INFORMATION 
 
 FOR 
 
 I MI ]M IGRANT8 
 
 INTO THE 
 
 STATE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 PUBLISHER OFFICIALLY 
 
 BY J. O. KATHMAN, 
 
 CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION. 
 
 NEW ORLEANS: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE REPUBLICAN OFFICE, 57 ST. CHARLES STREET. 
 
 1868. 
 
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 AN ACT 
 
 TO ORGANIZE A BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION, TO PRESCRIBE THE DUTIES 
 THEREOF, AND TO PROVIDE FOR THE EXPENSES OF THE SAME. 
 
 Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Bepresentatives 
 of the State of Louisiana, in General Assembly convened, That a Bureau 
 of Immigration shall be, and is hereby established in the city of 
 New Orleans, for the purpose of encouraging, immigration to the 
 State of Louisiana, by diffusing information abroad, and protecting 
 and assisting such immigrants as may settle therein. 
 
 Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, dee., That the Bureau established by 
 the first section of this act, shall be under the charge of a citizen of 
 the State of Louisiana, who shall be entitled Chief of the Bureau. 
 
 Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, &c., That the chief of said Bureau of 
 Immigration shall be appointed by the Governor of the State, by and 
 with the advice and consent of the Senate, for the term of two years, 
 whose salary shall be thirty-five hundred dollars per annum, to be 
 paid quarterly, on his own warrant on the State Treasurer, approved 
 by the Auditor of Public Accounts. 
 
 Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, &c., That it shall be the duty of the 
 chief of the Bureau of Immigration, to collect and have published, in 
 English, French and German, and such other languages as he may 
 think proper, statistical information setting forth the advantages of 
 soil, climate and productions, which Louisiana presents to the enter¬ 
 prising immigrant; to publish and distribute abroad, in the afore¬ 
 mentioned languages and such others as he may select, this act of 
 the General Assembly, and all other acts thereof as may relate to 
 the encouragement of immigration and the protection of the immi¬ 
 grant; to appoint agents of immigration in foreign countries, whose 
 salaries shall not exceed the sum of five hundred dollars each per 
 annum, and whose number shall not exceed five; to assist any 
 and all immigrants from said countries who may desire to settle in 
 Louisiana, by giving counsel and information, in making contracts 
 for public means of transportation to bring to the port of New Or¬ 
 leans at the lowest rates of passage possible such immigrants as 
 may elect to come to said port, and to make arrangements with 
 steamboats, railroads and other public means of transportation to 
 convey immigrants who may elect to .settle in Louisiana to their 
 place of destination in a comfortable manner and at the least expense 
 possible; to use every effort to inform, advise and assist immigrants 
 
to Louisiana, in order to protect them against imposition or false in- 
 I formation; to negotiate with any steamship company to place a line 
 of two or more steamers between New Orleans and Bremen, and 
 | other foreign ports from which large numbers of persons emigrate to 
 the United States; to visit and examine all vessels landing at the 
 port of New Orleans which have immigrants on board, and to make 
 a register of such immigrants, showing names, ages, places of birth, 
 sex, profession, trade, destination—which register shall be filed in 
 his office; to report to the Bureau of Immigration of the United States, 
 at Washington City, all infractions of the Passage Acts of the United 
 j States; to make a report annually to the General Assembly of the 
 State, of the number of immigrants who have arrived, with a tabular 
 statement showing ages, places of birth, sex, trade, profession and 
 destination of all immigrants who may have arrived during the year 
 at the port of New Orleans, together with such information and 
 recommendations as in his opinion may promote immigration to the 
 State of Louisiana, together with a full statement of the expenses 
 and operations of the Bureau: Provided nothing in this section shall 
 be so construed as to make the State liable for the passage money of 
 any immigrant coming into this State. 
 
 Sec. 5. Be it further enacted, &c ., That the Chief of Bureau shall 
 have power to appoint one or more clerks, as may be found necessary, 
 not to exceed three, at a salary of fifteen hundred dollars each per 
 annum. 
 
 Sec 6. Be it further enacted, &c ., That the sum of fifteen thousand 
 dollars be, and is hereby appropriated to pay the salaries of the 
 chief of the Bureau of Immigration, and expenses of said Bureau to 
 be paid out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appro¬ 
 priated. 
 
 Sec. t. Be it further enacted, dec., That this Act shall take effect 
 from and after its passage. 
 
 [Signed] J. B. ELAM, 
 
 Speaker pro tem. of the House of Representatives. 
 
 [Signed] ALBERT VOORHIES, 
 
 Lieutenant Governor and President of the Senate. 
 
 Approved, May It, 1866. 
 
 * [Signed] J.’MADISON WELLS, 
 
 Governor of the State of Louisiana. 
 
 A true copy. 
 
 [Signed] J. H. Hardy, 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 i \ fH 
 
I 
 
 r|,"' , 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 This Bureau has been organized by the State for the purpose of 
 rendering assistance to immigrants in finding homes, lands, and 
 employment of all kinds; with this view our circulars have been 
 issued, soliciting private and public aid and information, and an 
 extensive correspondence opened with all parts of the State and 
 even with persons in adjoining States, and the Bureau is now in 
 daily receipt of letters and verbal communications of the most 
 responsible character. A vast mass of information has been thus 
 accumulated, and the Chief of the Bureau is enabled to give every 
 species of information which may even remotely pertain to his 
 position. A few letters selected from the mass on file have been 
 inserted in this pamphlet, simply to show the character of the 
 different' propositions made by reliable and responsible parties in 
 various portions of the State. These are sufficient to show some of 
 I the terms and conditions upon which lands may be # acquired, but 
 | | they by no means exhibit all. Indeed, there are so many propositions 
 I on file with the Bureau that it may be said that immigrants can 
 obtain lands of every quality, in any quantity, and on almost any 
 | terms that could be asked. Not only can information be given as to 
 | the purchase of lands, but as to where and how the best and cheap- 
 I est may be had. But this Bureau is crowded with innumerable ap- 
 i ! plications from this and other States, for agriculturists, horticulturists, 
 
 | vine dressers and wine makers, stock raisers, mechanics of every 
 trade, and especially for females for general house work, such as 
 j cooks, washers and ironers, chambermaids, nurses, etc. Good j 
 positions can be secured in perfectly healthy localities for as many 
 immigrants as may choose to come, in any of the above employ- 
 i ments, at good wages, by the month or by the year, or by several 
 years. The wages for females average from ten to twenty dollars 
 per month. 
 
 J. C. KATHMAN, 
 
 Chief of the Bureau. 
 
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 
 
 State of Louisiana, 
 
 New Orleans , February 11, 1868. 
 
 J. C. Kathman, 
 
 Chief of the Bureau of Immigration, State of Louisiana: 
 
 Sir —I have carefully read the pamphlet compiled by you, setting 
 forth the agricultural and other advantages of the State of Louisiana 
 to immigrants, in seeking homes, lands and employment. I do not 
 consider that anything therein said is exaggerated. A residence of 
 forty years in the Slate, devoted to agricultural pursuits, enables me 
 to testify from actual experience in this matter. Louisiana, in the 
 productiveness of her soil and her geographical position, is far ahead 
 of any of the States in America. 
 
 Trusting that your efforts to invite population to settle and culti¬ 
 vate her rich lands, may prove successful, 
 
 I remain, respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 [Signed] JOSHUA BAKER, 
 
 • Governor of Louisiana. 
 

 / 
 
 
INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS INTO LOUISIANA. 
 
 One glancing at the map of the United States must have his eye 
 and attention arrested by the gigantic river which, rising in the 
 Rocky Mountains near the uppermost limit of the country and flow- 
 1 ing southeasterly and south into the Gulf of Mexico, divides the 
 United States into nearly two equal parts. This mighty stream, the 
 Mississippi, flowing through twenty degrees of latitude from north 
 to south, traversing in its course about four thousand five hundred 
 miles, and, with its tributaries, navigable for steamboats nearly 
 the whole year in all its extent, and the entire year in its lower parts, 
 empties into the Gulf of Mexico in 29 degrees north latitude. For 
 the last eight hundred miles on the right bank, and for three hundred 
 and fifty on the left bank, it washes the soil of Louisiana. 
 
 Out of over thirty millions of acres of land which Louisiana con¬ 
 tains, more than eight millions were formed by the deposits brought 
 down by this, the largest river in the world, which deposits have 
 been gathered by ten thousand minor streams from ten thousand dif¬ 
 ferent hills and plains of varied formation, and make a compost 
 which surpasses any soil in the world in its natural fertility. 
 
 Soon after the discovery of the Mississippi, in 1663, by Marquette 
 and Joliet, two French missionaries, the geographical position of 
 Louisiana pointed it out as a most valuable acquisition for France. 
 It was explored in 1682, by La Salle, and named Louisiana in honor 
 of Louis XIV. Iberville was ordered in 1699 to make a settlement 
 in the new territory. This settlement was made about two hundred 
 miles above the mouth of the river, and in the limits of the present 
 parish of Iberville. New Orleans was settled in ltlU The French 
 retained possession until 1T62, when the whole territory was ceded 
 by France to Spain, and the Spanish held it until 1800, when they 
 transferred it again to France. In 1803, only three years after 
 France had recovered this magnificent empire, Napoleon, fearing 
 that England would rob France of this territory, reluctantly sold it 
 to the United States, for $15,000,000. 
 
 In 1812 that portion of the territory now known as Louisiana, was 
 made a State in the Federal Union. During the French domination 
 in Louisiana, large numbers of Germans were invited into the ter¬ 
 ritory, and several extensive settlements were made by them. 
 
 Louisiana, having been settled by the French, Spanish and Germans, 
 2 
 
I 10 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 I is more European than any State of the United States. Its laws, 
 ordinances and judicial advertisements are required to be printed in 
 English and French, and it is now proposed to add German also. Of 
 the 357,456 white population of Louisiana in 1860, 81,029 were 
 ! foreign born—that is, about one-fourth of the white population was 
 composed of foreign immigrants. This proportion has largely in¬ 
 creased since the war began, owing to various causes, and nearly 
 ' four thousand emigrants, principally German, have located in Louis¬ 
 iana during the year 1867. It may now be safely estimated that 
 more than one-fourth of the white population is foreign. 
 
 The total population of Louisiana, since owned and occupied by the 
 United States, was in the several decades as follows: 
 
 Year 1810.Population 76,556 
 
 “ 1820 “ 153.407 
 
 “ 1830 “ 215,739 
 
 « 1840 “ 352,411 
 
 “ 1850 . “ 507.762 
 
 “ 1855 “ 587,774 
 
 “ 1860 “ 708,002 
 
 Of the 708,002, 357,456 were white, while 350,373 were colored; ! 
 owing to the great mortality among the blacks during the war, the j 
 whites have largely gained on the blacks, and as the, colored popula- ; 
 tion cannot increase by foreign emigration, as the whites may do, 
 the blacks will henceforth fall into a steadily diminishing minority. 
 
 The following table will show the proportion in which the principal 
 States of Europe were represented in our foreign-born population in 
 1860: 
 
 Ireland. 
 
 Germany. 
 
 France . 
 
 England. 
 
 ...28,207 Spain. 
 
 ...24,614 Scotland. 
 
 ...14,938 Italy. 
 
 . ... 3,989 West Indies. 
 
 . 1.806 
 
 . 1,051 
 
 . 1.134 
 
 1,154 
 
 In 1850 the proportion 
 
 was as follows: 
 
 
 Ireland. 
 
 ...24,260 Great Britain. 
 
 . 4.794 
 
 Germany. 
 
 ...17,887 Spain. 
 
 . 1.417 
 
 France . 
 
 ... 11,452 
 
 
 It will be seen that the German element is gaining over the others, 
 and especially within the last two years this increase has been more 
 | marked. 
 
 I COMMERCIAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION. 
 
 If Louisiana were important to France, its geographical position 
 makes it far more so to the United States. Containing within her 
 1 borders the mouths of the Mississippi and its great outlets—the 
 Atchafalaya, the Plaquemine, and the Lafourche—all the heavy 
 freights from the vast and populous regions drained by the numerous 
 tributaries of the great river are again passing for eight hundred 
 miles through her borders, seeking the cheaper water transportation 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 11 j 
 
 - T --- 
 
 ) in preference to transportation by railroad. The grain and provision 
 trade of the Great West is steadily centering at New Orleans, and, j 
 with the improved and expanding facilities for cheap transportation, j 
 but a few years will elapse before New Orleans will become the 
 largest provision market in the world. Lying as Louisiana does, so 
 near the tropics, her ports are always open. No fogs or freezes ever 
 ; prevent access to her harbors, as is the case too often with the ice¬ 
 bound harbors of Boston, New York and other northern Atlantic ports. 
 Previous to the war, New Orleans was the second commercial port 
 in the United States, New York alone taking precedence over her. 
 
 In spite of the devastation of the territory surrounding it, New 
 Orleans is giving evidence that she will soon be not only the second, 
 but the first, commercial city in the United States. It needs but the 
 completion of the work of reconstruction, and the restoration of 
 Louisiana to her full rights as one of the Federal States, to give an 
 | impetus to trade which will rapidly build up New Orleans. Not¬ 
 withstanding the war, she has increased her population from 168,000 
 in 1860, to 260,000 at the present time. Texas is rapidly filling up 
 with emigrants from abroad and all parts of the Union, but owing 
 to the want of interior navigation and good harbors on her coast, the j 
 trade of Texas must ^centre at New Orleans, and when the State of j 
 Louisiana shall have carried out the extended system of railroads 
 now in progress and soon to be completed, all the manufacturing for 
 Texas and the adjacent States, and the countries south of us, will be 
 done in Louisiana, and we shall from this time forward need the aid 
 of skilled laborers, mechanics and artisans in every branch of indus¬ 
 trial employment. Men will not go thousands of miles into the 
 interior to manufacture articles which have to be carried to the ocean 
 by long and expensive transportation overland by railroad or by un¬ 
 certain water navigation, when they have better facilities for manu¬ 
 facturing the same articles on or in close proximity to the seaboard. 
 
 | The people of the South have neglected the cultivation of the mechan¬ 
 ical and manufacturing arts, and as it will take a generation to 
 educate them to such arts, we shall be compelled to depend upon | 
 foreign emigration to supply our wants in these respects. The entire 
 i coast line of Louisiana is one thousand two hundred and fifty-six 
 miles, being greater ihan that of any other State in the Union except, 
 perhaps, Florida, California and Texas. This measurement in- j 
 eludes all the indentations of the shore line, but not the numerous out¬ 
 lying islands attached to the State. These make an additional line 
 j of nine hundred and ninty-four miles, making, together, a total of 
 two thousand two hundred and fifty miles of mainland and island j 
 sealine. In addition to the mouths of the Mississippi, the whole 
 
 | -- —. . 
 
