LOUISIANA

The cane crop of Louisiana comes from the southern part of the state, principally along the banks of the Mississippi, the Bayou Teche and the Bayou Lafourche. As this region is outside the tropics, being between 29 degrees and 31 degrees north latitude, frosts must be looked for in winter. The sugar industry of Louisiana, therefore, as well as that of Texas, Florida and Georgia, has to cope with climatic conditions that are unknown in most other cane-producing countries.

All of the sugar plantations are situated in the low plains, the highest elevation above sea-level not exceeding 83 feet. The annual rainfall varies from 67 to 95 inches, and 80 inches may be taken as a fair average, which amply suffices for the needs of the growing cane. In December, January and February there is always the danger of frost and planters must be constantly alert to guard against this as far as possible. During the autumnal equinox much damage to the cane is caused by hurricanes that rush in from the Gulf of Mexico.

Sugar cane was brought to Louisiana in 1751. According to Gayarré, two ships that were transporting troops from France to Louisiana touched at a port in Hispaniola during the voyage and the Jesuits of the island obtained permission to put some sugar cane on board these vessels to be taken to Louisiana and there delivered to their Jesuit brethren.

The same means were employed to send a number of negroes to cultivate the cane, which was planted according to direction on a piece of ground belonging to the order situated just above the present course of Canal street, New Orleans. The cane grew to maturity and was sold in the market as a luxury.

In 1759 a rich colonist, Dubreuil by name, built a mill and attempted to make sugar, but his efforts were unsuccessful and the idea was abandoned.Tafia, a kind of rum, was made from sugar cane shortly afterward.

In 1791 Don António Mendez, an officer of the Spanish crown who lived in St. Bernard parish, bought from a Spanish refugee from Santo Domingo named Solis his land, crop of cane and distilling outfit and attacked the problem with a firm determination to conquer it. He called in a Cuban sugar maker named Morin to assist him, but whether it was that he lacked the means to erect a proper factory, or whether he became discouraged, the fact remains that he only succeeded in turning out a few small barrels of sugar. There is evidence that he did something in the way of refining as well, but not in an appreciable quantity.

The first crop of sugar sufficiently large and profitable to serve as an incentive to others was raised by Etienne de Boré about 1794. Of this achievement Gayarré says: “When the whole agricultural interest of Louisiana was thus prostrated and looking around for the discovery of some means to escape from annihilation, and the eager and anxious inquiry of every planter was ‘What shall I do to pay my debts and support my family?’, the energy of one of the most spirited and respected citizens of Louisiana suddenly saved her from utter ruin and raised her to that state of prosperity which has increased with each successive year.”[42]

In 1794 de Boré purchased seed cane from Mendez and Solis and after planting it he went ahead with his preparations for harvesting, crushing and manufacturing. The following year the sugar he produced sold for $12,000, a considerable sum of money in those days. The boiling of the sugar juice to grain was done under the direction of Antoine Morin, the former associateof Mendez. The method was naturally very primitive, the mill being driven by animal power, and much sugar was lost in the bagasse.

Following the example of de Boré, many planters set out cane and built sugar mills. Their operations were highly successful and they all became wealthy within a comparatively short period.

The industry continued to flourish and prosper, and the year 1820 marked a decided step forward. Up to that time the only two kinds of cane that had been grown in Louisiana were the Creole (from Malabar or Bengal) and the Tahiti. The cane originally planted by de Boré and from which he made his first sugar was the Creole; the Tahiti variety was not introduced from Santo Domingo until 1797. It became patent to the planters that neither of these canes was suited to the Louisianan climate, and they set about looking for a hardier plant. Toward the middle of the eighteenth century the purple and striped varieties were brought by the Dutch from Java to the island of St. Eustatius, and from there a quantity of these canes was taken to Savannah, Georgia, about 1814. They throve extremely well and a former resident of Savannah who had moved to Louisiana and become a planter there, having heard about them, secured some for seed purposes. His experiment proved wonderfully successful and from this single estate the cultivation of the new canes spread over the entire sugar-producing region. As these varieties could stand greater cold than the Creole and the Tahiti, the planters were able to extend their growing area northward and in this way greatly increase their acreage. As recently as 1897 these canes still constituted the crops of Louisiana with a few exceptions.

