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LOUISIANA

tion in the great coast-prairie belt of southwestern Louisiana, and southeastern Texas, formerly almost in primitive solitude. Up to 1897 nearly all the rice grown on these prairies was "Providence" rice, dependent mainly on rainfall. Then two years of drought showed that there was no security without irrigation, and there was a stampede to the "pump lands," where a new world was created by raising water from bayous. This district, as above said, is full of slightly raised ridges; the canals are run along these, not by digging, but by throwing up parallel dikes for a channel; as the water in all these regions lies below the land to be irrigated, it is raised by pumping plants at the heads of the canals, and distributed to the lands by gravity; sometimes two or more pump stations are needed on the same canal to lift the water high enough. This immense draft on the water supply has created alarm for the future; but the whole region is underlaid with exhaustless water-bearing gravel strata, and easily bored wells can irrigate 100 acres without diminishing the flow. In 1900 over 25,000 acres were thus irrigated. This prairie has the further advantage over the delta district, formerly the chief seat of the culture, that in the latter the heavy machinery needed for improved cultivation was apt to sink in the soil. The celebrated perique tobacco is grown in the Parish of Saint James. The product in 1902 was 33,375 pounds.

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Stock Raising. While this is small relatively to the other agricultural branches, it is of some importance; and in the line of dairy products is increasing. These were valued at over $4,000,000 in 1900, of which something over $1,000,000 was sold off the farm. Swine slightly increased, sheep slightly decreased; but as natural with increasing farm work of any kind, horses, mules and asses increased considerably more than half.

Fisheries.- Louisiana ranks next to Florida among the Gulf States in the value of its fish catch. As a whole, however, the industry seems not to be increasing largely; the last report in 1897 showed a total little larger than 1890, the figures being $713,587, the number of men employed 4,403, chiefly on the boat or inshore fisheries. The oyster fishery is second only to that of Chesapeake Bay, and was three fifths the entire value of the fisheries. The oyster reefs extend almost unbroken to the mouth of Atchafalaya Bayou to the State line. Large canneries have been established on the Gulf. The seine fishery is declining; but Louisiana is still the chief source of shrimps, as well as for catfish caught with the trot-line. The alligator catching industry is decreasing with the gradual exhaustion of the supply; at the same time the scarcity of hides constantly enhances the market value.

Manufactures. These are chiefly concentrated in New Orleans, which produced in 1909 nearly one half the total for the State, which with 2,516 establishments, was valued at $223,928,000. In the eight chief industries of the State, making more than half the total, there was over a threefold increase from 1890 to 1900, and what is very unusual, there was almost exactly the same increase in the number of wage-earners who total 84,243; the industrial tendency is to increase product, but reduce human labor. The total bulk of manufacturing

in the State is working up its raw materials of sugarcane, cotton, forest products, and rice. Foremost, and amounting to close upon two fifths of the State's entire manufactured products, is the refining of sugar. The sugar and molasses produced in the census year were valued at $47,891,091, and the business gave employment to 15.4 per cent of all the State's wageearners. The greatest obstacle heretofore (aside from difficulties stated under Agriculture) has been the necessary idleness of the expensive plants during the greater part of the year; but an industry is now developing which serves a doubly profitable end, the making of paper from the bagasse or cane refuse,- thus keeping the plants going, and utilizing a waste product heretofore used only for fuel. With a little jute or manila, this has been found to make one of the finest grades of heavy paper. Second in importance was the manufacture of lumber and timber products, aside from planing-mill products, sashes, doors, and blinds, etc., these were valued at $17,408,513, and had more than trebled in the decade. In 1890 the production was almost exclusively of yellow pine lumber, cypress shingles, and white oak staves; in 1900 there had been a great increase of the manufactures from cypress and hardwoods, cypress sawing alone employing many of the largest establishments in the State, and the stave manufacture having practically ceased. The lumber industry is just beginning to attract the attention of capitalists on a large scale,- this and rice being the business "booms" of the present. At no time in the State's history have there been so many large lumber plants under construction. The long-leaf pine manufacture has its centre at Lake Charles, in the southwest. The manufacture of cottonseed-oil and cake holds third place; in 1900 the products were valued at $7,026,452, while in 1890 they were somewhat over one fifth that amount. This is one of the industries fostered indirectly by the Mississippi jetties, which by increasing New Orleans' distribution facilities, have made it worth while to import cotton seed and develop a larger manufacture than the local supply would make possible. The refining of cottonseed-oil is a recent New Orleans industry. The cleaning and hulling of rice produced $5,736,451 of finished product. A great and rapidly developing industry is the manufacture of burlap bags for handling cotton seed, fertilizers, etc.; it grew from $669,945 in 1890, to $3,443,468 in 1900. The foundry and machine-shop products amounted to $2,672,761, their work largely in making and repairing sugar machinery. Planing-mill products and carshop work were considerable. There were in Louisiana in 1902-3 eight cotton mills with 101,752 spindles; the consumption was 18,003 bales of cotton. Many new mills are in construction.

