Tables of Property and Tonnage by the St. Lawrence, &c. 427 Value of Property sent from the Seaboard to the Interior, via the St. Lawrence, Hudson, Portage Rail-road, and Mississippi. Portage Rail-road. Mississippi. 10,885,775 In this latter table, it will be observed, that the estimates for the St. Lawrence and Portage Rail-road are only for last year, while those of the New-York State Canals and New-Orleans are for eleven In the case of New-York the years. figures of the Auditor of the Canal Department are taken, whereas in that of New-Orleans it is estimated that her shipments to the interior equal her foreign importations. This be wide may of the mark either way, but it is the only method which presents itself as an ap. proximation. Having seen the value of down trade" by the different routes, we will now present the "down" tonnage, naming some of the principal articles for 1851 only: Portage Missis- 62,351.. 711,731..10,100.. 9,895.. 84,755.. Timber... Shingles.. 75.. Furs. 242.. Ashes.... 5,576.. 7,271.. Flour.. 70,966.. 362,714.. 7.. Wheat 16,867.. 94,910.. Corn 3,052.. 221,633.. Oats.. Barley. 69.. 93,426.. Rye. Cotton... 11.. 110.. 1,851.. 560.. Beef.. 89.. 12,215.. 7,203.. 5,452.. 4,784.. 12,801.. 5,407.. 122.. 17,949.. Wool.. Leather Eggs.. Lard oil. Rail-road iron Castings Nails & spikes 15.. 5,259.. Merchandise.. Sundries Total tons..329,621..1,977,151..13,696..1,292,670 This table exhibits the tonnage arriving at the Hudson, as much in preponderance of the other routes, although the Mississippi may exceed it in value.f It will also be seen that Philadelphia is indebted for her inland commerce, not so much to the region west as east of the mountains. She has in her coal and iron mines and ample agricultural resources, abundant food for an immense inland railway and canal commerce. canals of Pennsylvania, west of the mountains, appear to feed the commerce of the Ohio at Pittsburgh; and those east 58,552 that of the seaboard at Philadelphia. 500 It is to be regretted that so little regard 100,138 is paid to arranging and collecting sta5,193 tistics of our inland commerce by the 6,949 various states in which the great lines are situated. The State of New-York is the only one which compiles full reports 64,187 of traffic, tonnage and valuation of the 2,858 commerce of her public works. Such 47,205 reports are not only interesting, but they are extremely valuable to business men. 1,811 They are the means of acquainting the 22,766 producer, the forwarder, the vender, the 196 broker and the consumer, with the probable stocks, the rapidity with which those stocks are coming forward in 2 109,989 321,566 leans, Mobile, Savannah and Charleston, and their tendency will be, to greatly increase the tonnage to and from the interior to the seaboard, beyond anything we have yet seen or predicted. And it will be done mainly by opening up resources, and reaching points, which have heretofore been unproductive on account of their inaccessibility. On the other hand, we have seen that the northern route has three water outlets, delivering at tide water a "down" tonnage of 2,320,468 tons, against 1,292,670 tous by the Mississippi during the year 1851. It should be remembered too that the latter is open for navigation the whole year, while the northern route is closed upon the average about five months per annum. Besides this immense water tonnage, the New-York and Erie, New-York Central and the Northern lines of railway, have delivered at tide water an aggregate of no less than 228,107 tons, valued at $11,405,300. According to the figures thus far presented, then, the seaboard is indebted to the interior for 1851-in 3,841,245 tons of property, worth..... ..$182,663,140 The interior is indebted to market, and the probable effect on some of them terminating at New-Orfreights, price and demand. This information, if published weekly with official correctness, would prove invaluable to the community. It would enable business men to operate intelligibly, by furnishing them data upon which to base their calculations. It would acquaint ourselves and foreigners, by comparisons of corresponding periods of several years, and of the totals at the close of each year, of the extent and progress of our internal trade. But this is a digression, suggested by the difficulty always encountered in this country in procuring reliable statistics of trade. England has her Board of Trade, whose monthly returns show her merchants and manufacturers, and producers, the transactions of the previous month with great exactness, and these returns are at once sent by steam or electricity to Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, whence they are distributed to all parts of the world. Every merchant in the foreign trade looks for them with interest. Why may not the United States have a "Bureau of Commerce" attached to the Treasury Department, to answer the same purpose with the English Board of Trade, returns from which may be published at the close of each month, quarter and year? Its organization would be easy, and under proper regulations and superintendence, would prove of incalculable value to the country, both at home and abroad. This fact and the preceding query are the result of the digression from which we now will return. The Mississippi hitherto has stood alone and unrivaled as the southern route; and it will continue for a long time to come the only southern water route. But railways will soon be opened which will contribute much to the trade of other southern ports than New-Orleans, without, however, detracting much from those sections of country which furnish her trade. The traffic of railways is generally created in bringing the country which they pass within reach of a market, which previously made no demand upon it. While, therefore, Savannah, Charleston, and Mobile are to be vastly benefited by the trade their railways will bring them, it will not be by diverting traffic, other than passenger, from the river. Many lines of railway are about being opened, which will prove as auxiliaries to the great southern route, the seaboard for property $151,990,717 Credit to interior...... 