12 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 coast is penetrated by excellent harbors for vessels of light draft, 
 and the principal of these are in the mouths of the larger rivers and 
 bayous, all of which extend, with good navigation, far into the inte¬ 
 rior of the State. Not only has Louisiana the great commercial 
 advantages of a shoreline of such enormous extent, but she has within 
 her borders more navigable streams and a greater extent of inland 
 navigation than can be found in any other five States of the United 
 States combined, and more than can be found in any other country cf 
 similar area upon the globe. The distinguished geographer and 
 civil and hydraulic engineer, Mr. G. W. R. Bailey, who has published 
 the best map of Louisiana, estimates the inland navigation of the 
 State at more than twenty thousand miles. This vast navigation is 
 fairly distributed throughout an area of forty-seven thousand two 
 hundred and fifty-nine square miles, and gives Louisiana great 
 advantages over any other country of the world in point of cheap 
 and certain transportation at all seasons for her products. Railroads 
 nor any other mode of conveyance can at all compare with water 
 transportation for cheapness and the ease with which it may be con¬ 
 ducted. There is scarcely any point in Louisiana that is twenty 
 miles from navigation. 
 
 Wherever, therefore, the immigrant may locate in Louisiana, and 
 | whatever may be his occupation, he can always, in one or two days* 
 time, push his products, goods, wares or manufactures by the cheap¬ 
 est mode of transportation, out to the Gulf and the markets of the 
 world; and may supply himself with such articles as he may need, at 
 first cost. The immigrant to the Northwestern States finds himself 
 far in the interior, and can send out his handiwork and products to 
 the seacoast only by a thousand miles or more of expensive railroad 
 transportation, which consumes one-half or two-thirds of the proceeds 
 of his labor and skill. It is most important to the farmer or manu¬ 
 facturer that he should be able to get his products to market quickly 
 and at little cost, in order that he may realize nearly their full market 
 value for himself. 
 
 THE LAWS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 The emigrant landing in a foreign country where he expects to 
 make his home, finds one of his greatest embarrassments to be his 
 want of familiarity with the new system of laws by which he is 
 surrounded, and by which all his actions and rights, his person and 
 his property, are governed. Louisiana offers to the emigrant from the 
 continent of Europe peculiar advantages in this respect, as she is 
 the only State in the Union where the law of continental Europe, 
 that is, the civil law, prevails. Acquiring her system of laws from 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 13 [ I 
 
 - T -j 
 
 the Civil Codes of France and Spain, she has adopted the liberal j 
 
 and equitable spirit of the Roman law in civil affairs, and the free I 
 and just system of tfie common law of England, in criminal matters. 
 
 The rights of property, the modes of acquisition, the laws of 
 leases, liens, servitudes, privileges, prescriptions, marriage, succes¬ 
 sions and inheritance, are the same that the emigrant from Central j 
 or Southern Europe was taught in his own fatherland. No other 
 State in the Union offers the emigrant such advantages in this 
 respect as Louisiana. In all the other States they have the common 
 law of England, modified by local changes to suit special circum¬ 
 stances, and each State differs from the others in many respects in 
 its laws. The consequence is that except in Louisiana, the emigrant 
 ! to the United States finds it difficult to familiarize himself with the 
 laws, and is often subjected to ruinous losses. The civil law, as in 
 Louisiana, requires the vendor to warrant what he sells, while the 
 common law of the other Staites is the reverse, and requires the 
 purchaser to look to it that what he buys is sound. The laws of 
 Louisiana have always been more liberal than those of any other 
 State in the Union. We have had no sumptuary laws, no Sunday 
 laws, no Maine liquor, laws, no laws against hunting or fishing. 
 The theatres, the ball rooms, the beer gardens, the coffeehouses, the 
 billiard saloons and the churches of every sect, are all op§n and are 
 allowed equal privileges on Sundays. During all the time that 
 ; slavery existed in Louisiana, the slave had ready means and was 
 j provided by laws with every facility for obtaining his freedom, and 
 when free, he was allowed not only to be a suitor in court and a 
 ! witness for or against a white man, but was allowed every right of a 
 citizen except voting, sitting on jury and holding office. Many were 
 very wealthy. 
 
 This enlightened and liberal spirit of our laws has always sprung 
 from the tolerant and generous character of our people. There is no 
 prejudice against caste, and no antipathy to foreigners or strangers; 
 for having the representatives of so many trades and states and 
 nationalities among us, all join in welcoming the honest and 
 worthy immigrant, let him belong to what calling or country he may. 
 This liberal sentiment of our people has impressed itself upon all 
 the institutions of the State, and hence there are in Louisiana more 
 charitable and benevolent institutions supported at public expense 
 than can be found in any other part of the world in proportion to 
 the population. Among these are the Charity Hospital at New 
 Orleans, capable of accommodating two thousand patients. Two 
 Insane Asylums, the Asylum where the deaf, dumb and blind are 
 
14 
 
 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 educated and cared for, besides innumerable Orphan Asylums, j 
 Widows’ Houses and Charitable Associations. Notwithstanding the j 
 I number of charitable institutions and the liberality with which they 
 have always been maintained and new ones established as need ! 
 required, yet the actual paupers who are supported at public j 
 expense arc fewer than perhaps in any other community in the world, I 
 as in eighteen hundred and sixty out of a population of seven bun- 
 dred and eight thousand and two, there were only one hundred and 
 fifty-seven native and thirty-seven foreign paupers. Indeed it has | 
 alwaj^s been so easy to obtain steady and profitable employment in : ■ 
 this State that there has been no occasion or excuse for pauperism, | 
 as wages have been and are higher in Louisiana than in any other ; 
 State except Oregon. The laws exempting property from seizure 
 and sale for debt are as liberal in Louisiana as in any other State, 
 as will be seen by the following list of property which is secured by 
 law to the debtor against all executions sued out by any creditor, so i 
 that neither the debtor who owns property nor his family can be 
 deprived of a home and the means of support, by improvidence or I 
 misfortune: 
 
 AN ACT to exempt from seizure and sale a Homestead and other property. 
 
 Section 1 . Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Bepresenta- 
 tives of the State of Louisiana, in General Assembly convened, That 
 in addition to the property and effects now exempt from seizure and 
 sale under execution, one hundred and sixty acres of ground and 
 the buildings and improvements, occupied as the residence and bona 
 fide owned by the debtor, having a family, or mother or father, or 
 person or persons, dependent on him for support; also, one work j 
 horse, one wagon or cart, one yoke of oxen, two cows and calves, 
 twenty-five head of hogs, or one thousand flitch of bacon or equiva¬ 
 lent in pork; and if a farmer, the necessary corn and fodder for the 
 current year, Provided, That the property herein declared to be 
 exempt from seizure and sale does not exceed in value two thousand 
 dollars, and in case of excess, any sale thereof under execution 
 shall be taken from the lot of ground and buildings herein men¬ 
 tioned, and not from the other property herein mentioned as being 
 j exempt from seizure and sale; And provided further, That no debtor 
 shall be entitled to the exemption provided for in this section, whose 
 wife shall own in her own right and be in the actual enjoyment of 
 property worth more than one thousand dollars. 
 
 Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, etc., That no property shall, by 
 virtue of this act, be exempt from sale for non-payment of taxes or 
 assessments levied pursuant to law, nor for debt contracted for the 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 15 
 
 | purchase price of said property, nor for money due for rents bearing j 
 a privilege upon said property under existing laws—Act of Decem- 
 j ber 22, 1865—Nor can the “ sheriff seize the linen and clothes 
 belonging to the debtor and his family, nor his bed, nor his arms and 
 ! military accoutrements, nor the tools and instruments necessary for | 
 the exercise of his trade or profession by which be gains a living.” 
 And the courts give this the widest construction in favor of the 
 debtor. Unnaturalized foreigners have always been allowed under 
 ouj: laws the right to acquire, hold, enjoy and transfer real estate 
 i during life, and with no more restrictions than were imposed on 
 j native citizens. But few States in the Union have such laws. 
 
 HEALTH, CLIMATE, AND LONGEVITY. 
 
 i 
 
 Louisiana lies between the thirty-third and twenty-ninth degrees 
 of north latitude, and owing to its semi-peninsular projection into 
 the warm waters of the Gulf, and to the vast area covered by the 
 innumerable bayous, rivers, streams and lakes within her limits, 
 
 | the climate is much softer than in corresponding latitudes in the i 
 interior of the country, or even in that portion of Texas which lies 
 S further south. 
 
 The balmy breezes of the Gulf moderate the heat of summer, and the 
 lakes and river system of the interior, which cool slowly, radiate suf- 
 I ficient heat to temper the air during the few cool days of winter. 
 
 ' As a consequence, we have never the high degrees of heat which 
 occur in Boston, New York, and the whole North and West. 
 
 The thermometer at New Orleans never rises above 96J degrees 
 Farhenheit, and seldom falls below freezing point. The cold usually 
 comes in blasts and gusts, which pass off quickly, lasting but two or 
 three days. Snow occurs not oftener than once in twelve years. 
 The heat of the North is far more intense; while it lasts, the thermo¬ 
 meter frequently ranges above 100 degrees, and sun-stroke or coup 
 de soleil is far more common all over the North than here. During 
 the summer of 1866 there were in New York city two hundred and 
 sixty cases of sunstroke, while in all of Louisiana there were only 
 eighteen cases. Outside of New Orleans the health of the State is 
 beyond all comparison better than that of any other State in the 
 Union. New Orleans, and the smaller towns and cities around it, 
 contain about one-half of the total population of the State. 
 
 New Orleans has been visited by the yellow fever during the past 
 summer for the first time in nine years. Owing to the large number 
 of unacclimated persons, the disease was unusually active having, it 
 is estimated, attacked over sixty thousand persons in the city. Of 
 these, three thousand and ninety-six died, being about five per cent. 
 
16 
 
 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 This shows how very manageable the disease was; and the deaths 
 
 were increased by the destitution of many and want of attention. 
 
 | The experience of the war, during which a strict quarantine was 
 | kept up, demonstrates that the yellow fever may be kept out of New 
 I Orleans, and hereafter it will be done. 
 
 Beyond an occasional visitation from yellow fever, New Orleans is 
 
 the healthiest city on the continent. In the statistics of mortality 
 that city is charged with a very large number of deaths which 
 
 j occur among exhausted invalids from all parts of the United States, 
 j who seek the soft and genial climate in order to regain their health, 
 
 ; | or, at least, to prolong their lives beneath the Southern skies. She 
 j has many advantages for invalids which cannot be found elsewhere 
 on the continent, and vast numbers resort here. 
 
 With the actual resident population the proportion of deaths is 
 j very small. We are almost entirely free from those terrible diseases 
 ! which originate in cold climates—such as consumption, pneumonia, 
 bronchitis, rheumatism, and many others so prevalent at the North 
 and Northwest. And we have but few of those fatal fevers so com¬ 
 mon further North—such as typhus, typhoid, congestive, and inter¬ 
 mittent. The fevers here are usually light and yield readily to 
 simple remedies. It is seldom necessary in the country to call in a 
 physician in their treatment. The State is remarkable for the lon¬ 
 gevity of its inhabitants. 
 
 Though New Orleans has in the last seven years nearly doubled 
 her population, and over four years of civil war ensued in that time; 
 and the effects of such wars are very fatal to the aged, yet the mor¬ 
 tuary reports of the Board of Health for 1866-61 show that about one 
 | person a month, or twelve to fourteen a year, die over a hundred 
 years of age ; and twenty-five to thirty a year between eighty and 
 ninety. As persons of such great age rarely migrate, it is probable 
 that these persons belonged to the old population before the war. 
 In the country the longevity is still greater, and in single neighbor¬ 
 hoods, not including villages, six or eight individuals may be pointed 
 out as more than one hundred years of age. In many neighbor¬ 
 hoods physicians are unknown. The large families of healthy chil¬ 
 dren everywhere to be seen, and the handsome and robust appear- 
 ; ance of the people in the rural regions attest the healthfulness of 
 
 the State ; and the remarkable vigor, endurance, and courage exliib- 
 
 j ited by the Louisiana soldiers, on both sides, during the recent civil 
 I war, showed the hardy constitutions of the persons raised in this 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. It 
 
 been famous as a superior stock country. The rich and perpetual 
 grasses on the prairies in the western part of the State furnish the 
 best pasturage in America, and the business of cattle raising is car¬ 
 ried on upon a larger scale there than in any other part of the United 
 States. Single vacheries branded every year, previous to the war, 
 over five thousand head of calves. Many large herds of cattle are 
 driven from Texas and wintered in these ever verdant pastures for 
 the New Orleans market. Cattle for beef may be bought upon these 
 prairies and in Texas at from ten to fifteen dollars a head, and when 
 thoroughly fattened bring, in New Orleans, fifty to sixty dollars. The 
 ease with which hay, grain, turnips, carrots, and, above all, sweet 
 potatoes, may be raised, makes the business of fattening cattle for 
 market one of the most profitable employments. 
 
 Horse raising has always been profitable here. The principal 
 breed of horses, known as the Creole pony, is a descendant of the 
 famous Spanish barbs, and is capable of undergoing the most won¬ 
 derful fatigue. They gallop forty, fifty, and even sixty miles in a 
 few hours, and with as little fatigue as would be incurred by an 
 ordinary horse in a ten mile drive. 
 
 Other breeds of horses and mules are raised here, with more ease 
 than in the Middle States or the North. Some of the finest racers, 
 as Lecompte, were bred in Louisiana. 
 
 Goats and sheep increase with astonishing rapidity here, owing to 
 the mildness of the climate and the variety and perpetual verdure of 
 our grasses. The mutton of Louisiana is pronounced by epicures as 
 equal to the best British mutton. Sheep are subject to few diseases 
 here, as most of their maladies come from cold. The best and finest 
 wool ever grown in America was raised in Mississippi, one of the 
 States adjoining Louisiana. 
 
 This State is peculiarly adapted to the raising of swine, and this 
 business is now attracting much attention. Heretofore the great 
 mass of our people and planters were dependent on the Northwest 
 for pork. 
 
 FORESTS AND THE LUMBER TRADE. 
 
 All the upland and alluvial region, comprising three-fourths of the 
 State, is covered with the finest forests in the United States, and as 
 the State is cut up in every direction by navigable waters, the forests 
 of pine, cypress, live oak, white oak, post oak, gum, ash, and other 
 valuable timber trees, furnish employment to hundreds of mills 
 and thousands of workmen in getting out lumber for home and 
 foreign trade; and the business is rapidly increasing, and will 
 i furnish lucrative employment to thousands of emigrants. The fol- 
 3 
 
18 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 lowing list of native trees will show the variety and value of the 
 forests here: 
 
 Live Oak, 
 
 White Oak, 
 
 Post Oak, 
 
 Red Oak, 
 
 ; Black Oak, 
 
 | Scarlet Oak, 
 j Brown Oak, 
 
 Turkey Oak, 
 
 Bear Oak, 
 
 Swamp Oak, 
 
 Water Oak, 
 
 Willow Oak, 
 Chincapin Oak, 
 Overcup Oak, 
 Spanish Oak, 
 
 Myrtle Oak, 
 
 Dentata Oak, 
 
 Black Jack Oak, 
 Yellow Pine, 
 
 Pitch Pine, 
 
 Wild China, 
 
 Water Elm, 
 
 Red Elm, 
 
 Slippery Elm, 
 
 Linn, or Bass, 
 Catalpa, 
 
 Wild Peach, 
 
 Red Ash, 
 
 White Ash, 
 
 W T ater Ash, 
 
 Green Ash, 
 
 Honey Locust, three 
 varieties, 
 
 Black Locust, 
 
 Acacia Locust. 
 