Of late years, however, seedling canes obtained from Demerara have come into great favor in consequence of the researches of the botanists at the experiment station. In additionto an advantage both in cane and sugar over the varieties previously used, the time of vegetation is shorter, so that the canes mature earlier, and this, on account of the short season in which Louisianan cane has to ripen, makes the Demeraran decidedly desirable. It has also been proved that Demeraran cane is better able to resist damage by storms, so that taking it all in all it would appear that the newer varieties are quite likely to displace the older kinds.

Cane is usually planted in the same ground every three years. The crop of plant cane is followed by a crop of ratoons and then maize is put in. As soon as the maize is cut the field is sown with a species of large pea (Vigna sinensis) and when summer is over the pea vines and the maize stubble are ploughed under. A month after this is done, furrows are dug about six feet apart and early in October cane is planted once more. In this operation two rows of whole cane stalks are placed in the furrows and covered with five or six inches of earth as a protection against frost. Most of this layer of earth is removed in the spring to help the growth of the young cane shoots. Stable manure, cotton-seed meal, nitrates, phosphates and kainite are used as fertilizers.

Harvesting begins at the end of November, and, weather permitting, the cane is allowed to remain standing in the fields until required for grinding. If, however, the Government Weather Bureau should predict cold, the cane is cut without delay, piled in the furrows and covered with dry cane leaves to prevent it from freezing. Cane stored in this manner keeps well so long as the weather remains cold, but as soon as warm weather comes it rapidly deteriorates.

Labor in Louisiana is both scarce and costly, consequently agricultural machinery is used in the fields as far as possible.

HAULING CANE IN THE FIELDS, LOUISIANA

The steam engine was first employed in the crushing of cane in the year 1822. About this time, when slavery was such a tremendousfactor in the South, sugar raising was marked by a tendency toward the large plantation method. From 1830 to 1840 the number of plantations in Louisiana decreased, but the number of slaves employed on them increased 40 per cent. Later, however, the plantations began to grow in number and by 1853 there were more than fifteen hundred of them, as against 668 thirteen years previous. In those days, each plantation had its own sugar mill, so that 1853 may be taken as close to the high-water mark for the number of mills in the South. With the outbreak of the Civil war, the industry was virtually wiped out of existence, and when its rehabilitation was begun, it was carried on along entirely different lines and the separation of the raising of sugar from the manufacture was gradually brought about. Year by year the small mills were abandoned and the crops of cane raised by the planters, large and small, were brought to the central factory to be worked up. Today, where large plantations still exist, it is the practice to rent subdivisions of land from twenty to fifty acres in size to tenants who grow cane for the central mill.

In 1880 there were 1144 small sugar mills in Louisiana and their output of sugar was 121,886 tons. In 1911, 187 mills handled a crop of 5,930,000 tons of cane which gave 308,439 tons of sugar, and this would have been considerably exceeded had it not been for a disastrous freeze. In 1880, 273 factories used horse power, in 1900 only 5, in 1905 none at all. The advent of the vacuum pan and the consequent abolition of the open-kettle method marked another great advance in manufacturing development. In 1880 about 42 per cent of the sugar produced in Louisiana was turned out by factories equipped with vacuum pans. The government statistics for 1909 show a total of 316,829 tons of sugar boiled in vacuum pans and only 3,678 tons of open-kettle sugar.

As has been said, the growing season for cane in Louisianais limited and the harvesting is done before the plant has attained its full maturity. Whether or not this has any effect upon the flavor of the sugar and molasses produced is a moot point. It is none the less true, however, that the Louisiana “Clarifieds” and the so-called New Orleans molasses possess a flavor distinctively their own.

In the plantation fields, too, the scientists have worked wonders. To illustrate the benefit resulting from the application of modern methods to the cultivation of cane, in 1885 the average yield of cane per acre in Louisiana was about three-quarters of a ton, while in 1909 the average yield per acre in cane was about 20 tons, the recovery of sugar per ton of cane over 157 pounds, or 3140 pounds of sugar per acre.

The Louisiana state experiment station was established by the sugar planters at Audubon park, New Orleans, in 1885 and endowed for a term of years. This institution has grown in importance until at the present time it has ample grounds, well-equipped laboratories and a sugar house with an installation of the latest and best sugar-manufacturing machinery, all directed and operated by the students of the institution. Here is carried on the work of developing seedlings, improvement of cane varieties, investigation of cane diseases, together with the study of all questions of bettering plantation and factory methods.

The sugar production of Louisiana in long tons from 1860-61 to the present time is as follows:

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