20,672,423. It is generally supposed, and the evidences of exchange seem to favor such supposition, that the interior is in debt to the seaboard. Such is no doubt the fact with regard to new countries which have all their improvements to make, their lands to clear up, cultivate and stock, before they become profitable, which is much the case with the inhabitants of the valley and basin. The light and costly goods, jewelry, silks, etc., sent west by express, are not included in the above estimates, and if the value of such freight could be accurately computed, it would no doubt more than square the account. There is, however little confidence to be placed upon the valuation of "merchandise." In the canal estimates upon the New-York canals, it is doubtless estimated at too low a rate per ton. least, as before remarked, these estimates of the value of up tonnage, are but the merest approximations, under the present mode of classifying that species of freight. At From the foregoing it may be seen that, while the value of products of the Great Increase of the Lake Trade-Railways and Canals. 429 interior seeking the seaboard is by the southern route as about ten to seven by the northern route, so the value of the return merchandise, &c., going by the northern route, is as about thirteen to one. Hence there should be a very great preponderance in the value of western over eastern freight, on the northern route. That such is the fact, the returns of exports and imports at the upper lake ports abundantly testify, the latter in many cases being from three to four hunper cent. greater than the former. 975 tons, being an increase in measurement of nearly four hundred per cent. in ten years, while the increase in capacity, owing to a substitution of steam for sail, as a motive power both for propulsion and handling freight, is much greater still. The gross tons entered at all the lake ports in 1851 are estimated at 9,469,506, and cleared 9,456,346. The steamboat tonnage of the western rivers in 1842 was 126,278 tons; in 1846, 249,035, and in 1851 it was reported, by Secretary Corwin, at 135,559 tons. If But if the inland commerce arriving there is no error in either of these stateat and departing from the seaboard, is ments of tonnage, then the capacity of so considerable, what must be the the tonnage must have been greatly enamount in value, and the gross value of larged lately, by quickening the speed exports and imports at the several inland and making a greater number of trips. ports? To how many people must its It is most probable, however, that many transport, transhipment, storing, handling old, worn-out crafts were computed in and selling, give employment? How 1846, while in 1851 only the working many tons of boats and shipping are em- enrollments were taken into account. ployed? How much fuel is consumed The rivers employ 558 steamers and the in steam? How much capital is invest- lakes 157. The original cost of the ed in purchasing, insuring, transporting whole sail and steam tonnage on the and exchanging? These are questions lakes and rivers in 1851, was about fraught with deep interest, to all those at $21,838,000. The total net money value all interested in the progress of civiliza- of all the property transported on the tion, commerce, science and the arts. lakes in 1841, was estimated at $33,000,They might be intelligibly answered too, 000; in 1849 at $63,000,000; in 1850 at if a proper system for the collection and $93,000,000; and in 1851, $151,000,000. arrangement of statistics were establish- That of property transported on the ed. As it is, however, we can only give rivers of the valley in 1842, was estimaa few of the most careful estimates, ted at about $130,000,000; in 1846 at based upon the most authentic returns, ob- about $184,000,000, and in 1851, at about tainable from time to time, and arranged $275,000,000. This gives an aggregate with great care. These estimates have money value for 1851, of interior lake always been represented as below the and river commerce, of about $438,200,mark, from the fact that many ports make 000, an amount far exceeding our forno returns at all. eign commerce, exclusive of specie. But if we add to this the enormous coasting trade of the United States, including California, the amount would more than double our foreign commerce. The United States have over 3,000 miles of lake coast, and some 30,000 miles navigable river; to which should be added about 3,000 miles of canal, composing a total of not far from 36,000 This, it will still be observed, is indemiles of inland water navigation. The pendent of the railway and canal comgross value of the commerce of the merce. The total movement of the lakes alone, in 1848, exclusive of cost of New-York canals alone in 1851, about tonnage, passage or express business, was 860 miles in length, was 3,582,733 