 Short Leafed Pine, 
 Loblolly Pine, 
 
 Red Cypress, 
 
 White Cypress, 
 
 Black Gum, 
 
 Sweet Gum, 
 
 Tupelo Gum, 
 
 Red Willow, 
 
 White Willow, 
 
 Black Willow, 
 
 Shell Bark Hickory, 
 Black Hickory, 
 
 Pig Nut Hickory, 
 Water Hickory, 
 Pecan, six varieties, 
 Black Walnut, 
 
 Cotton Wood, 
 
 Balm of Gilead, 
 Yellow Poplar, 
 
 Beech, 
 
 Papaw, 
 
 Buckthorn, 
 
 Prickly Ash, two va¬ 
 rieties, 
 
 Sumach Ash, two va¬ 
 ries, 
 
 Water Birch, 
 
 White Mulberry, 
 
 Red Mulberry, 
 
 Wild Cherry, 
 
 Wild Plum, 
 Dogwood, two species 
 Redbud, 
 
 Holly, 
 
 Barberry. 
 
 Sugar Maple, 
 
 Silver Maple, 
 
 Swamp Maple, 
 
 Alder, two species, 
 
 Box Elder, 
 
 Box Wood, 
 
 Sycamore, 
 
 Red Haw, 
 
 May Haw, 
 
 Apple Haw, 
 
 Sugar Haw, 
 
 Parsley Leafed Haw, 
 Bird Haw, 
 
 Black Haw, 
 
 Red Sassafras (Gombo), 
 White Sassafras, 
 
 Red Bay, 
 
 Sweet Bay, 
 
 Magnolia Grandiflora, 
 Magnolia Glanca, 
 
 Wild Coffee, 
 
 Crab Apple, two varie¬ 
 ties, 
 
 Persimmon, two spe¬ 
 cies, 
 
 Wild Sloe, 
 
 Hackberry, 
 
 Yellow Wood, 
 
 Sorrel Tree, 
 
 Iron Wood, 
 
 Yaupon, 
 
 Wax Myrtle, 
 Hornbeam, 
 
 Buckeye. 
 
 LAKES, RIVERS AND BAYOUS. 
 
 The Mississippi river proper rises and terminates in regions of 
 innumerable lakes. Louisiana has fully one thousand lakes large 
 and small within its borders. Some of these'are of great size, as 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 19 
 
 Pontchartrain, Maurepas and Borgne, which lie north and east of 
 New Orleans, and Calcasieu, Sabine and Grand lakes to the west. 
 The principal lakes are 
 
 Pontchartrain, 
 
 Catahoula, 
 
 Salvador, 
 
 Maurepas, 
 
 Turkey Creek, 
 
 Caddo, 
 
 Borgne, 
 
 Mermentau, 
 
 Lake St. Joseph, 
 
 Grand, 
 
 Providence, 
 
 Pearl, 
 
 Chicot, 
 
 Ronde, 
 
 Bodeau, 
 
 N atchez, 
 
 Yerret, 
 
 Lake Tasse, 
 
 Sabine, 
 
 Des Allemands, 
 
 Lake Fausse Pointe, 
 
 Calcasieu, 
 
 Bisteneau, 
 
 Lake Simmonette, 
 
 Lake Arthur, 
 
 Black, 
 
 Lake Plauche, 
 
 Lake Charles, 
 
 Soda. 
 
 Spanish Lake. 
 
 Palourde. 
 
 
 
 Many of these lakes are clear and beautiful, and all are alive 
 with the finest fish. Lake Tasse and perhaps some others have, 
 over a large portion of them, a floating sod or prairie, a foot or more 
 in thickness, which is sufficiently buoyant to bear the weight of 
 whole herds of cattle, and yet upon cutting a hole through the turf, 
 the water is found beneath, and fish are caught through the holes. 
 Some of these lakes are inclosed by hills covered with oaks and pines; 
 others are in high open prairie without a tree, while many are in the 
 alluvial region, and are bordered by dense forests of live oak and 
 cypress, from which depend a drapery of long gray moss, giving a 
 peculiar picturesqueness to the scene. Many of the lakes are navi¬ 
 gable and connect with the extensive system of inland water com¬ 
 munication to be found in Louisiana. The rivers and bayous of 
 Louisiana are far more more numerous than in any other portion of 
 America. It is estimated that there are more than twenty thousand 
 miles of navigable water in the State, in addition to the extensive 
 coast navigation. 
 
 The whole State, but more especially^the alluvial regions and 
 broad marshes around the coast, exhibits a vast and intricate system 
 of lakes, rivers, bayous and deep natural canals which, particularly 
 in the lower portions of the State, so frequently communicate with 
 or intersect each other, that boats may pass through the State in 
 almost any direction. These navigable waters afford the most 
 wonderful facilities for transportation. The extensive marsh border¬ 
 ing the whole coast has an independent system of bayous and 
 streams, which take their rise in the marsh, and form a complete 
 cobweb of broad canals, deep enough to float an ironclad. Many 
 of these marsh bayous are nameless as yet, and though few of them 
 
20 
 
 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 are more than forty miles in length, they are so numerous as to make 
 up a large aggregate in the sum of navigable streams. 
 
 The principal streams are as follows: 
 
 NAMES OF RIVERS AND BAYOUS. 
 
 Mississippi, 
 
 Red River, 
 Atchafalaya, 
 
 Ouachita, 
 
 Black, 
 
 Tensas, 
 
 Little River, 
 
 False River, 
 
 Black Lake River, 
 Darbonne, 
 
 Iberville, 
 
 Wanska Bayou, 
 Pigeon Bayou, 
 
 Gross Tete Bayou, 
 Maringonna Bayou, 
 Terrebonne Bayou, 
 Grand Caillou Bayou, 
 Petit Caillou Bayou, 
 Be Large Bayou, 
 Barataria Bayou, 
 
 Des Allemande Bayou. 
 
 Grand River, 
 
 Belle River, 
 
 Old River, 
 
 Cane River, 
 
 Sabine River, 
 Calcasieu River, 
 Mermentau River, 
 Vermillion River, 
 Dugdemona River, 
 Dorchite River, 
 Amite River, 
 
 Bayou De Glaise, 
 Bayou Rouge, ' 
 Bayou Alabama, 
 Bayou Choctaw, 
 Bayou Bartholomew, 
 Bayou Macon, 
 
 Bayou Boeuf, upper, 
 
 Oomite River, 
 
 Blind River, 
 
 Tickfaw River, 
 Tangipahoa River, 
 Notalbany River, 
 Tchefuncta River, 
 Bogue Cliitto River, 
 Pearl River, 
 
 East Pearl, 
 
 West Pearl, 
 
 Sorrel Bayou, 
 
 Bayou Loggy, 
 
 Bayou Couchatta Chute, 
 Bayou Pierre, 
 
 Bayou Lone, 
 
 Bayou Teche, 
 
 Bayou Boeuf, lower, 
 Bayou Black, 
 
 Bayou Penchant, 
 
 Bayou Boeuf, middle, 
 
 Bayou Crocodile, lower Bayou Lafourche, 
 Bayou Cortableau. Bayou Plaquemine. 
 
 The Mississippi is, of course, the largest of these rivers; it flows 
 along the eastern line of Louisiana, and forms the boundary between 
 it and the State of Mississippi for four hundred and fifty miles, 
 when it enters the State of Louisiana, passing wholly within the 
 borders of the State for three hundred and fifty miles more, thus 
 giving eight hundred miles of navigation in this State. Next in 
 importance is Red river, which enters the State at its northwest corner 
 and flows for more than six hundred miles in Louisiana. Then come 
 the Atchafalaya and the Ouachita, flowing, almost as one stream, 
 nearly centrally through the State, from north to south, for seven 
 hundred miles. The Sabine forms the western boundary, and is navi¬ 
 gable some six hundred miles. The Pearl river forms the eastern 
 boundary, and is navigable to Jackson, in Mississippi. There are 
 twenty more rivers and bayous, which flow by independent mouths 
 into the Gulf, each navigable far into the interior for steamers and 
 sailing vessels, aud each having its own affluents and tributaries, 
 most of which are navigable also. The map of the world will be 
 

 
 INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 21 
 
 searched in vain to find any other country that can give the emi¬ 
 grant seeking a home such a combination of advantages as can be j 
 secured here. With its vast and varied forests, with a soil superior I 
 in retentive fertility to any in the world; with a climate so genial j 
 and equal in its seasons that every product of the temperate, and 
 nearly every product of the torrid zone may be raised with ease in 
 the open air, and remarkable for its salubrity and the great longevity 
 of its inhabitants; with the cheapest transportation at every man’s 
 door, to bear his products and manufactures to the best market of 
 the world; protected by free, liberal, and just laws, under a powerful 
 government, and in the midst of the highest civilization, with all its 
 progressive machinery and appliances for material, moral, social and 
 educational advancement. Louisiana offers to the settler unsurpassed 
 facilities for rapidly becoming prosperous and comparatively inde¬ 
 pendent. 
 
 RAILROADS. 
 
 As Louisiana has no mountains, and the greater part is level or 
 only slightly rolling, the face of the country presents the finest field 
 for building cheap railroads; but owing to the magnificent system of 
 water communication'which traverses every portion of the State, the 
 want of railroads has not been so great here as in other interior 
 States. We had, however, made much progress in railroad making 
 in the last few years previous to the war, and now not only has the 
 destruction of the tracks, depots, rolling stock, etc., during the 
 war, been repaired, but the old roads are preparing for extension and 
 new connections, and new companies have organized and most im¬ 
 portant lines of great length are being put under contract. The 
 following are the roads in actual operation: 
 
 Length Miles. 
 
 New Orleans, Milneburg and Pontchartrain. 6 
 
 New Orleans and Carrollton.,_/8 
 
 Baton Rouge and Grosse Tete. It 
 
 Clinton and Port Hudson. 22 
 
 West Feliciana . 26 
 
 Mexican Gulf. 21 
 
 Vicksburg and Shreveport. 54 
 
 New Orleans, Opelousas and Great Western. 80 
 
 New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern. 
 
 In addition to these are the New Orleans, Mobile and Chattanooga; 
 New Iberia and Orange; Central Stem Pacific; New Orleans and 
 Mazatlan—all of which are projected, and upon some of which the 
 work has been commenced. These roads will all be built, as they 
 are all necessities at the present time. 
 
- - — - - - 
 
 22 
 
 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 
 1 
 
 SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS. 
 
 The State of Louisiana contains upland, alluvial, prairie, and ! 
 marsh. About one-half is level or rolling upland, with here and 
 there hills, never over two hundred and fifty feet in height; one-fourth 
 is alluvium deposited by the Mississippi, the Red and Ouachita rivers 
 and their offshoots; one-eighth is prairie, and one-eighth seamarsh. 
 Nearly every variety of soil may be found in these several divisions, j 
 The uplands have a sandy soil, and are covered principally with 
 pine, but intermixed with a great variety of other timber. In this 
 region the lands are cheap, and afford the finest localities for villages j 
 and manufacturing establishments of all kinds. Here is fine water¬ 
 power, with clear, beautiful springs and streams. Much of this 
 region is government land, and will soon be brought within the pro- 
 visons of the homestead act. The soil, though naturally fertile, 
 requires care and manure to keep up its productiveness. Much 
 of the alluvial portion of the State is at present liable to overflow 
 from the annual floods of the Mississippi, but measures are in progress 
 to rebuild the levees and protect these, the most valuable lands in 
 the world. Here are the great sugar and cotton plantations, but 
 the soil is so rich and the climate so genial that every product may 
 be grown on them. The prairies are gently rolling, or perfectly 
 level, and the soil is nearly as rich as the alluvial soil, sometimes 
 dark organic mold, and in other places largely mixed with sand. 
 The marshes, though easy of reclamation, and possessing an inex¬ 
 haustible vegetable mold, have seldom been brought into cultivation, 
 but are now attracting much attention as rice lands No lands could 
 be more productive. In all the alluvial, prairie and marsh lands, the 
 sugarcane grows with great vigor, and near the seacoast frequently 
 flowers and seeds, as it has done the past season. It has been pushed 
 into the northern parishes and succeeds well. 
 
 Louisiana, before the war, produced four hundred and sixty thou¬ 
 sand hogsheads of sugar, and the business is again rapidly reviving. 
 Cotton grows all over the State, and was formerly the chief staple. 
 Tobacco of the finest varieties and bringing the highest market price, 
 grows in every portion of the State and on every kind of soil. 
 Natchitoches snuff and perique tobacco are famous. Indian corn or 
 maize has heretofore been the chief grain crop, and furnished the 
 principal item of food for men and stock. Wheat, rye, oats, barley, 
 buckwheat, have all been raised, and are found to do far better than 
 in the more northern States, ripening earlier, yielding more to the 
 acre, and producing a better and heavier grain. Several of the j 
 native grasses make an excellent hay, but nearly all of the cultivated i 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 23 j j 
 
 - | | 
 
 varieties have been used and yield largely, such as millet, timothy, 
 herds grass, clover, and others. The pastures are always green with 
 a great variety of grasses, such as white clover, Bermuda, smut- 
 grass, crabgrass, carpetgrass, etc. An endless list of garden vegeta¬ 
 bles might be made out. No failures are known to have occurred in 
 the effort to acclimate any variety here. All the most delicate 
 vegetables are produced here in the open air, and the garden is 
 kept up every month in the year and furnishes much of the 
 food for every family. Twenty or thirty varieties of the pea and 
 bean are cultivated and yield immense crops. All the root crops— 
 turnips, parsnips, carrots, beets, onions, garlic, leeks, ground arti¬ 
 chokes, kohlrabbi, peanuts or pinders, Irish potatoes and sweet 
 potatoes, with melons, pumpkins, kershaws, and squashes—are con¬ 
 stantly raised and give almost incredible returns to the farmer. Rice 
 is one of the principal crops, and may be raised on every acre in the 
 State, with or without overflow. It is one of the best forage crops 
 that can be raised. Hemp, flax, okra, and a new plant, the ramie, are 
 raised and flourish well as textile crops. Many oil plants are grown, 
 including the olive and palma christi or castor plant, which is indigen¬ 
 ous, and a native wax plant—the wax myrtle—is found in great 
 abundance, from which a hand may gather from six to ten pounds of 
 wax a day. The wax makes beautiful candles, equal to sperm. 
 Indeed, there is scarcely a conceivable product of any commercial 
 value that may not be grown in Louisiana, the soil is of such ex¬ 
 haustless fertility and the seasons are long enough to mature any 
 crop. 
 
 GRAPES AND WINE. 
 