Commerce and Transportation.- Louisiana is the richest State in the Union in total length of navigable streams, 3,771 miles. Its lower part is a vast web of paths to the ocean, aggregating 2,500 miles. The entire 600 miles of the Mississippi's length in the State is navigable and largely navigated, and the jetties have trebled its value, made New Orleans a far greater corn and cotton port than before, and will draw foreign commerce still farther. A canal from the river to Lake Borgne has greatly lessened the dis

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LOUISIANA

tance from the city to the Gulf and to the coalfields of Alabama, hence reducing the cost of fuel for manufacturing purposes. The railroad facilities have not been very extensive till the last decade, when they increased from 1,739 to 2,801 miles, and are now 3,221. The growing importance of New Orleans has led a number of trunk lines to make a special effort for its business; owing to the nature of the Gulf coast, all turn away many miles from it. The chief lines are the Southern Pacific, the Texas Pacific, the Louisville & Nashville, the Queen & Crescent, and the Illinois Central. Many others are laying plans for entering the city. As with most Western and Southern States now, rates are fixed by railroad commission. New Orleans is the third port in the United States in amount of foreign commerce, next to New York and Boston. For the year ending 30 June 1909, its imports and exports (principally the latter) amounted to over $190,000,000. In 1902-3 it received 2,316,617 bales of cotton, and exported 2,112,281 bales. The vessels entering and clearing for the year were upward of 4,000, with a gross tonnage of nearly 5,000,000.

Banks.-The State has an excellent banking system, very conservative in its holdings of reserves; the New Orleans banks were notable for their exceptional solidity and punctuality in meeting northern obligations when the Civil War broke out. On 30 June 1909 there were 35 national banks in operation, with 11,423 depositors and $2,481,754.82 in savings deposits. There were also 116 state banks with 22,836 depositors and $6,334,169.73 in savings deposits. In the year ending 30 Sept. 1909 the exchanges at the United States clearing house in New Orleans aggregated $840,444,100, an increase over 1908 of $24,506,681.

Government and Finance.-The Constitution of 1898 was devised to exclude the illiterate negro vote, except for owners of property to over $300 who are excepted from educational qualification. Otherwise than that, each voter must be able to fill out his application blank for registration, but this does not apply to anyone who was a voter on 1 Jan. 1867 (that is before the 14th or 15th Amendment was passed), or his son or grandson of mature age. Women taxpayers can vote on all questions of taxpaying in any subdivision of the State. State officers are elected for four years. The Governor has $5,000 salary, the pardoning power, and a veto by items, which may be overridden by a two thirds vote of the elected members of each house. The legislature holds biennial sessions limited to 60 days; both houses are elected for four years; the Senate may be from 36 to 41 in number, the House from 98 to 110, and as a fact the numbers are now 39 and 114; there must be one representative to each parish, and to each ward of New Orleans. The judiciary is headed by a supreme court, consisting of a chief justice and four associates appointed by the governor with the consent of the senate, for 12 years. There are judicial districts, to be not less than 20 nor more than 29; the judges are elected for nine years, as is the district attorney for each. From and after I July 1904 there is to be a court of appeals, composed of two district judges designated by the supreme court. There is a militia of 2,693. The State

has a large Democratic majority. It sends two Senators and seven members to Congress. The assessed valuation of property in 1910 was $529.419.463; the State tax is five dollars per $1,000. The legislature cannot incur debts except to repel invasion or suppress insurrection. A poll tax on each adult male goes to the school fund (see Education). The bonded debt for the fiscal year 1910 was $11,108,300. The total levies of ad valorem taxes for 1902 were $8,478,370,

Education.-Louisiana, formerly near the foot of the ladder in the general education of its people, has made extraordinary efforts in the past two decades, and in some respects has surpassed all other Southern States; a fact more creditable from its large negro population. The average school term (128.5 days) was the longest of any Southern State, the terms of colored schools were as long as those of the white, and the amount expended is exceedingly creditable, being in 1908 $3,572,589, or nearly half as much as the current receipts of the State. and in 1907 nearly $2,169,000. The school_revenues are made up of 14 mills from the State tax of $1 on all males over 21,-retained in the property tax of six mills on the dollar, a poll parish were levied, and other local taxes may be laid,- special corporation taxes, etc. By the law of 1902, the school administration is centralized in a State board of education consisting of the governor and seven appointees, the superintendent of education, and the attorney-general; this appoints a four-year board of education for each parish (county), who appoint parish superintendents. The enrolment in schools during 1901 was 63 per cent of the white children from 6 to 18, and 40 per cent of the colored; in both cases more than a three-fold increase in 20 years. Despite all efforts, however, the load of illiteracy is a heavy one to struggle against; 61 per cent of the negro and 17 per cent of the white population above 10 could neither read nor write. In 1908 there were 6,966 teachers, nearly three fourths female; over 1,000 colored teachers, about evenly divided. Besides these there were many hundred private teachers. The pupils in the Catholic schools alone were about 25,000. Total pupils enrolled in common schools were 254,861. For higher education there were 57 public and 80 private high and secondary schools, two industrial colleges, the Industrial Institute at Ruston (north Louisiana) and the Southwestern Industrial Institute at Lafayette, two normal schools, the State at Natchitoches, and that of the city at New Orleans; the State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College at Baton Rouge, partly supported by the United States; Tulane University, with affiliated special colleges, one of the best reputed institutions in the South; and a number of Roman Catholic and sectarian colleges. For the colored people are four-Southern University, Leland University, New Orleans University, and universities and colleges, exclusive of private Straight University. Total receipts (1909) for benefactions and public appropriations, $361,381.

Charitable and Penal Institutions.-The State Board of Charities and Corrections can only inspect and report. The old system of leasing out convicts to private contractors was abolished by the constitution of 1898, and they are now only employed on public works or convict farms,

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