casieu River, about 250 miles long, drains the southwest part of the State. It is not navigable. The Sabine River, which rises in Texas, and has a length of about 500 miles, forms a part of the western boundary of Louisiana, and flows into Sabine Lake. It is shallow at its mouth, and navigable only for very small steamers at high water.

MINERALS.

“In the soil and timber are to be found the chief resources of this State, but few minerals, except salt, having as yet been developed or discovered, though some coal, iron, and copper are reported to exist in Union parish. Timber is abundant in all parts of the State, embracing many varieties of oak, ash, cottonwood, cypress, gum, elm, sycamore, pecan, hackberry, pine, etc., and presenting great inducements for development, some of the pine forests capable of producing quantities of turpentine. On one of the islands within the limits of St. Mary's parish-Petite Anse or Salt Island-there exists an immense bed of salt. By boring, parties 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. The surface is about on a level with tide-water, and the earth covers the salt from eleven to thirty feet. On the surface of the salt they found a soil like that of the surrounding marshes, and above this sedge or marsh grass in a good state of preservation. Above the latter the soil appears to be the workings of the hill-sides above."

CLIMATE.

The climate is mild as a general rule, but the winters are severer than those of the Atlantic States lying along the same parallel. The summers are long, hot, and dry, and cause a poisonous exhalation from the marshy soil which is the fruitful source of yellow fever. The spring is early and pleasant.

SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS.

The best soil is along the rivers and in the marshy district. Almost all the land in the lower part of the State is fertile, but in the northern part, away from the rivers, it is poor. The swamp lands are easily drained, and are almost inexhaustible. Tropical fruits grow well in the southern parishes, but neither the orange nor the sugarcane thrives above the 31st parallel of north latitude, which marks the southern boundary of the western part of the State of Mississippi. In the northern part the fruits of the Middle States thrive.

The Report of the Bureau of Agriculture for 1868 thus speaks of this State:

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Cotton, sugar, corn, and potatoes are the principal crops in Louisiana, and before the war the cultivation of the first two named was very profitable, but our correspondents uniformly represent the production of cotton as ruinous to the planter during the past year. Jackson parish reports two hundred pounds of lint cotton to the acre, fifteen bushels of corn, one hundred and fifty bushels of sweet potatoes, and twenty bushels of peas. Tensas parish, one to one and a half bales to the acre in good season, fifty to seventy-five bushels of corn; in cultivation, nine acres of cotton allotted to one laborer, and five acres of corn. In Union parish about six bales of cotton to the hand was expected before the war. In Carroll parish cotton will produce

six hundred pounds lint to the acre when newly cultivated, and a fair laborer can make eight bales of cotton and one hundred bushels of corn, yielding about $500 to the hand; but under the present system the average is two and a half bales cotton and twenty-five bushels corn to the hand. Prior to the war the parish of Rapides produced from 30,000 to 40,000 bales cotton, 15,000 to 18,000 hogsheads sugar, and 30,000 barrels molasses, but the production has much deteriorated, though with the labor and capital at command, the capabilities are still as great. In the southern tier of parishes sugar, rice, and tobacco are made specialties, and fruits are extensively grown, with great inducements for the increase of the latter production.

"Louisiana possesses great capabilities for fruit culture, and the climate and soil present strong inducements to persons desiring to engage in such production. In St. Mary's parish they have fruits of various kinds from April to November: The Japan plum grows all winter and ripens in April; dewberries also ripen in April, and grow in abundance; strawberries, blackberries, and mulberries ripen in May; plums in June; peaches, quinces, and figs in July; and grapes and apples in August. The muscadine, a species of scuppernong, grows wild, and ripens in August; pears ripen in August, and grow in great perfection; oranges ripen in October, and usually remain good on the trees till December; bananas, limes, and lemons ripen in October.' The yield of oranges per acre is enormous. Our correspondent writes that 'it is usual to plant about one hundred trees to the acre below New Orleans on the river. Some orchards yield from $10,000 to $20,000 annually. A full-grown tree will bear 1000 oranges, and a single tree has been known to yield 5000 oranges. Trees commence bearing when five years old, when properly managed.' What we quote in regard to the capabilities of this parish may be said, with slight variation, of most of the lower counties of the State, while in the more northern regions many of the fruits named grow in perfection, and in some localities the apple succeeds well. Our Rapides reporter writes: 'I have a second crop of apples this year. They are hard, small, and poor, though they are eaten.' "In Washington parish a small orchard, chiefly peaches, in one season yielded a profit of $4000, the fruit being early and within close proximity to New Orleans markets. Our East Feliciana correspondent writes: This is one of the finest fruit regions in the world. Apples, peaches, pears, quinces, plums, figs, grapes, berries, etc., do

well, and wild blackberries grow in great abundance, from which a superior wine is made. We have, as yet, but few orchards. One man this season sold $600 worth of pears from fourteen trees.' Though but little attention has heretofore been given to fruit culture, the capabilities of the State are so evident, and the inducements so strong, in a pecuniary point of view, that the production must, at an early day, become a leading interest of Louisiana.”

The civil war laid prostrate the agricultural interests of the State. The plantations in many cases were utterly ruined. The levees of the rivers were cut or allowed to give way, and many of the finest cotton and sugar fields were thus converted into worthless swamps. It will require many years to repair these losses. The returns of the State for 1869 are incomplete. As far as known they are:

MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE.

Little attention is paid to manufactures. In 1860 the capital invested in them amounted to $7,151,172.

With respect to its commercial advantages the State is unequalled by any portion of the world. The Mississippi and its tributaries bring to it the products of nearly one half the Union. New Orleans is the principal port, and is actively engaged in trade with all parts of the world. In 1860 the exports of Louisiana amounted to $108,417,798, and the imports to $22,992,773. In spite of the losses of the war, they were as follows in 1870: exports, $107,657,042; imports, $14,993,754.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

Within the limits of the State the great abundance of water transportation does away with the necessity for many railways. In 1868

there were 335 miles of completed railway in the State, constructed at a cost of $13,628,000. A main line extends north through Mississippi to the States of the East and West, and roads are in construction from a point opposite to Vicksburg, Miss., to Shreveport and northeastern Texas, and from Algiers along the Gulf coast to Galveston, Texas.

EDUCATION.

In 1860 there were in Louisiana 15 colleges, with 1530 students; 152 academies and other schools, with 11,274 pupils; and 713 public schools, with 31,813 pupils. With the exception of the schools of New Orleans, nearly all the educational institutions of the State were destroyed or discontinued by the war. Since the return of peace, Centenary College, at Jackson, and several academies and private schools have been reopened with success.

The new Constitution establishes a system of public education, and requires that at least one free public school shall be opened in each parish in the State. A permanent school fund is established, and the Legislature is required to levy taxes for the support of the schools. Appropriations by the State for the support, assistance, or encouragement of any private school or private institution of learning, whatsoever, are forbidden.