 Every portion of the State, from the pine hills to the seashore, is 
 well adapted to the vine. There are some ten or twelve indigenous 
 varieties of grapes, all of which have been tested as wine grapes, 
 and some were proved to be excellent, and one having been carried 
 from Red river to France has proved one of the best claret grapes 
 now cultivated in Europe. The whole Northern portion of the 
 State is a vast natural vineyard. The wild vines frequently cover 
 the ground for miles, and to the number sometimes of two hundred 
 to the acre. This is in the high, sandy uplands, while in the low, 
 alluvial lands other varieties climb the tallest trees and festoon the 
 forest. The stems of some of these varieties often measure six to 
 eight inches in diameter. Nature has indicated to man that the 
 vine here should be one of the chief objects of attention. Many 
 vineyards exist where all the cultivated varieties are grown, and 
 these show that the soil and climate are admirably adapted to wine 
 
24 
 
 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 making. The scuppernong has yielded fifteen hundred gallons to 
 the acre. Even down on the Gulf coast failures do not occur once in 
 twenty years with prudent cultivation. 
 
 FRUITS AND PLANTS. 
 
 As the climate of this State is soft, regular, and open, and as 
 there is nearly every variety of soil to be found here, few countries 
 of the world can surpass it in the richness and variety of her fruits. 
 With the exception of a few strictly tropical plants, every kind 
 known to the horticulturist and pomologist is found here in unusual 
 perfection and lusciousness. Grapes, muscadines, currants, goose¬ 
 berries, whortleberries, blackberries, dewberries, raspberries, straw¬ 
 berries, bear berries, white mulberries, red mulberries, raccoon berries, 
 Spanish berries, turkey berries, elder berries, rattan berries, winter 
 berries, cranberries, maypops, love apples, mayapples, ground ap¬ 
 ples, crabapples, black haws, seven varieties of cratoegas, among 
 them the beautiful and delicious mayhaw, persimmons, papaws, 
 walnuts, hickory nuts, pig nuts, pecans, chinquepins, water chinque- 
 pins, or ninocks, wild gherkins, sloes, several varieties of wild 
 plums, and many edible herbs, roots and acorns are indigenous to 
 the soil and are found in great profusion, as everything grows so 
 luxuriantly under these favoring skies. The tall and feathery date- 
 palm flourishes in and around New Orleans and bears perfect fruit. 
 The olive may be seen here and there, and has been cultivated for its 
 oil with success ; it fruits well. The pineapple has been raised in 
 the open air, while the most luscious bananas are now to be found 
 around every dwelling. In the lower part of the State the jujube, 
 the almond, the guava, and the pomegranate are produced in 
 many gardens and may be raised all over the State. Lemons, cit¬ 
 rons, and oranges grow in the warmer parishes. Indeed, oranges 
 are cultivated in nearly one-half of Louisiana, and are far superior 
 in flavor, size, and appearance to the West India oranges. No crop 
 pays so well as the orange crop, and as we have all the States 
 North and West of us as a market, the culture is extending very rap¬ 
 idly. The orange bears in from five to seven years from the seed, 
 and when full grown will average one thousand oranges to the tree. 
 Single trees have been known to bear from three thousand five hun¬ 
 dred to five thousand oranges in one crop. The old French popula¬ 
 tion have long been accustomed to raise all the best varieties of 
 French pears, and our markets are now supplied every year with 
 pears of unsurpassed flavor and excellence. Apples, until a few 
 years back, have not been much cultivated ; now, however, our seed¬ 
 lings are being planted all over the State, and nearly every variety 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 25 
 
 succeeds. Summer and winter apples are becoming as common 
 here as in the more northern regions. Quinces are in every yard. 
 But Louisiana may challenge the world in peaches. Surely no 
 country of the world can produce finer. They rarely fail here, and 
 usually yield enormous crops. Native peaches all seem to have a 
 rich, luscious, melting juiciness which is peculiar to this latitude. 
 Ihe sun and the fertile soil bring out all the saccharine properties of 
 the fruit. The dewberries >and the blackberries attain a size and 
 sweetness here which cannot be found north of this. Strawberries 
 may be raised all the year round. Many of our citizens are now, in 
 the last days of December, 186*7, eating fresh strawberries ripened 
 in the open air in their own gardens. Fruit raising is one of the 
 most lucrative employments to which the immigrant could turn. A 
 few acres well attended to in fruits would suffice not only to make 
 a competency, but even a fortune. 
 
 MINERALS. 
 
 Lignite, lead, iron, salt, lime, soda, gypsum, copperas, marl, petro- j 
 leum and marble are found in this State. Iron is found in great i 
 abundance, and convenient of access ; in many parts of the northern J 
 portion it is found near limestone, and in the midst of the heaviest 
 forests of oak and pine for charcoal, while vast beds of the best 
 lignite underlie a great portion of the State. By the Siemens and 
 other improved processes lignite is found to do as well as any other 
 coal in smelting iron and making steel. These iron fields are des¬ 
 tined to give employment to tens of thousands. Dark marble of 
 excellent quality is found in St. Landry. Salt and sulphur springs, 
 soda springs, and chalybeate springs abound. Asphalt is found in 
 the upper and petroleum in the lower portion of the State, and it is 
 now conjectured that a vast deposit of petroleum underlies the mouth 
 of the Mississippi, causing the mud lumps which obstruct the bar. 
 
 The salines of North Louisiana are very numerous, and yield a 
 beautiful salt. 
 
 One of the greatest natural curiosities in America occurs in the ! 
 low sea coast of Louisiana, in the parish of St. Mary. An island, 
 as it is; called, rises up out of the vm+m-to the height of one hun¬ 
 dred and eighty-five feet We quote from a recent visitor: 
 
 “ The company has lately been prospecting with reference to 
 the extent of the salt mine of the island. By boring they have 
 proved that the bed is half a mile square, and it may extend a mile 
 or more. They have gone thirty-eight feet into the solid salt, and 
 find no signs of the bottom of the stratum. It doubtless extends 
 down hundreds of feet below the level of the gulf. The surface 
 
26 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 of the salt is about on a level with the tide water, and forms a level 
 plane, with a few slight inequalities on the surface. The earth 
 covers the salt from eleven to twenty-five or thirty feet; and if the 
 mine extends under the hills, they may find it covered in places a 
 hundred feet or more in depth. 
 
 “ On the surface of the salt they find a soil like that of the surround¬ 
 ing marshes, and above this, sedge grass or marsh grass, in a good 
 state of preservation. Above this the soil appears to be the wash¬ 
 ings of the hillsides above, covering the mine to the depth of from 
 eleven to twenty-five or thirty feet. 
 
 THE PIT. 
 
 “We went down into the pit which the miners have been working 
 latety. They have penetrated the salt but ten or twelve feet, and 
 the diameter of the pit is not more than fifteen or twenty feet. In 
 one of the old pits they worked into the salt thirty-eight feet. The 
 salt walls all around look as if made of glass, and we stood upon a 
 foundation of the same solid material. It is not improbable that this 
 ledge of salt extends a mile or more in depth, and long distances on 
 all sides.” 
 
 It is now ascertained that the salt extends over an area of four 
 hundred acres, and has been bored forty-eight feet without passing 
 through it. The salt is the purest that has ever been discovered, 
 having but a fraction more than one per cent, of foreign matter. 
 
 STATE DEBT. 
 
 This State has always been remarkable for the fidelity of its 
 engagements and its excellent credit at home and abroad. Her 
 banking system was the best in the United States, and her currency 
 was national previous to the war. 
 
 The Southern States including Louisiana, have only those debts 
 due before the war and the few contracted since; while all of the 
 Northern and Northwestern States are burdened with enormous war 
 debts, which, in addition to the United States taxation, require the 
 heaviest taxes to be imposed on their inhabitants. Louisiana has a 
 total indebtedness of $6,818,151 principal and interest, calculated to 
 the 1st of January, 1868, and ; flfis is in greenbacks. The total value 
 of her property according to the census of I860 , was $630,944,510. 
 This was the assessed value, which is always below the true value. 
 This valuation is somewhat reduced by the effects of the war, but 
 while the value of country property has largely decreased, the 
 property in towns, and particularly in New Orleans and its environs, 
 has more than doubled in value, so that the present estimate will 
 not fall much short of $500,000,000. The revenues of the State 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 27 
 
 during 1866 were $3,692,731 76, and the expenditures $1,674,755 31. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, how easy it is for Louisiana to pay off her 
 entire indebtedness by ordinary revenues; but she has in addition 
 nearly 5,000,000 acres of land. The emigrant should be careful to 
 avoid heavy taxation, and there is no comparison between the taxa¬ 
 tion in Louisiana and that of .any State in the Northwest; our taxes 
 . are far lighter. 
 
 LOUISIANA AS COMPARED WITH THE NORTHWEST. 
 
 Heretofore there have been serious objections to Louisiana as a 
 home for emigrants, as compared with the Northwest. Chiefest of 
 these was the institution of slavery. In 1860, just previous to the 
 war between the North and South, there were in Louisiana about 
 331,726 slaves, held and owned by 20,670 masters. By far the 
 greater number of these slaves were employed solely in agricultural 
 pursuits, yet a very large proportion of them were taught and em¬ 
 ployed in the mechanic arts. Nearly all the building in the towns 
 and cities, and with rare exceptions all the building upon the planta¬ 
 tions, was done by slave mechanics, for the benefit of their masters. 
 There were slave engineers, blacksmiths, sugarmakers, tanners, shoe¬ 
 makers, brickmasons, plasterers, and distillers. Few white mechan¬ 
 ics could compete with the wealthy owners of these slave mechanics, 
 and the consequence was that but few of the former class came to 
 Louisiana and the other Southern States. Though there were more 
 than twenty thousand slave owners in the State, there were not 
 twelve thousand land owners, as the more numerous class of slave 
 owners were settled in towns, villages and cities, and held one or 
 more slaves simply as domestic servants or mechanics. Out of 
 30,240,000 acres of land in Louisiana, these land owners held 
 19,650,000, or two-thirds of all the lands in the State, in tracts vary¬ 
 ing from ten acres to fifty thousand acres, and there was an enormous 
 aggregation of slaves and lands in the hands of a few persons. The 
 large slave owners always sought out the richest and best lands in the 
 State, and bought immense areas, which they seldom sold. The emi¬ 
 grant was forced into the poorer regions or altogether out of the 
 State. The planters were compelled* to restrict their agriculture to 
 long crops of staple products, such as sugar or cotton, which alone 
 could give continuous, unremitted and profitable employment to 
 their slaves throughout the whole year, and other crops were 
 neglected. With the abolition of slavery, all this has passed away, | 
 and now but few negro mechanics are to be seen, and they cannot 
 compete with the better educated and more thrifty white mechanic. 
 
 A consequence of slavery was the gradual absorption by the large 
 
28 
 
 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 s slave owners of all the best lands, and their refusal to sell was 
 another objection to Louisiana. There is no longer any motive to 
 hold large bodies of idle lands, for without labor they are worse 
 than worthless; the tax upon such possessions is rapidly impoverish¬ 
 ing their owners. The failure of the cotton crop under freed labor is j 
 another powerful motive to sell. The policy of every one now is to 
 hold no more land than he is able to cultivate, hence all the large j 
 bodies of land in the State are in the market, in lots and prices to 
 suit purchasers. The richest and most fruitful lands in the world, 
 and convenient to all the markets of the earth, may now be had at I 
 less than one-tenth of their value in 1860. Highly improved planta¬ 
 tions of two thousand to four thousand acres, lying on the Mississippi, 
 and within a half day’s travel of New Orleans, may be had at less 
 than ten dollars an acre, including buildings and valuable machinery. 
 
 A third objection which has heretofore been urged was the belief 
 that Louisiana was not suited to the cereals and other provision 
 crops. This arose from the fact that the whole labor of the State 
 under the slave system had been turned toward the raising of sugar 
 and cotton. The emigrant farmer, accustomed to raising grain and 
 stock of all kinds, was not attracted to a country which was un¬ 
 known as a grain or provision producing country, but, on the con¬ 
 trary, was known as a country which bought all its supplies abroad, 
 and raised nothing but heavy crops, with which the emigrant was 
 totally unacquainted and which he believed he would be unable to 
 . produce by his own labor. There were those, however, in Louisiana 
 who had been accustomed for years to raise their own supplies, and j 
 who knew that all the small grain crops, as well as many other 
 profitable crops, could be grown with more ease and certainty here 
 ; than in the Western States, and that pork, beef and mutton, of the 
 finest quality, could be produced here at less than one-third of what 
 it cost to produce it in the West. When, therefore, the Mississippi 
 river was fully occupied by the Federal army during the war, and 
 all chance to import supplies was cut off to those living in the interior 
 of Louisiana, the people were compelled to give up the culture of 
 cotton and sugar, and devote themselves to the production of food 
 with which to support their families and keep up their armies. And 
 i then, to the astonishment of nearly every one, it was found that no 
 ; soil on earth could surpass the rich lands of Louisiana in the produc¬ 
 tion of grain and food crops of all kinds. 
 
 ! In the report of Judge J. B. Robertson, on the resources of Louis¬ 
 iana, made to the Legislature in 1861, and fully endorsed by that body 
 for its accuracy, we find the following: 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 29 
 
 “Wheat has been raised in north Louisiana, in the pine hills, by- 
 hundreds of persons, for thirty years or more, and with a good yield 
 for the character of the land and the system of culture, quite aver¬ 
 aging the yield in the Northwestern States. During the war, the 
 scarcity of flour greatly stimulated the cultivation of wheat, and 
 many of the rich cotton lands of the lied river valley were devoted to 
 I wheat, and the planters had just begun to understand and extend its j 
 culture. Though in many cases defective seed was used, yet I have 
 seen sixty bushels raised to the acre.’ 7 * * “Wherever the United 
 States cavalry encamped in Louisiana during the war, wheat, rye, 
 oats and barley sprouted from the seed scattered where they fed their 
 horses, and, when undisturbed, headed finely and ripened well; the ex¬ 
 traordinary size and weight of the wheat and barley heads showing j 
 that the soil was peculiarly adapted to their growth. A gentleman i 
 residing in the swamps of Assumption, assures me that he has raised 
 wheat and rye there for twenty-two years, and that he has never had 
 a failure; both grains frequently made forty bushels to the acre.” 
 
 Other instances are cited in this report, to show that wheat has 
 been raised in Louisiana time and again ever since the earliest set¬ 
 tlement of the country, under all sorts of circumstances, and in every 
 variety of soil, and with a success and certainty which show that 
 we have only to direct our attention to grain-raising, to make Louis¬ 
 iana the greatest grain country in the world, and the Egypt of 
 America. The mouths of the Nile and the’mouths of the Mississippi 
 are on the same parallel of latitude, and Cairo, in Egypt, and New 
 Orleans are on the same line; and, while the valley of the Nile is 
 limited to a narrow strip of fertile land, hemmed in by the sands of 
 the desert, the valley of the Mississippi, in lower Louisiana, is over 
 a hundred miles in width, and is everywhere bordered by rich 
 uplands and fertile prairies. All the plants and fruits of Egypt, in¬ 
 cluding the tall and graceful date-palm of the desert, flourish with 
 equal vigor and maturity in Louisiana. 
 