tons: $65,000,000; in 1849, $123,000,000; in valued at $159,981,801, and paying tolls 1850, $186,000,000; and in 1851 it was to the state of $3,329,727. It is estima$325,000,000. The unparalleled in- ted that in this navigation 4,047 boats crease during the last three years is owing were employed, with an aggregate of to the opening of many new lines of rail- 283,290 tons. The amount paid for way at various points intersecting the transportation on these canals, in addilakes, and cheapening the prices of tion to the above amount of toll to the transportation from the interior to the state, is estimated to have been about lake shore. The enrolled tonnage of the $2,500,000. This latter is the amount lakes in 1841 was 56,252 tons; in 1846, paid to the forwarder to indemnify him 106,836 tons; and in 1851, it was 215,- for carriage, wear of boat, horses, men, etc. These canals have cost the state river and railway. And there will be upwards of $29,000,000, besides the an- but little rivalry between the different nual charges for repairs and maintenance. The state has received in tolls from the canals since 1824, $59,413,870. The railways of the United States in operation comprise about 15,000 miles, at an average cost of, say $25,000 per mile; making an aggregate expenditure of some $375,000,000. Nearly all of this railway that has affected the lake and river trade of 1851, has been opened since the commercial returns of 1848, or at least a large portion of it, and it has been seen that the results are beyond all anticipations. But the business of 1851 was benefited by less than 10,000 miles of railway, whereas, in 1855, we shall have in operation over 20,000 miles, penetrating the agricultural and mineral hearts of almost all the western states. What must result from the opening of so many feeders to the great through water routes? It has been observed that the amount of inland commerce reaching the seaboard is but a little of the "total movement." It is only the surplus that seeks a foreign market, while the great bulk, the unmeasured, the unfathomed mass, is consumed, changed and interchanged among the several states. A little of it adheres to the hands of every person who touches it, as it were; it pays to every exchanger, transporter and laborer its stipend, as its passes about to its places of consumption. It is, most unquestionably, a good thing to have a foreign commerce through which to dispose of our surplus products, but we should not, for this, sacrifice the internal commerce, so much more valuable to the whole country, and without which our foreign commerce could not survive a single day. In concluding this subject, the question naturally suggests itself: if such has been the progress of our commerce during the past thirty years, what is to be its future? If such results have followed the partial opening of the resources of the new states by water routes, what is to follow the perfect exhumation of the interior of all the states by means of the iron tracks which are to act as feeders to the great northern and southern water routes? The year 1860 will draw upon an internal traffic in the United States valued at no less than $1,800,000,000, including lake, canal, routes. They will work harmoniously together, mutually assisting each other, and all will be fully occupied. The immense heavy products of the southwest will continue to float down the Mississippi, to the Gulf of Mexico, in great profusion and increase. Much has been written and said of turning the tide of the Mississippi trade north. Above certain lines, where the distance is greatly in favor of the northern route, some of the present trade, and perhaps all the increase, will take the northern route during the season of navigation. But the increase of trade south of those lines, which will be induced by the opening of projected improvements, will far exceed the amount diverted. The strife now exhibited in procuring means for diverting trade from existing routes will disappear in the inability to carry off the augmentation. Suppose the Mississippi and the northern water routes now to have a "total movement" of 10,000,000 tons, which is probably not very wide of the mark, how many railways like the Erie, Northern and Baltimore, and Ohio, will it take to carry the present tonnage And how long will it take to construct them? It would require ten railways, each with double tracks, stretching from Boston, New-York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore to New-Orleans, via the Mississippi valley and the lake basin, making at least 40,000 miles of track, which would cost at least $60,000,000, and take ten years to build. In the mean time, our commerce would have doubled twice, crowding both water and land routes to their full capacity. So this will not do. Our canals in New-York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, must be enlarged, within the next ten years, to a capacity which will admit boats to pass drawing six feet of water, with steam for a propelling power, and stowage for 2,000 bbls. of flour. Freight must be handled by steam, and transit expedited in all possible ways by water. Railways will feed water routes with freight from the interior, the through lines carrying express freight of a light and costly character, and passengers. At least such are our conclusions from the foregoing premises. The great united northern and southern routes must always continue the great highways for the products of the interior, upon which History and Statistics of the Louisiana Parishes. 