in the Island of Tortola, with 135 acres in cane, and cultivated by 89 negroes, producing only 124% hogsheads of 1,000 lbs. each; whereas in Louisiana it would be considered a poor crop if the same land and force did not produce three times as much. Whenever an acre of WestIndia land exceeds two hogsheads, it will be found that it is by what is called garden cultivation-irrigation, manuring, and constantly stirring the soil. But in Louisiana, where negro labor is so valuable and land so cheap, garden or high cultivation, to force from the land its utmost yield, is not practised as in other countries where labor is cheaper. Whatever may be said against negro slavery in the southern states, one thing is certain, that the people erroneously called slaves, (if the European ideas of slavery be applied to them.) are paid higher wages than any agricultural peasantry of Europe. The wages are not paid in silver or gold, but in those more substantial comforts of life, which the wages paid to European field laborers, or to the 150 millions of British East India peasantry, falsely called freemen, would not purchase. A great deal of the old lands of Sugar of Frosty Climates-Interest of the South and West. 201 Louisiana, as cane is a very exhausting that interest to glut the cotton market crop, may not average more than a hogshead, or as much to the acre, but as the laborers are better fed and clothed, and more attention paid to their health, comfort and happiness, they make more sugar than an equal number of laborors in any other country in the world where the cane is cultivated. From Porter and other high authorities, we learn that the average quantity of sugar, produced in the several West India islands, is under, rather than over, a hogshead for each negro on the plantations-often not equaling more than that for each effective laborer. Here, in Louisiana, five hogsheads for each effective laborer is considered bad cropping. From Porter's work on the Cane Culture, 1st edition, pages 246 and 247, it will be seen that the average quantity of sugar produced per acre in Mexico, is only 750 lbs. From other authorities, we learn that from one to two peons are assigned to each acre. From "Dr. Roxburg on the Hindoo Method of Cultivating the Cane," from "Dr. Hamilton's Statistical Survey of Dinajpore," and "Dr. Buchanan's Journey from Madras to Malabar," we learn that the East India laborers, per capita, do not produce as much sugar as those of the West Indies or Mexico. In Java, with two laborers to the acre, the average of the middling and best quality lands is from 1200 to 1800 lbs. per acre. In Mauritius, 2000 lbs. per acre is considered a good yield, so says Porter, page 242. This is the island, which, some time ago, alarmed the sugar planters of the East and West Indies, Brazil and Demerara, so much, lest its wonderful fertility and the richness of its cane should break up the sugar culture everywhere else. I am sure that even its annexation to the United States would not scare our planters, particularly such men as Wilkins and Wafford. Facts, when interrogated, respond that Louisiana is not without, but in the centre of the sugar region proper, if the quantity and quality of the sugar produced, by a given amount of labor, be the guides in locating that region. Yet the same logic, the same errors and prejudices, which would throw even the southern borders of Louisiana too far north for the cane to be profitably cultivated, except as a sickly exotic, fostered in the sunshine of governmental favors, have had an injurious effect upon the cotton planting interest, in causing from the lands that could have been more profitably put in cane, if the truth had been known, and that liberal encouragement extended to the culture the change of labor from one agricultural product to another always requires. But if Congress will not give a sufficient duty, men of science ought to interpose and send forth the scientific truth, at present confined to their closets, that the sugar made in a frosty climate is worth double the money of that made in tropical regions-being more healthy and nutritious. If this truth were generally known, the cane culture in the United States would no longer be confined to a narrow strip of land on and near the 30th parallel of latitude, but would be extended further north, and every one would be anxious to know how far north this good, vital, dextrogyrate sugar, the restorer of health, the renovator of age, the beautifier of the complexion, and the preserver of the teeth, would be profitably carried. The extension of the cane culture would enhance the value of every other southern agricultural product, and would thereby enrich the whole South. The South enriched would enrich the West, and, like Ruth and Naomi, they would cleave together. The serious fears entertained by our ablest statesmen of that fanaticism which monarchical Europe is artfully using for the purpose of overthrowing the American Republic of confederated states, destroying their power and blotting out their bright example, and at the same time depriv ing them of their main source of wealth by transferring the rich productions of southern agriculture to India and Australia, covering the objects of the unceasing war it is waging against the labor and institutions of the South, under the false pretence of philanthropy for the negro race-has already, in a great degree, been dispelled by the people of nearly all the states in the Union having weighed transatlantic philanthropy and found it wanting. But the most effectual check which abolitionism has received, or could receive, until another Cromwell rises in England, has been given by the Great West saying to the South, in the language of Ruth, "Whither thou goest I will go, thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried." |