 Already numbers of substantial farmers from Indiana, Illinois, 
 i Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio are selling out their farms and moving 
 into the richer lands and better climate of Louisiana. Indeed, some 
 entire portions of the State are rapidly passing into the hands of 
 | Northwestern farmers, who design raising stock and grain. Just at 
 this time there is a considerable excitement upon this subject, 
 j New Orleans and the country around are filled with Northern and 
 
 j Western men anxious to buy Louisiana estates. Mr.-, one of 
 
 | the largest and most intelligent farmers in central Illinois, has just 
 j passed through New Orleans on his way home, after a careful exam- 
 
30 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 ination of the Attakapas and Teche country. Said he, “ I have here¬ 
 tofore thought that central Illinois was the finest farming country 
 in the world. I own a large farm there, with improvements equal to 
 any in the country. I cultivated about two thousand acres in small 
 grain this year besides other crops, but since I have seen the Teche 
 and Attakapas country I do not see how any man can live in Illinois. 
 I find that I could raise everything in Louisiana that can be raised 
 in Illinois, and that I can raise a hundred things here which cannot 
 be raised in Illinois. I find the lands easier worked in Louisiana, 
 infinitely richer, and yielding far more; and with the fairest climate 
 on earth and no trouble to get to market. I shall return to Illinois, 
 sell out, and persuade my neighbors to do the same, and return to 
 Louisiana to spend the remainder of my days.” 
 
 This gentleman is well known, and he has given orders to a real 
 estate agency here to buy up large bodies of land for himself and 
 his friends. This is an actual and now every day occurrence. The 
 abolition of slavery, the failure and utter breaking up of the cotton 
 culture, have thrown nearly all of the large plantations into the 
 market at a nominal price; and the shrewd, practical farmers of the 
 Northwest having heard from their soldiers, who invaded Louisiana 
 during the rebellion, of the rich soil, the mild and healthful climate, 
 and the innumerable productions of Louisiana, are coming by 
 scores to this State, having sold out their impoverished lands in the 
 Northwest, and having bought lands of inexhaustible fertility here 
 at a low price. Louisiana can now compare, with every advantage 
 in her favor, with the West and Northwest in the cheapness and 
 fertility of her lands, while the Northwest connot at all compare 
 with Louisiana in climate, in mild and equable seasons, in yield to 
 the acre, in variety and value of products, and its proximity to 
 market and facilities for shipment; for the twenty thousand miles of 
 navigation in Louisiana make it the best watered region on the 
 globe, and independent of her numerous railroads, give her advan¬ 
 tages in cheap transportation at all seasons over any region in 
 Europe or America; and it is, to-day, the most inviting field on 
 earth to the emigrant. Louisiana has a record as old as her history 
 of her tolerance and kindness towards emigrants, and the large 
 proportion of foreigners in her population shows that even with all 
 the disadvantages which have heretofore beset her, and now happily 
 removed, her genial climate, fruitful soil, and generous laws and 
 people were not unappreciated. All that could tempt the emigrant 
 to the West and Northwest can be found to greater advantage here, 
 and already the tide is turning in this direction. 
 
I 
 
 INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 31 
 
 Let any one watch the daily quotations of the New York market 
 and let him note the difference between the prices of Northern and 
 Southern flour, and he will at once perceive the immense superi¬ 
 ority of Southern flour. 
 
 The report of Judge Robertson to the Legislature of 1861, before 
 referred to, says: 
 
 “ The daily quotations show that Southern flour, raised in Mis¬ 
 souri, Tennessee, and Virginia, brings from three to five dollars more 
 per barrel than the best New York Genesee flour; that of Louisiana 
 and Texas is far superior to the former even, owing to the superior 
 dryness, and the fact that it contains more gluten, and does not 
 ferment so easily. Southern flour makes better dough and maccaroni 
 than Northern or Western flour; it is better adapted for transporta¬ 
 tion over the sea, and keeps better in the tropics. It is therefore 
 the flonr that is sought after for Brazil, Central America, Mexico, 
 and the West India markets, which are at our doors. A barrel of 
 strictly Southern flour will make twenty pounds more bread than 
 Illinois flour, because, being so much dryer, it takes more water 
 in making up. In addition to this vast superiority of our grain, we 
 have other advantages over the Western States in grain growing. 
 Our climate advances the crop so rapidly that we can cut out our 
 wheat six weeks before a scythe is put into the fields of Illinois; 
 and being so near the gulf, we avoid the delays in shipping and the 
 long transportation, the cost of which consumes nearly one-half of 
 the product of the West. These advantages, the superior quality of 
 the flour, the earlier harvest, and the cheap and easy shipment, 
 enable us absolutely to forestall the West in the foreign demand, 
 which is now about 40,000,000 of bushels annually, and is rapidly 
 increasing, and also in the Atlantic seaboard trade. Massachusetts, 
 it is calculated, raises not more than one month’s supply of flour for 
 her large population. New York not six months’ supply for her 
 population, and the other Atlantic States in like proportion. This 
 vast deficit is now supplied by the Western States, and the trade 
 has enriched the West, and has built railroads in every direction to 
 carry toward the East the gold-producing grain. We can, if we 
 choose, have a monopoly of this immense trade, and the time may 
 not be far distant when, in the dispensation of Providence, the West, 
 which contributed so largely to the uprooting of our servile system and 
 the destruction of our property, will find that she has forced us into a 
 rivalry against which she cannot compete, and that she will have to draw 
 not only her'supplies of cotton, sugar and rice, but even her breadstujfs 
 from the South” 
 
32 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 Let us see what Northern men say in regard to the Northwest and 
 [ West. In the monthly report to the Commissioner of the Department 
 of Agriculture established by the United States at Washington, for 
 the month of October, 1861, the Commissioner says; u In a tour to 
 the Northwest, undertaken for the purpose of increasing and im¬ 
 proving facilities for the collection of agricultural statistics, and for 
 conference with prdfessional or other intelligent agriculturists 
 relative to department co-operation in aid of the interests and supply 
 of the wants of that great section, the editor of this report was struck 
 particularly with the ruinous tendency of the present system of 
 wheat culture. Is proof of impoverishment needed ? One witness 
 only is wanted—the soil itself. First, thirty bushels per acre is the 
 boast of the farmer; then the yield drops to twenty-five, to twenty, 
 to fifteen, and finally to ten and eight. Minnesota claimed twenty- 
 two bushels average a few years ago (some of her enthusiastic 
 friends made it twenty-seven), but she will scarcely average this 
 year twelve, and will never again make twenty-two under the present 
 system of farming. To be sure, there are excuses The seasons do not 
 suit, as formerly; blight or rust comes, or the fly invades—but all these 
 things are evidences of exhaustion” And in the same report he says: 4 
 “ In the Northwest wheat culture is a parody upon the cotton culture of 
 years past. It is running one product into excess, and ignoring all 
 others. Northwestern cultivators are scarcely farmers, they are wheat- 
 growers. Cattle are high in price, horses are very high, milJc is scarce, 
 and butter sometimes unknown; while straw stacks are burning, and 
 wheat at the mercy of speculators and the railroads, and bringing prices 
 only under the curse of God upon foreign wheat fields, and when foreign 
 nations are in danger of famine; and even then, but a moiety comes from \ 
 this country ” And he might have added, that the cost of transport¬ 
 ation to the Eastern or New York markets was ruinous to the 
 farmer, as it now costs two bushels and a half of wheat to get one 
 to market from the Northwest—that is, the Minnesota, or even the 
 Illinois farmer, when he sends three and a half bushels of wheat to 
 market, gets back only the proceeds of one, the other two and a half 
 bushels having been consumed in transportation. In Louisiana the 
 transportation may be altogether by water, and being, at all events, 
 so close to the Gulf, it costs but little to get it to market, and the 
 farmer will, out of three bushels shipped, realize an average of not 
 less than the proceeds of two and a half bushels, thus having an 
 enormous advantage over the farmer of the Northwest. Should the 
 graingrower of the Northwest raise thirty bushels to the acre, while i 
 the Louisiana farmer raised but ten, yet the difference in the cost of 
 transportation would put as much money into the pocket of the one 
 
f 
 
 INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 33 
 
 as the other. But such is not the case, as the Louisiana lands are 
 richer and yield more to the acre of every species of grain, and the 
 climate brings the crop to maturity two months earlier than in the 
 Northwest. Mr. Henry C. Carey, LL.D., of Philadelphia, the great¬ 
 est political economist of America, whose “ Principles of Social 
 Science 77 and other works have been translated and circulated exten¬ 
 sively in Europe, in a series of able letters addressed lately to the 
 Hon. Henry Wilson, United States Senator from Massachusetts, 
 referring in his tenth letter specially to Louisiana, says: 
 
 “ At the South, nature has provided for removal of all existing 
 difficulties, having placed the farmer in such a position that not only 
 is he nearer to the great markets for his products in their original 
 forms, but that he may convert his wheat and his sweet potatoes 
 into cotton, into pork, oranges or any other of the numerous fruits 
 above referred to, for all of which he finds an outlet in the various 
 markets of the world Seeing these things, and seeing, further, 
 that its whole upland country presents one of the most magnificent 
 climates of the world, can it be doubted that the day is at hand when 
 emigration to the South and Southwest must take the place now occupied 
 by emigration to the West, and when power is to pass from the poor soils 
 of the Northeast to those richer ones which now offer themselves in such 
 vast abundance in the centre, the South, and the Southwest ? As I think, 
 it cannot.” 
 
 And again, in the same letter, after having referred to the capacity 
 of Louisiana not only to produce sugar, cotton and rice, but bread- 
 stuffs for the North and Northwest, he says: 
 
 “ 2d. Is it, however, for breadstuffs alone that the North is 
 likely, with its present exhaustive cultivation, to be compelled 
 to look to the South ? It is not; the sweet potato, which can be 
 grown on ‘every acre in Louisiana, 7 and of which the yield, 
 even at present, ‘ averages two hundred bushels to the acre, 7 
 has, during the war, been fully tested in feeding hogs; and, 
 quantity and quality of the pork considered, been found to be 
 pound for pound, fully equal to Indian corn, of which the average 
 yield of the States north and west of the Ohio is less than a third as 
 much. With careful cultivation it has been known to yield more 
 than six hundred bushels, or six times as much as can, with equal 
 care and close to Eastern markets, be obtained of the great staple 
 of the North, thereby enabling those who are in the future to culti¬ 
 vate those rich Southern lands wholly to supersede the Northwest in 
 the work of supplying animal as well as vegetable food to the people 
 of the tropics and of Europe. 
 
 5 
 
34 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 “Sixty acres to the hand, it is said, may be cultivated in grain. 
 Combining with this the raising of cotton, the effect of diversifica¬ 
 tion of agricultural pursuits is thus exhibited: 
 
 “ Hops may be seen ‘ growing thriftily and bearing abundantly.’ 
 The State is 1 prolific in native dye plants.’ In its forests abounds 
 ‘ nearly every variety- of tree known in the United States.’ For 
 cattle raising it is perhaps the finest country of the world. Turn, 
 therefore, in which direction we may, we find that nature has pro¬ 
 vided for that diversification of demand for human service for which 
 we look in vain amid the fields of Northern States. Seeking for it 
 in these latter, we find ourselves compelled to look below the 
 surface, and there alone; yet there it is that Massachusetts, anxious 
 to protect her pin and pipe makers, insists that it shall not be 
 sought. 
 
 “ The war has already made great changes, yet are they, as it 
 would seem, but preliminary to greater in the future.” 
 
 The Honorable Judge Kelley, representing the city of Philadelphia 
 in the Congress of the United States, and one of the very ablest 
 members of the present Congress, a gentlemen of broad national 
 views and far reaching comprehension, having examined in person 
 the States lately in rebellion, has recently made a tour into the 
 Northwest, and while there was invited to make several speeches. 
 Of these speeches “The Iron Age,” of New York says: 
 
 “Judge Kelley went with a voice of warning to the West, telling 
 the people that henceforth, instead of finding a market in the South 
 for their grain, and beef, and other food, that section will in future 
 not only supply its own wants, but will be a competitor with the 
 West for supplying other markets—a competitor, too, having advan¬ 
 tages over the West which will eventually secure its triumph.” 
 
 In his speech at Springfield, Illinois, September 20, 1861, Judge 
 Kelley said: 
 
 “ The South will not stop raising cotton, but will grow with it all 
 manner of provisions, corn, hay, beef and pork. She will raise 
 more cotton than ever. Every man will put part of his estate in 
 cotton, and part in wheat, rye, barley, corn and sweet potatoes, and 
 they will raise their own pork. Gentlemen of Illinois, allow me to 
 say that they can give you five and beat you at raising pork. Do 
 you believe it? I don’t suppose one of you believes it, but it is 
 nevertheless true that they can grow grain, with the exception of 
 corn, successfully. They raise, for hogs, barley, sweet potatoes, 
 peaches, &c. Does it not seem sacrilegious to raise peaches as food 
 for hogs? yet they are so prolific and grow so luxuriantly that 
 wherever a stone is thrown and covered with soil there a tree will 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. . 35 
 
 spring up that will need no grafting nor care. So that the peach is 
 a good and cheap crop to feed to swine. They can raise six hundred 
 bushels of sweet potatoes to the acre; two hundred bushels is the 
 average crop under artless slave culture, leaving the best lands for 
 cotton. The experiment was tried during the war of dividing two 
 litters of pigs of the same age, pound for pound—one litter to be fed j 
 on Northern corn and the other on sweet potatoes. On arriving at 
 maturity the corn fed hogs had three per cent, advantage on the hoof j 
 over the potato fed; but when they came to be barreled, so much 
 greater was the dripping by the heating effect of the corn that the 
 sweet potato fed had the advantage. Where they mingle barley, 
 of which they can get sixty bushels to the acre, they make better 
 muscle and fat both.” In this he referred directly to Louisiana by j 
 name. 
 
 Again, at Milwaukee, in the State of Wisconsin, on the 24th of 
 September, 1861, after stating that he had just visited seven of the 
 Southern States, he said: 
 
 “ In support of these views I have with me, but I am not going to 
 detain you with extracts from it, an address made at the close of the 
 agricultural, mechanical and industrial fair in New Orleans, by 
 William M. Burwell, of Virginia, in which the Southern people are 
 urged, as they are by Mr. Robertson, to divide their lands, to remem¬ 
 ber that the South has three seasons; that wheat matures in the ! 
 spring; that corn matures at midsummer; and that cotton is a fall 
 crop—and advised them to take advantage of all the seasons. Those 
 gentlemen agree, as do a score of writers whose articles I have here, 
 in urging the people to put not more than one-tenth of their land in 
 cotton, and the remainder in grass and diversified crops of food, j 
 They tell them that the South abounds in seaports; that the grain of 
 | evei'y part of the South can be got to market in bulk in vessels in 
 which a bushel of wheat may be carried twenty-three thousand miles— 
 i from San Francisco to New York—cheaper than it can be carried 
 from Minnesota or Kansas to New York over railroads. They tell 
 j them that theirs is the early season; that they can avenge them- j 
 ! selves upon the West and North, by preoccupying the markets. 
 These are not pleasant tidings to bring to a people prosperous as 
 are those of the West, and so identified with their present pursuits 
 j that they will yield them reluctantly.” 
 