431 they will be exchanged among the ing them at various points, will weld States, and the surplus finds its way to together all the various interests of the the seaboard. By them the northeast several states in such a bond of union and southwest will be forever united, as will prove forever inseparable. while the numerous iron ways intersect ART. III.-HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL COLLECTIONS OF LOUISIANA. THE PARISH OF TENSAS. [As Superintendent of the Bureau of Statistics of the State of Louisiana, we published a great number of papers, including material relating to the majority of the parishes. We have deferred a general report upon them all, in the hope of obtaining additional material, and in expectation of the completion of the national census, so as to embody its statistical results. As this report will be published, if possible, before the close of the summer, we continue to solicit information, and beg our friends to send to the office of the Review anything of interest that may relate to the history and statistics of their parishes and towns of the state. As a guide to the nature of the information de sired, we refer to the papers already published by us, and to the annexed circular, which has been so often published before :] I. Time of settlement of your parish or town; dates of oldest land grants; number and condition of first settlers; whence emigrating; other facts relating to settlement and history. II. Indian names in your vicinity; what tribes originally; what relics or monuments of them; if Indians still, in what condition ? III. Biography, anecdotes, &c., of individuals distinguished in your vicinity in the past for ingenuity, enterprise, literature, talents, civil or military, &c. IV. Topographical description of your parish, mountains, rivers, ponds, animals, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, insects, &c., vegetable growths, rocks, minerals, sand clays, chalk, flint, marble, pit coal, pigments, medicinal and poisonous substances, elevation'above the sea, nature of surface, forests, or undergrowth what wells and quality of well water, nature of coasts, does the water make inroads, mineral springs, caves, &c. V. Agricultural description of parish; former and present state of cultivation; changes taking place; introduction of cotton, sugar, rice, indigo, tobacco, grains, fruits, vines, &c., &c.; present products; lands occupied and unoccupied, and character of soils; value of lands; state of improvements; value of agricultural products; horses, cattle, mules, hogs, and whence supplied; profits of agriculture, prices of products; new estates opening; improvements suggested in cultivation, and new growths; improvements in communication, roads, bridges, canals, &c.; kind and quantity of timber, fuel, &c.; state of the roads, summer and winter: kinds of inclosures, and of what timber; manures; natural and artificial pastures; agricultural implements used; fruit trees, vines, and orchards; modes of transportation; extent of internal navigation; levees, &c.; modes of cultivating and manufacturing sugar in use. VI. Instances of longevity and fecundity; observations on diseases in your section; localities, healthful or otherwise; statistics of diseases, deaths, summer seats, &c. VII. Population of your parish; increase and progress, distinguishing white and black; Spanish, French, American, or German origin; foreigners, classes of population; number in towns: growth of towns and villages, &c. ; condition, employment, ages; comparative value of free and slave labor; comparative tables of increase; marriages, births, &c.; meteorological tables of temperature, weather, rains, &c. VIII. Education and Religion.-Advantages of schools, colleges, libraries enjoyed; proportion educated at home and abroad; expense of education; school returns, churches or chapels in parish, when and by whom erected, how supplied with clergy; how supported and attended; oldest interments; church vaults, &c. IX. Products in Manufactures and the Arts.-Kinds of manufactures in parish; persons employed; kind of power; capital; wages; per centum profit; raw material; sugar and cotton; machinery and improvements; kind and value; manufacturing sites, &c. X. Commercial Statistics.-Value of the imports and exports of Louisiana with each of the other states of the Union, as far as any approximation may be made or data given; growth and condition of towns; increase in towns, &c. XI. General Statistics.-Embracing banking, rail-roads, insurances, navigation, intercommunication; learned and scientific societies; crime, pauperism, charities, public and benevolent institutions; militia, newspapers, &c.; application of parish taxes; expenses of roads, levees, &c.; number of suits decided in different courts; expenses and perfection of justice; number of parish officers, lawyers, physicians, &c. XII. Date, extent, consequences, and other circumstances of droughts, freshets, whirlwinds, storms, lightnings, hurricanes, or other remarkable physical events in your section from remote periods; other meteorological phenomena; changes in climate, &c., &c. XIII. Literary productions emanating from your neighborhood; your associations, if any; what manuscripts, public or private records, letters, journals, &c., or rare old books, interesting in their relation to the history of Louisiana, are possessed by individuals within your knowledge. State any other matters of interest. |