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DeBow's - Vol 20	^
Proposal to connect Lake Borgne to MS R. by a 6-mile canal. Among five "branches of commerce" counted on to use the canal, the "greatest is the lake and sea coast domestic trrade, from Pearl R. to Florida, in lumber, wood, brick, sand, shells, and charcoal - gross estimate 150,000 tons.
DeBow1s - 1854
Discussion of railroad from Mobile to N.O. - suggests that "a man can leave his door at the Bay of St. Louis at a convenient hour in the morning and be at his business by 9." "Consider the augmented population which convenience to our market and travel will draw to and spread along the shores of Lake Borgne and the Gulf."
Soundings given for BSL as 12 feet, and for Pearl R as 45 feet.
p. 592 - Article "Sea Coast Crops of the South" -
Early in 19th c. "a single estate in Georgia is said to have yielded a crop (500 bags) of Sea Island cotton, worth $100,000 and upwards.... The planter in those days who made good crops doubled his capital in a few years....the proceeds of the labor of each worker enabled him to add another laborer to his estate....Of cotton, the culture, far from being confined to Georgia, has been extended over the fertile region of the Soouthern and South-western states....It is grown for domestic consumption if MS....and nearly everywhere else where may be found a settlement of Negroes who once lived in the rice region of the country.
The sawing of lumber, farming and distilling turpentine, are now the most profitable kinds of business near the seaboard and out of the city.
The variety ;which is cultivated on the seacoast was introduced into Georgia first. Removed from the influence of a salt atmosphere, it degenerates, and the staple becomes inferior....The soil best adapted to the production of fine cotton is a light yellow, sandy soil. It bears well the admixture of salt and marsh mud, with the compost applied to it, and yields, if fairly dealt by, a fine, long, and even staple. "
(Consider in this regard the comments in both the Wailes-report of the Russ visit and the Jackson letters, in which there is discussion of draining a marsh for additionsl farm land. )
p/ 295 note: The usual compost is prepared in summer by mixing with farmyard, cowpen, and stable litter, salt marsh, marsh mud, and even slat.