 In commenting on and indorsing this speech, an Iowa paper, the 
 Burlington Hawkeye (a journal which faithfully and ably advocates 
 | the interests of American industry), in a late issue thus speaks on 
 I this matter: 
 
 “ In Judge Kelley's speech at St. Louis, and a more recent one at 
 
-———_—— 
 
 36 
 
 
 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 
 Springfield, Illinois, he directed public attention to the important fact 
 that a great and almost universal change of pursuits is taking place in 
 the South, and that this change will necessitate as vital a change in the 
 Northwest. Formerly, as he tells us, and as we all know, the whole 
 cotton producing region received almost the whole of its food for 
 man and beast from this region. We supplied it with pork, horses, 
 mules, wheat, corn, oats, hay; and in fact all that the South lived 
 on except fresh vegetables, was produced here. The South devoted 
 itself to producing cotton, sugar, rice and tobacco; whatever else it 
 wanted it brought from the Northwest and East, and from Europe. 
 All this is to be changed. While the South will hereafter raise a 
 certain quantity of cotton, etc., it will also grow all the food it needs, 
 and much to spare. It can do this with ease. Its soil is more fertile 
 apd its climate more genial than ours. Wheat, rye, corn, grow there 
 to perfection. The yield is more abundant per acre, and the cost of 
 getting it to an Eastern market or to Europe is less than it is with 
 us. They also anticipate us with their harvest, and can put their 
 surplus into the market sooner than we can. The result of these 
 facts is that the Northwest not only loses its former nearest and most 
 profitable market, but will have a new competitor in those which are* 
 left, and that competitor will have numerous advantages which we 
 have not.” 
 
 And the Philadelphia Press, Mr. Forney’s paper, says: 
 
 “ The social and industrial revolutions consequent on the great 
 war of the rebellion are in no wise inferior to the political one. 
 The South, driven to a knowledge of her true interest and fecund 
 wealth by temporary misfortune, becomes a great corn and wheat 
 growing section. A few years since she was a buyer from the 
 Northwest. Now she not only produces sufficient for her own con¬ 
 sumption, but enters the market as a competitor—and a most formid¬ 
 able one—with her old suppliers. With water transportation against 
 rail, and a crop that ripens two or three weeks before the Western 
 sickles are sharpened, the South for the future commands the grain 
 market of the New World.” 
 
 These extracts are sufficient to show that the leading men and 
 journals in .the North and West begin to appreciate the wonderful 
 advantages of the South over the North and West in grain and pro¬ 
 vision raising. All the chief lands of the Northwest now open to 
 immigrants are more than a thousand miles from the seaboard 
 markets, are nearly all devoid of sufficient timber, and the ground is 
 frozen for five months of the year. So great is the severity of the 
 cold there that the rivers and canals are frozen up nearly the whole 
 winter and navigation stops, and the railroads are not unfrequently 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 31 
 
 compelled to suspend operations on account of the heavy snows and 
 winter storms. The growing season in the Northwest and Western 
 States is only six months, and but a single crop can be raised on 
 the same ground in the year. Cattle and stock of all kinds must be 
 provided with winter food and housed for months at an enormous 
 tax to the farmer, while the extreme cold imposes the necessity of 
 constant fires and the most expensive woolen clothing and heavy 
 fabrics for the inhabitants. In Louisiana the lands are near the 
 great markets of the world, and are well timbered with the finest 
 forests on the continent, for even with four millions of acres of prai¬ 
 rie lands, these prairies are traversed by streams at short intervals, 
 and along their margins there is always an abundance of pine timber. 
 Here the lakes and rivers are never frozen, and steamers and sailing 
 vessels and railroads are never interrupted by cold. Ice is seldoili 
 seen, and frost rarely occurs. The growing season lasts the whole 
 year; one crop is taken off and another is put in. Three valuable 
 and abundant food and forage crops, each different, have been all 
 raised on the same ground, one after the other, in a year, such as r 
 
 millet, then sweet potatoes—the potatoes for food and the vines for-d 
 • toy —and then turnips or carrots, each yielding enormously and 
 giving a rotation which benefits the land. Horses, cattle, sheep, 
 
 . hogs and goats can thrive on the winter grasses if necessary, and 
 only seek shelter from the rains. And as the cold here is only bracing, 
 not chilling, there is seldom need for heavy clothing, and many sit 
 without fires during the whole winter, and without discomfort. 
 Hence farming, gardening, and all outdoor work are carried on with¬ 
 out cessation. And as for health, away from the cities, no State 
 can compare with Louisiana. 
 
 As the West has grown rich by raising pork for market, the people 
 of Louisiana are now directing their attention to it. Judge J. B. 
 Robertson, in his essays on raising swine, says: 
 
 “ In many parts of the North they dare not allow their sows to 
 breed twice in the year for fear of the cold, while with us the sow 
 breeds at any season of the year, and always twice, without the 
 necessity of housing the pigs from the cold. This difference, and the 
 losses from cold and overlying among the pigs in the North, and the 
 well known fact that it takes more food to keep up fat in a cold 
 climate, make at once a difference of nearly two to one in our favor in 
 the increase. The tendency of all warm climates is to fully develop 
 all animals, man included, earlier than in colder climates, and hence 
 hogs arrive at maturity far earlier here than at the North. There is 
 in this respect a wide difference in breeds, some arriving at maturity 
 in half the time that others do; but in all breeds our climate produces 
 
38 • INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 maturity, and consequently the power of procreation earlier than at 
 the North. 
 
 “ I have known young 1 jilts to receive the male at four months old, 
 and bring forth their second litter of pigs within twelve months from 
 their own birth. An astonishing increase is thus produced in a short 
 time. I could cite an instance of a gentleman of veracity, who avers 
 that he once produced three hundred head in one year from a single 
 sow. 
 
 “Hogs are liable to very few diseases in Louisiana, for cold with 
 man or beast is the prolific parent of ills, and the mildness of our 
 climate is very favorable in this respect. 
 
 “ While we can average only fifteen bushels of corn to the acre, we 
 can raise, everywhere in Louisiana an average of two hundred bushels 
 of sweet potatoes. I have measured up six hundred and twenty-one 
 bushels from an acre. With an ordinary plow and team a Louisian¬ 
 ian devoting himself exclusively to the cultivation of the sweet 
 potato, as the Western man devotes himself to the culture of corn, 
 can put in and cultivate more acres of the sweet potato than the 
 Westerner can cultivate of corn, with the same plows and teams. 
 
 “ In breaking up his ground the potato planter can have the same 
 . labor saving machine which the corn planter uses. In ridging up he 
 caju avail himself of a machine now in use that will prepare ten to 
 M i . twelve acres a day. While the corn needs several workings, pota¬ 
 toes need only two. While the corn planter of the West is limited 
 to some six weeks as his planting season, the potato planter may 
 plant from February to August. And machines have been invented 
 and are in successful use, which perform the operation of digging 
 potatoes far more perfectly and rapidly than any machines can 
 gather corn. If, therefore, the potato planter avail himself of the 
 ' labor saving machine made for his purpose, he can cultivate and 
 gather with ease more ground than can possibly be cultivated by any 
 one in corn, by any means now available, and the yield will be nearly 
 ten times as much potatoes as corn per hand. 
 
 “Again, barley averages in the North and West only a little over 
 twenty bushels per acre, while in Louisiana it will average over fifty 
 bushels to the acre. 
 
 “ The level lands of Louisiana are better than the prairies of 
 Illinois for the labor saving machines used in the culture of small 
 grain. With these two crops, and no other advantages, we could 
 defy the competition of the Northwest in hog raising. Barley makes 
 muscle and firmness of bone, and is far superior to corn in giving 
 body and frame to the hog, and is everywhere used for this purpose 
 where it is not too dear. Barley is far better than corn for feeding 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 89 
 
 v 
 
 work stock in summer during’ the cultivating season, as corn makes 
 fat and is heating, while barley makes muscle and is cooling. Bar¬ 
 ley comes early in the season, and may be used in raising the pigs, 
 and in preparing the hogs for fattening. 
 
 “ Experiment has shown that a bushel of sweet potatoes will go 
 quite as far or further in fattening a hog as corn. It is shown that 
 the saccharine matter and starch in the sweet potato produces quite 
 as much fat as the starch and oil of the corn; and while quite as 
 firm, it is far sweeter and more delicious than the fat produced by 
 corn, and does not run like corn fat or lose in weight while curing. 
 In addition to the advantages we have in the sweet potato and bar¬ 
 ley, there are many others which our climate gives us. Our pastures 
 are always green, and while the Northern hog raiser is feeding from 
 his crib his whole stock of hogs for six months, and housing them 
 from the severity of a winter which leaves no sprig of green grass, 
 our clover pastures are white with blossoms and, with a variety of 
 other grasses, furnish abundant sustenance to our hogs and cattle. 
 At the same time, too, our forests are filled with acorns. This item 
 alone, of saving winter feed, immensely lessens the cost of hog 
 
 
 Louisiana can defy comparison with any other country on the 
 
 globe in the substantial and luxurious comforts of her homes. We 
 will describe an actual one, of which there are many counterparts in 
 the State< Near the Gulf, on a small stream or bayou, as they are 
 called from the native Indian tongue, is a well built house with 
 broad porches around it. The grounds are well planted with a great 
 variety of flowers, shrubs and evergreen shade and forest trees, 
 bordered with bananas and groves of tall pecans, yielding delicious 
 nuts; near at hand is a garden plot filled with rare flowers blooming 
 the year round in the open air, and now, in the last of December, 
 filling the air with their perfume. In the rear is an extensive 
 vegetable garden from which may be taken, any summer’s day, full 
 twenty species of vegetables for the table, and in which now, in mid 
 winter, may be seen cabbages, kohlrabbi, cauliflower, brocoli, lettuce, 
 spinach, cresses, mustard, turnips, carrots, beets, parsnips, radishes, 
 onions, leeks, eschalots, parsley, green peas, egg plants, salsify, 
 rhubarb, okra, celery, and others. Close at hand is an orange grove 
 on one side, loaded with golden fruit, on the other side is an orchard 
 of peach, apple and pear, plum, fig and quince trees, with here and 
 there pomegranite and persimmons. A vine trellis is loaded with 
 vines of many varieties; here is the mespilus or Japan plum, some 
 in full bloom, others with the fruit half grown, ready to ripen in 
 
40 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 February Blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, currants, and 
 gooseberries grow in the garden each in its season. Bee hives sur¬ 
 round the yard. A dairy well filled with milk, cream, butter and 
 buttermilk. In front of the house, and connected with the bayou, 
 is a fishpond well stocked with fish and surrounded by ozier willow. 
 Extensive poultry yards contain turkeys, peafowls, Guineahens and 
 chickens of all kinds. A dove cote is swarming with pigeons, each 
 pair of which furnish fat squabs ten times a year for the table; any 
 number of geese and ducks may be seen sporting in the bayou. A 
 large cowhouse is stocked with sleek cows, which keep in full flesh 
 on the ever green grass alone. Sheep, goats, hogs, horses, mules, 
 fat calves and bullocks may be seen everywhere in the pastures. 
 Large deep underground cisterns furnish pure drinking water in 
 abundance. The sea breeze moderates the heat of summer and 
 tempers the cold of winter. Bear, deer, cranes, wild geese, brandt, 
 ducks, quails, woodcock, snipe, doves and squirrels abound, while 
 near at hand the Gulf teems with the finest fish, oysters, crabs and 
 shrimps. Good roads and convenient railroad and water transporta¬ 
 tion furnish quick and certain means of access to market. This is 
 no fancy sketch, and any one may have all these comforts and many 
 more with but little effort in this favored clime. What a difference 
 between this State and the Northwest ! Now, while the icy hand of 
 Winter and his snowy mantle forbid all outdoor labor at the North, 
 here the plow is busy preparing the ground for the coming harvests, 
 and the air is only bracing in its temperature. 
 
 I 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 41 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 -* © -- 
 
 October 11, 1861. 
 
 To Secretary of the Bureau of Immigration: 
 
 Dear Sir —I have about three thousand acres of land, all in one 
 body, about eighteen hundred of which is cleared land; the balance 
 is in timber. This land is situated in a dry, healthy region of the 
 country, sixty miles from New Orleans, with a public road running 
 through its entire length. It has timber enough for all practical 
 purposes, and is also well supplied with the best water in the coun¬ 
 try. It is regarded by all who know it, to be the best upland tract 
 in the country. 
 
 This tract I propose to sell to immigrants (German) in lots from 
 forty (40) to eighty (80) acres, to the amount of the whole tract, if 
 they desire it, each taking a percentage of the timbered land, on the 
 following terms, viz : On a credit of one and two years, without j 
 interest, they paying me one hundred pounds of lint cotton, or four 
 hundred pounds of seed cotton per acre, to be a good merchantable 
 article; and if desired, a further time will be given by their paying 
 ten per cent, interest. This land will produce from five hundred to 
 a thousand pounds of seed cotton to the acre, and from ten to thirty 
 bushels of corn to the acre; it will also produce fine tobacco, fine 
 Irish and sweet potatoes, and vegetables of all varieties. There is 
 also a good township school in operation at a convenient distance. 
 
 In fixing the price of land, the time given, each laborer can pay 
 for forty acres of land and support himself from the proceeds of the 
 crops raised. Information will be furnished them at any time as to the 
 best system of planting , cultivating , and gathering cotton crops , as I 
 have been regularly engaged in cultivating cotton for thirty-five 
 years. 
 
 It would be better for the immigrant to be here before or about the 
 first of January, if possible. 
 
 All kinds of apples, peaches, plums, pears and grapes can be 
 grown well here. 
 
 I want none but good and reliable immigrants, and the reason I 
 say two years which I propose to give them free of interest, I sup- 
 6 
 
42 
 
 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 pose will enable them to fit themselves up, and pay a part or all of 
 the purchase. I fixed the price to be paid in cotton, as our currency 
 is upon an uncertain basis, as the cotton may go up or down in 
 price, and land will go up or down as cotton may be affected by it. 
 If they are industrious, and pay annually, and wish a further time to 
 pay in, they can have five or more years by paying ten per cent, 
 interest. 
 
 Of course, they may want me to supply them with rations and 
 farming implements. These articles, you know, I would have to pay 
 cash for, and hence, would expect them to pay me ten per oent. on 
 the cash so paid out for their use. 
 
 I have just closed a contract with a mechanic to put up the houses 
 for the immigrants to live in. He will commence work next week. 
 
 I would like to get, about the first of January, a man and his wife 
 to attend to the garden and kitchen; also, a woman to do house¬ 
 work. I want them perfectly reliable, and those that can speak the 
 English language. Please keep a look out for one. I mention this 
 matter to you now, hoping you will take some notice of it. * * 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 A****B***. 
 
 Here is an opportunity for the many young German married men, 
 who are doing nothing in the city, and wish to have a home they can 
 call their own in future. They can obtain all desired information by 
 calling at the Bureau of Immigration, No. 112 Customhouse street, 
 between Royal and Bourbon. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 
 J. C. KATHMAN, 
 
 Chief of the Bureau. 
 
 No. 135 Royal Street, New Orleans, ) 
 October 25, 1861 \ 
 
 To the Chief of the Bureau : 
 
 I have twenty acres of land six miles from this city on the Gen- 
 tilly road. I wish to get a man and his wife to work said land on 
 half shares. There are four hundred plum and nine pecan trees 
 on it. Is rich land. A good market garden. The person will have 
 to supply himself with a horse and cart and provisions for a year. 
 Can get possession the 1st of December. 
 
 (Signed) D. DISCOURT. 
 
 New Orleans, October 26, 1861. 
 
 | To the Chief of the Bureau: 
 
 I have one hundred and twenty acres of land on the Jackson Rail¬ 
 road, fifty-eight miles from this city, at Tickfaw Station, Livingston 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 43 
 
 parish ; forty acres fenced in, twelve of which are under cultivation. I 
 The place has a house on it and good outhouses. I am willing to sell 
 for one thousand two hundred dollars cash, or for the whole hundred | 
 and twenty acres one thousand eight hundred dollars cash. Fruit, 
 corn, sweet potatoes, tobacco, etc., can be raised well here. Has 
 one hundred and fifty to one hundred and sixty healthy bearing 
 peach trees on it. Very good stock growing country. 
 
 (Signed) J. WELLMAN. 
 
 Amite City, October 28, 1861. 
 
 To the Chief of the Bureau : 
 
 I have one thousand acres of woodland, free from overflow, within 
 twenty miles of the Jackson Railroad and seventy miles from New 
 Orleans. I propose to divide said tract into forty acre lots and give 
 to a company of immigrants every alternate block, on condition that 
 each settler clears and puts in cultivation twenty acres and builds 
 a cabin within two years. Or I will sell said tract for two thousand 
 five hundred dollars cash; or, if they want, time at ten per cent, 
 interest for one to three years. There are others adjoining me who 
 would divide and give one-half to actual settlers. No portion of the 
 country or the State can boast of as good health and water. It is 
 in the parish of St. Helena. 
 
 (Signed) B. M. MOORE. 
 
 New Orleans, November 3, 1861. 
 
 To the Chief of the Bureau ; 
 
 I have five hundred and twelve acres of land, four hundred and 
 eighty of which are good prairie, twelve miles from Opelousas. 
 | There are two houses, suitable for settlers, and also outhouses, and 
 I thirty-two acres two miles from this tract which are woodland. The 
 I land is sixteen or seventeen miles west of Washington, St. Landry 
 | parish. Steamer runs to Washington twice a week. Good cattle 
 raising country. Principal crops: Cotton, rice, potatoes, and the 
 best tobacco; also, a very good vegetable growing country. One 
 hundred and thirty acres of this land are fenced in. I am willing to 
 sell said land at ten dollars per acre, in one body, with all the im¬ 
 provements included. 
 
 (Signed) D. A. HARRISS. 
 
 Amite City, November 9, 1861. 
 
 ' To the Chief of the Bureau ; 
 
 I have a tract of five hundred and forty acres eighty-one miles 
 ! from this city on the Jackson Railroad which I will sell for four 
 j thousand dollars, one thousand five hundred dollars cash, the rest in 
 
 I ; ' 
 
44 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 three and four years at eight per cent, interest. The tract is well i 
 watered and heavily timbered; a large portion rich bottom land, and i 
 ajl ready for cultivation. 
 
 (Signed) B. M. MOORE. 
 
 Abbeville Postoffice, November 8, 1861. 
 
 To the Chief of the Bureau : 
 
 I have two hundred acres of land, well fenced in. Good well of 
 water. Crops are cotton, corn, rice, etc. I wish to get two large 
 families, not to exceed eight and not less than four working hands, to 
 work on shares. 
 
 (Signed) E. EWING. 
 
 Baton Rouge, November 14, 1861. 
 
 To the Chief of the Bureau : 
 
 I have ten forty-acre lots which I wish to sell to ten German fami¬ 
 lies; Catholics preferred. The location is healthy—free from yellow 
 fever or cholera. Good clear running water passes through the entire 
 place. The land is high and rolling. There are no dwellings on the 
 land, consequently the immigrants would require to have some money 
 to build themselves houses. Crops are cotton, corn, rice, potatoes, 
 etc. Very good cattle range. I will sell to them on six years’ 
 credit. One horse or mule, one cow and calf, six head of hogs, and 
 farming implements all on the same terms. 
 
 (Signed) HENRY GRAHM. 
 
 Jackson, November 8, 1861. 
 
 To the Chief of the Bureau : 
 
 I have two tracts of land, one nine hundred and thirty acres, and 
 the other eight hundred and thirty acres, about one mile apart, 
 situated on the upper Bayou Sara and Jackson road; the former is 
 ten miles from Bayou Sara, and four miles from Jackson, the latter 
 running to within one and a quarter miles of Jackson. About one 
 thousand acres are cleared, inclosed, and in cultivation, and about I 
 six hundred acres uninclosed. These lands I propose to sell to im¬ 
 migrants in any sized lots they wish, from ten acres to the amount of j 
 the whole tract, with the exception of the improvements and two j 
 hundred acres, on the following terms. The land inclosed and under j 
 cultivation I will sell on a credit of one, two and three years, with¬ 
 out interest, for one hundred pounds of lint cotton per acre, the 
 cotton to be a good merchantable article, and the payments to be 
 made at the end of the second and third years, and none on the first. 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 45 
 
 The inclosed land I will sell on a credit of one, two, three and four 
 years, without interest, on the same terms as above, requiring no 
 payments for first and second years. 
 
 (Signed) W. 0. CONNELL. 
 
 Big Cane, November 16, 1861. 
 
 To the Chief of the Bureau : 
 
 I have five hundred acres of land (wood four hundred) I wish to 
 lease for three years. The only rent, to put into cultivation whatever 
 amount of land the immigrant may wish. There are no houses on 
 the land. Plenty of good water. Crops are cotton, tobacco, etc. 
 About one hundred and twenty acres of this land is open, there being 
 on an average one or two trees to the acre. This part I wish to sell 
 at twelve dollars per acre cash, and will sell my dwelling with it, if 
 the purchaser will take the whole tract. 
 
 (Signed) LINN TANNER. 
 
 Coutrell P. 0., November 21, 1861. 
 
 To the Chief of the Bureau. 
 
 I have five hundred acres of land; four cabins. I wish to raise 
 corn, potatoes, rice, etc. I want from five to ten men to work on 
 shares, say one-half the proceeds. Will furnish everything necessary. 
 Will furnish them money to buy rations, said money to be paid back 
 out of the crop. 
 
 (Signed) PHILIP LANDRY. 
 
 Abbeville, November 29, 1861. 
 
 To the Chief of the Bureau : 
 
 This country is nearly all prairie land, cut up with skirts of wood 
 on the bayous and canals. It produces everything that I have 
 ever planted. It is one of the finest gardening countries. The 
 orange, banana, fig, citron, etc., grow well here when there is any 
 care taken of them; peaches, apples, cherries, etc., can also be 
 raised, and have a fine flavor. I am now introducing wheat, rye 
 and oats. 
 
 This parish is better adapted to persons with small means than 
 any other in the State. There are large portions of naked prairie 
 lands which can be bought for two dollars and fifty cents to five 
 dollars per acre, according to the locality; wood for fuel. Wood can 
 be bought from ten dollars to twelve dollars per cord, or can be 
 bought standing for seventy-five cents to one dollar per cord. 
 (Signed) E. EWING. 
 
46 
 
 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 Bastrop, December 3, 186*1. 
 
 To the Chief of the Bureau : 
 
 I have tracts of land, which are in irregular bodies, on a small 
 stream in Carroll parish, Louisiana, about twenty miles from the 
 Mississippi river and sixteen miles from the Vicksburg and Monroe 
 railroad. There is steamboat navigation on Boeuf river to within 
 eight miles of my lands. I will sell these lands on the following 
 terms, in forty acre lots, or more if they choose. Whole body at 
 one dollar and twenty-five cents cash per acre; lots of forty acres, 
 or more, of the wild timbered land at one dollar and fifty cents. 
 The deadening land, with some timber, in lots or altogether, at two 
 dollars and fifty cents per acre; all on two years credit without in¬ 
 terest; after that time, eight per cent, interest. 
 
 (Signed) J. B. MATHEWS. 
 
 New Orleans, December 28, 186*7. 
 
 To the Chief of the Bureau : 
 
 I wish to get families to settle on my plantation near Pearl river, 
 in St. Tammany parish, on the following terms: Will give each on a 
 contract for two months at the rate of one hundred and fifty dollars 
 per year, house rent, rations, fuel, physician’s attendance; each 
 family taking five acres to work for themselves; they to work for 
 me five and a half days in the week. If they are willing to stay, I 
 will contract for two years on the same terms. Climate healthy. If 
 they are satisfied after the two years I will lease or sell the same 
 lands. 
 
 (Signed) S. TYLER REED. 
 
 St. Francisville, January 3, 1868. 
 
 To the Chief of the Bureau : 
 
 I have one thousand eight hundred acres of land for sale to immi¬ 
 grants. I am willing to sell to them at ten dollars an acre for 
 one thousand two hundred acres, and five dollars an acre for six hun¬ 
 dred acres. On the one thousand two hundred acres three thousand 
 dollars cash, the balance in ten years; on the six hundred acres, 
 five hundred cash, if possible, but not so particular. I have houses 
 on my place which they can live in until they build houses for them¬ 
 selves. I am willing to sell to immigrants in any sized lots they may 
 desire on the same terms. Of the one thousand two hundred 
 acres, four hundred are cleared and eight hundred are woodland. 
 Of the six hundred acres there are five hundred cleared and one 
 hundred woodland. Crops: Sweet and Irish potatoes, corn, cot¬ 
 ton, and sugar; can raise five hundred pounds of lint cotton to 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 4t 
 
 the acre. Climate is healthy. Numerous springs of good water 
 are on these lands. The place is within seven miles of Bayou Sara, 
 five miles from Port Hudson, four miles from Rey’s Landing. 
 (Signed) JESSE DAVIS. 
 
 Independence, January 6, 1868. 
 
 To the Chief of the Bureau : 
 
 I have one hundred and fifty-eight acres of land on the Tangipa- 
 ho.a, right bank, twelve miles from the mouth of the river, all of 
 which is Cifne land; sawmill on the place; five miles from the Jack- 
 son Railroad. Crops: Cotton, corn, sugar, rye, and oats; potatoes 
 and gouberpeas raised well here. No pine on the land, except one 
 hundred trees on the back parts. This is entirely a body of wood¬ 
 land. Large schooners go above and to this place. A good coun¬ 
 try road to Jackson Railroad. I am willing to sell this land at 
 three dollars and fifty cents per acre. I also have on the opposite 
 bank from the Jackson Railroad cleared land in a state of cultiva¬ 
 tion. I am willing to take from two dollars and fifty cents to five 
 dollars per acre for this, cash. Title is good to all these lands. 
 Right will be given immediately. 
 
 (Signed) W. A. CHAMBERS. 
 
 Shreveport, January 18, 1868. 
 
 To the Chief of the Bureau : 
 
 I have five hundred acres of land in DeSoto parish which I have 
 determined to donate to actual immigrants and settlers in fifty acre 
 lots. Part of it is woodland and part is cleared. I will furnish 
 cabins and houses to these persons, which they can move to the 
 lands donated to them. 
 
 (Signed) S. D. 
 
 Livingston Parish, La., June 15, 1861. 
 
 In answer to your interrogatories: 
 
 This region, on account of the health, water, and other advan¬ 
 tages, is peculiarly adapted for the residence and well doing of a 
 prosperous and useful population It contains hammock land suf¬ 
 ficient for the support of a manufacturing population, and is per¬ 
 haps as good a country for cattle, gardens, and small farms as can 
 be found. It is not too poor for cultivation nor so rich as to create 
 the sickness which is always incident to rich ground in the South; 
 and such as to make it impossible to maintain a dense manufactuing 
 population, with their health unimpaired. 
 
48 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 The water is of the best and purest description; pure, clear, and 
 totally free from mineral taints—good for drying, bleaching, paper 
 making, or in fact for any purpose where pure water is needed. 
 Wages depend upon the New Orleans prices on account of the 
 superior facilities of procuring houses and the necessities of life; 
 they can be had at from thirty to forty per cent, under New Orleans 
 prices. 
 
 There is no acclimating fever known here, and men can work 
 summer and winter. With regard to good schools, churches, etc., 
 these follow knowledge and civilization, but do not precede them, 
 which is the case here. 
 
 I conclude with the remark that the best spars, masts, ship, and 
 square timber and turpentine, tar, hard wood timber are abundant, 
 and fruits and gardens of the best sort are in abundance. 
 
 HENRY LEACH, 
 
 P. 0., Ponchatoula. 
 
 Amite, June It, 186U 
 
 5ft* * * * * * * * 
 
 The cultivation of tffice, corn, cotton, tobacco, fruits, sweet pota¬ 
 toes, and garden vegetables, all of which generally succeed well 
 and yield good profits. In the mechanical and manufacturing de¬ 
 partment may be mentioned, as almost certain to do well, cotton 
 factories, paper mills, sawmills, brickyards, wagon and carriage fac¬ 
 tories, tanneries, shoe factories, etc. Some of each of these have 
 been or are being established. ***** 
 
 Lands can be bought at from three to fifty dollars per acre. They 
 are of all qualities, from light sandy loam to heavy bottom land, not 
 many of them highly improved. Lands very near the railroad which 
 have not been cleared (and they are plentiful) often produce many j 
 times their cost by the sale of the timber upon them. 
 
 Abundance of labor can be procured where the laborer is sure of 
 his pay. Unskilled labor receives from fifteen to twenty dollars -per ! 
 month and board; mechanics from two dollars and fifty cents to five | 
 dollars per day, without board. Board is worth from fifteen to j 
 twenty dollars per month. 
 
 The soil is various; some inferior, some as good as any in the 
 State, except for sugar. The grass in most parts is particularly fine, 
 and immense numbers of cattle and sheep might be raised at very 
 very little trouble or expense. For sheep Texas is not superior; in 
 the opinion of the writer not so good. 
 
 The water is pure freestone, abundant and of the best quality. 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 49 
 
 Growth—Red oak, white oak, water oak, pin oak, willow oak, post 
 oak, black jack, pine, black gum, sweet gumj magnolia, beech, hick¬ 
 ory, prickly ash, sumac, persimmon, crabapple, holly, dogwood, sas¬ 
 safras, hawthorn, wild plum, laurel of many kinds, etc., to which 
 may be added an infinite variety of shrubs and flowering plants. 
 
 The country is wonderfully healthy, and the mortuary records 
 would, doubtless, show as small a proportion of deaths to the popu¬ 
 lation as any other section of country North or South. White men ! 
 can work out in summer with safety. Strangers are not liable to ! 
 any acclimating fever; such a thing is unknown. 
 
 There are some schools and churches, also manufactories; they | 
 appear to be doing well. There is' no prejudice against any person 
 on account of birth, race, or color, as I believe any well behaved 
 individual can live here in comfort and security. 
 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 JOHN M. BACH. I 
 
 Amite City, La., June 14, 1861. 
 
 * ******** 
 
 Many, in fact almost all kinds of agricultural products do well if 
 properly attended to—more especially cotton, rice, tobacco aud sugar; 
 in the way of horticulture, grapes of various kinds, peaches and 
 strawberries grow exceedingly well. 
 
 Manufactories—cotton and woolen, sash and blind, wooden and 
 hollow ware, saw mills—will pay a handsome profit to the capitalist. 
 Sheep, hogs, cattle, poultry, of every description, do well. The price 
 of land varies much, owing to location and improvements. Im¬ 
 mediately on the line of the road, from five to fifteen dollars per 
 acre for unimproved lands—improved higher. I think a reasonable 
 quantity of labor could be procured at say fifteen dollars per month 
 by the year, and found, say board. Mechanics from two fifty to five 
 dollars per day, and they find themselves. The cost of living, from | 
 twenty to twenty-five dollars per month. 
 
 The general character of the soil is light sandy clay, except on the j 
 water courses, where it is black and rich. Water in this immediate 
 locality is as fine as in any country. The growth oak, hickory and 
 pine; on the low lands, gum, magnolia, birch, poplar, etc. 
 
 The health of the country is as good in this locality as in any 
 country I have ever lived in, and I have been in almost every State 
 in the Union. 
 
 A stranger is not liable to special acclimating fevers. White per¬ 
 sons can retain health, and work every day in the year, if they will 
 T 
 
50 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 take reasonable care of themselves. We have two churches—one 
 Catholic, the other Protestant. Three denominations worship in the 
 Protestant church—Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists. 
 
 At present we have no good school here. There is a good open¬ 
 ing for a large school at this place; if properly kept, would be well 
 patronized by the city of New Orleans. There is a car factory 
 seven miles south of this place turning out an immense sight of 
 work for the road at a remunerative price. As to prejudice against 
 Northern or Western men or foreigners that would interfere with 
 their comfort or prosperity, there would be none; on the contrary, it 
 is the wish of all good citizens that enterprising persons with capi¬ 
 tal should come and settle in our midst. I have heard many persons 
 speak of it often. Enterprise and capital is what we want to make 
 this the garden spot of Louisiana, or, in fact, of any portion of the 
 United States—being only sixty-eight miles from the city, going 
 north, having good water and healthy climate. 
 
 I will take great pleasure in corresponding and giving any inform¬ 
 ation in my power in regard to the purchases of land on the line 
 of the road, more especially in this vicinity, as I have resided at 
 this place (Amite City) for ten years, part of that time being en¬ 
 gaged in the locating of public lands on the line of the road, and 
 am at this time agent for the sale of a large quantity of improved 
 and unimproved lands, of which I will at any time give, if requested, 
 the prices and locality. When your book is open in the city, please 
 inform me of the fact and I will send you a list of persons having 
 lands for sale in this neighborhood. 
 
 Yours very respectfully, 
 
 JOHN F. WENTZ, 
 Notary Public and Land Agent. 
 
 Amite City, La., June 10, 186L 
 
 ********* 
 The agricultural interest may be made profitable from the fact that 
 we are in the lap of New Orleans; and all vegetables, fruits, and 
 | grapes grow well in our soil; cotton, corn, and potatoes yield finely, 
 
 I and a considerable portion of our lands will yield abundant crops of 
 rice. As to the mechanical branches, I would say that no place pos¬ 
 sesses more advantages than this does, and particularly to an enter¬ 
 prising man that is a good cabinet workman. The great abundance 
 of magnolia, gum, and beech timber in sight of this place would fur¬ 
 nish timber for a number of years. As to manufacturing, I regard 
 

 
 INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 51 
 
 
 
 this as one of the best localities for manufacturing cotton and 
 woolen goods that can be found in the Southern States. 
 
 The manufactory of turpentine and rosin can be made to yield at 
 least fifty per cent. As to the price of lands, they vary from five to 
 twenty dollars per acre. As to the quality of the lands, the greater 
 proportion is pine lands, interspersed with creek bottoms of the 
 richest kind of soil. As to the wages of unskilled men, would say 
 about twenty dollars per month, with rations. The cost of living is 
 a great deal owing to the price of provisions in New Orleans, but 
 can be greatly reduced by the cultivation of gardens, etc. You 
 next ask what is the character of the country for health ? In answer¬ 
 ing this question, permit me to tell you that I am from the healthiest 
 portion of Tennessee (near Columbia), and I can safely say that this 
 is the healthiest portion gf the Southern States that I have ever seen. 
 Over twelve months since I purchased a bell for our church, and 
 that bell has never yet been tolled on account of a death in this city. 
 As to the acclimating fever of strangers, I will answer that my son 
 has practiced medicine in this place for eight years, and says he has 
 never lost a patient with that fever, and has never had a case that 
 did not yield to treatment in forty-eight hours. You next ask if 
 white men retain their health and work out during summer ? I 
 answer they can, if they will be prudent and stay in their houses 
 at night. 
 
 We have both male and female schools. We also have Presby¬ 
 terian, Methodist, Baptist and Catholic churches in this place. We 
 have several saw mills in operation, and a sash and blind factory 
 will soon be in operation. Having been a Southerner all my life, 
 and having been associated with none but Southern men, I can safely 
 say that at the same time that a true Southerner would yield up the 
 last drop of his blood on the battle field, in defense of the rights, or 
 what he would conceive to be the rights of his section of the country, 
 yet he would nor could not harbor, for one moment, so mean a thing 
 as prejudice against his fellow man, who had laid down the imple¬ 
 ments of war and taken up the plow or hammer. As an evidence of 
 my sincerity, I make the following proposition: 
 
 I, as agent for a company, have in one body seven thousand acres 
 of the richest cane bottom land, free from overflow, lying within 
 twenty miles of this place; and I propose that if a company of 
 laboring men will associate themselves, so as to occupy one-half of 
 the whole tract, allowing each man forty acres, I will divide it into 
 blocks of that size, and give them every alternate block; and when 
 each of them has cleared and put under cultivation twenty acres, 
 
 

 52 
 
 
 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 
 and built a good log or other cabin, I will then give him a title to 
 said land, or I will sell the whole tract for five dollars per acre. 
 
 Your friend, etc., 
 
 B. M. MOORE. 
 
 Tangipahoa, June 20, 1861. 
 
 ********* 
 
 The country from here (Tangipahoa) to the State line, is well 
 adapted to manufactories, being high, well watered; the two creeks, 
 Beaver and Turners, are sufficient in force to carry on a manu¬ 
 factory of ordinary size. These creeks are supplied by springs of 
 pure freestone water; the country through which they flow being as 
 healthy as any in the United States, and being well supplied with 
 the best of timber for making steam, and plenty of white labor, if it 
 was properly developed. It seems to me that nature has intended 
 this portion of the State for the purpose of manufacturing; it seems 
 to possess more natural advantages than any we have ever seen— 
 New England not excepted. Land can be purchased near here from 
 three to ten dollars, owing to the location entirely; most of the land 
 is of the lowest quality, mostly unimproved. We think labor could 
 be obtained for manufacturing easier than for other purposes; I mean 
 of wool or cotton; from our experience it would seem that it was 
 much easier to gain a living by working in a wool or cotton factory 
 than on a farm; young females would prefer this employment to 
 that by which most of them gain a living. This parish and Wash¬ 
 ington could and would, no doubt, furnish a great many operatives 
 in factories of this kind, were they once introduced. Labor could be 
 obtained of this kind quite low, say from eight to ten dollars per 
 month. Mechanics are scarce and charge high. 
 
 There are no mechanics now here; no manufactories, except steam 
 saw mills. It costs but little to live here after having fixed for it, 
 getting a garden and a pair of cows, etc. The soil is light and 
 thin—easy to cultivate; water good, unsurpassed; the growth is, on 
 the hills pitch pine; on the water courses oak, beech, hickory, gum, 
 maple, etc. The health of this country is equal to any on the conti- I 
 nent; the people raised and living here will show it to be so by their j 
 age, size, etc.; no malaria or malignant fever, or acclimating fever, | 
 as in other parts of the State; white men work out on their farms I 
 during the summer, and have done so from the first settling of this 
 country. We remember well when there were no slaves in this part of j 
 the State worth mentioning. I know of quite a number of men over j 
 seventy years old who have been here all their lives, and labored. 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 58 
 
 Schools are scarce here for the present, though a good feeling exists 
 among the people in regard to education, more than ever was before. 
 Some Christians of all kinds, sufficient that any person may attend 
 church on any Sabbath he wishes. 
 
 No prejudices exist here against the laboring class of the North or 
 West, or foreigners, that would mar their peace, or interfere with their 
 business in the country; all are anxious to have the country settled 
 up, and its resources developed, and all join heartily in uniting and 
 welcoming strangers here from any quarter. * * * * 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 * > E. ADDISON. 
 
 Tangipahoa P. 0., Union Landing, June 15, 1861. 
 ********* 
 
 I reside at Union Landing, eighty-three miles from New Orleans, 
 on the Jackson Railroad. The face of the country is undulating, and 
 well washed by creeks of sufficient capacity to afford motive power 
 for manufacturing purposes. On the borders of these creeks the 
 land is good for agriculture, but generally not in sufficient quantities 
 in one body to make it desirable for large farming operations, but 
 peculiarly suitable for small farmers. Between the creeks the land 
 is rolling and covered with the long leaf pine timber, suitable for 
 lumber, or for turpentine manufactories. The soil on the pine lands 
 is thin; the subsoil, a stiff yellow clay, which retains all the manure 
 or fertilizers used to enrich the land, so that gardens can be enriched 
 to produce equal to the best alluvial lands. 
 
 Near the railroad, the lands, including pine and creek lands, can 
 be purchased at ten dollars per acre; one or two miles from the rail¬ 
 road, at from three to five dollars per acre; and at a greater distance, 
 at two dollars per acre. These prices will apply to improved as 
 well as unimproved lands. 
 
 There are no mechanical or manufacturing establishments in this 
 immediate vicinity, except saw mills and turpentine distilleries. 
 These have apparently been doing well until quite recently; but, 
 owing to the high price and scarcity of labor, and to the fact that 
 both lumber and turpentine have receded in price, they are not, at 
 present, as prosperous .as they have been. 
 
 Labor is very scarce and unreliable; unskilled white labor will 
 command from twenty to twenty-five dollars per month, and board; 
 a good engineer and sawyer commands from nine to twelve hundred 
 dollars per year; mechanics from two and a-half to four dollars per 
 day, and board. 
 
54 INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRANTS 
 
 The cost of living is moderate, the soil being well adapted to gar¬ 
 dens, and the railroad affording means of transportation from the 
 city, a man who has sufficient industry to make a garden can sup¬ 
 port his family at a moderate cost. 
 
 This section has many fine springs; wherever they are not conve¬ 
 nient, pure, cool well water can be procured by digging from twenty 
 to seventy feet, according to the elevation of the locality. 
 
 I think this locality is eminently healthy, and strangers are not 
 subject to any special acclimating fever. 
 
 I have ten children, all in fine health; my family is usually sixteen 
 to twenty persons, and I have had but one professional visit by a 
 physician for the last four years. White men can and do work out 
 during the summer, and enjoy uninterrupted good health. We have 
 Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, and Episcopal churches four miles dis¬ 
 tant. There are no schools in this immediate vicinity; we are com¬ 
 pelled to depend at present on private instruction. I can answer 
 that there is no prejudice existing against Northern or Western 
 men, or foreigners, that would interfere with their comfort and pros¬ 
 perity. 
 
 Having answered the questions contained in your circular to the 
 best of my ability, 
 
 I remain, very respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 AMOS KENT. 
 
 New Orleans, February 3, 1868. 
 
 To the Chief of the Bureau: 
 
 The water power on the Colorado is all important for the immi¬ 
 grant to be informed of. The river, with ample water throughout 
 the year, and from two hundred and fifty to three hundred yards 
 wide, is precipitated over ten successive dams of marble. The first 
 is as blue as the Egyptian marble, the next three or four dams are | 
 of a variegated color, the tenth, which is nine and one-half feet fall, is 
 white enough for statues. The total fall in one mile is over fifty feet, j 
 The whole river can be taken out of the dam, and at thirty yards to ! 
 the second dam gives a fall of twelve to thirteen feet, and this free 
 from inundation at high water. 
 
 It is a famous place for fish. The site for .the town is very beau¬ 
 tiful. Fifty acres of land are laid off into squares and lots, the lat- ! 
 ter of half an acre, with streets eighty feet wide, and a public 
 square. Some years ago half the lots were sold at auction. The 
 water power will propel as many spindles as are used in any manu- j 
 factory in the Northern States. 
 
INTO THE STATE OF LOUISIANA. 55 
 
 The climate is delightful, being the commencement of the moun¬ 
 tain region, giving uncommon health. The natural range is adapted 
 to sheep, cattle, and horses. The counties south and west of the 
 position yield abundantly in cotton; and the people require cotton 
 clothing without sending the raw material North to be brought back 
 in the shape of manufactures. If the factories make a surplus be¬ 
 yond home consumption, there is a good wagon road of two hun¬ 
 dred miles to Mexico, where the articles are indispensable. Some 
 twenty miles higher up the Colorado there are extensive foundries of 
 iron in course of construction; and a few miles above the falls there 
 are salt springs found for twenty miles up the valley. 
 
 The river below the falls is a succession of rapids for some one 
 hundred miles, but once a steamboat came up to them, and railroads 
 are in contemplation. 
 
 The country offers great inducements to immigrants who are me¬ 
 chanics. 
 
 The whole country is adapted to the growth of the grape. Two 
 are indigenous, the mustang—a large sour grape—and a small grape, 
 found on the low post oak trees, that is uncommonly sweet. The 
 grape at El Paso makes the most delicious wine in the world. The 
 wheat is superior to any other known. The flour is brought to the 
 New Orleans market a month sooner than the flour of the Ohio val¬ 
 ley. The wheat is small and weighs from sixty to sixty-five pounds 
 to the bushel. This flour, made and taken to the tropical regions of 
 America, continues sweet longer than Northern flour and does not so 
 much need kiln-drying. The lands yield on an average from thirty 
 to forty bushels to the acre. 
 
 I propose to capitalize the water-power at the falls under the law 
 of limited partnership. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 (Signed) 0. S. TODD.