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Show ·74 El\HGRANT;S GUIDE, r It is well situated for commercial purposes in the centre of a well cultiv ated a no productive country. The church of Au a capas .be in g. pl<tced here, was the cause of the estab_lishment o_f the town. Under the Spanish government, the churches m the vanous posts were the· places where public business was transacte.d: 'I'his cu~tom has ~een in most in stances perpetuated by the admtmstralors of the Amencan O"OVcrnment. In point of situation and commercial facility , New. Iberia is certainly superior to St.Martinsville,hu.t notwithstanding all its advantages, the latter has, anu probal>ly will continue lo prevail over the former. The division line between two parishes being so near, has also· con - tributed to arre t the progress of New I be ria by taking away th hope of its ever becoming the seat of public business. It is, however, a port of entry, and enjoys the privileges attad1ed to such establish· ments. There ·s no part of the United States, nor even of Lou.isi·ana, where towns ar~ of less con equence than in Attacapas and Opelo~sas. With the iueas formeu in Europe or in tbe northern and mid~le states of the United States,' men can hardly c.onceive of a country being in a rC1pid state of improvement without the accumulation of towns. It has been supposed that in many European countries, one person in five, , and in all the states of the United States north ami east of Philadelphia, that more than one tenth part of the entire populatio11 lived in cities ~ towns, or villages. And thi s. estimate is made exclu sive of the large commercial marts. WhfJlber the slavery of the negroes produces the effect or not. it is a fact, that in all the slave states, towns are comparatively few and small. In a country whose inhabitants are so actively commercial as those of the United States, every section must have a depot. There fate , a few large cities will exist in every part, but if we may form anticipati on of the fut ure from the past, no great number of large cities will ever rise in the state of Louisidn::t , or t!Je adjacent €ountries. lu OpeiOU"3S and Attacapas. so many persons do now, anu will probably continue to trade to New Orleans direct,. without employ ing store keepers, tbat one of the chief sources of the increase of towns is consiuerably less in these place than in tbe northern and middle states. , Every traveller who attentively reviews the objec ts before him, will be struck with tl.e great di spJrity between the towns and farms of all the sla\·e statc.:s ; Lut in uone so much as in Louisi::~n::t, New O_rleans exc_ep tcd. .Many have attribu ted th is effec t to the principles ot the Spamsh government ; IHJ t the concl usion is unfounde d . . Mexico and Per_u ha~e as ma ny , if not mure brge cit ies, in proportio n to the pop~latwn ot those places, than the United States bave. Arter st:'l ting the tact, we may ieave the theoretical deJ uclions of the cause to those who have more ta!ent .and leisure, and con tinue our subject. Abov~ St.. 1\lartmsvtlle the re <J re no more towns in . .'\ ttacapas. The co.u~try ts thJckl.y s ~ ttl ed .upon bC)th b at~ks of Teche, upon the V cr· mtiJOn, and the mtermed tate st reams. Cotton i:s the ,.,. re;:~ t tC! ple and object of cultivation. The soil is every whrre well::, ::~Ja pted to tbe W0 "."1h of that vegetable. T he l'l'(ldUf 0 ) . ;n }ll'Opo rlioll to the eficcttve hands employed, is, perhaps, as great a · in any part of the - EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. 7c'i ~s tate. The advan tage of cultivating prai rie land is here completely ·enjoyed. Though the culture of the soil has ad vanceJ within a f w y f>a rs past with great rapidity, y et the surface, when compareJ with the population, is stiH so great as to leave an almost unl imited choice of ground for till age. A custom prevails here that could be pract ised -only in such countries ; that of changing the enclosures eve ry three or tour years. As land becomes of more val ue by increase of people, thi ~ usage will of courbe be laid aside ; it is now of very great se rvi ce to the planters, by relea:sing them from one of tbeir greatest enemies, the crab grass. The value of land is generally the first e:~ue s tion made by a travel~ er, and it i~ one to which no defin ite answer c:.tn be made, respecttog any sect10n of the United States. A general comparison is always safe, ~nd made with .facility, between t\vo places which produce re spectrvely staples differing in a consi derable Jegree in value. Land ~ where sugar can be made, will bear a higher e ~ tirnation than those where only cotton can be produced. Therefore, every thing else e9ual, the landed property of the inhabitants ot Attacapas below St. Martinsville, is of more value than that claimed to the riorth of that town. How far .north the sugar cane can he cultivated, is an inquiry of very d~ep mterest, and it is one of the man.r subjects where the hu! nan mmd is extremely liable to deception. F'rom the great difference ~n val.ue, ever~ landholder grasps with avidity at a prospect of changJ'Ilg h1s cotton mto sugar lands. N.otbing but experience can decide this question , and without any part1cubr cnuse of suspicion against individuals , emigrants ought to be very cau~iou s of implicitly !Je.lieving in flattering pictmes, drawn by ~ers ons mterest:u tn decetvmg others, and from their avidity very l1able to .be decetveJ tbemseh'es. · . C~tton being a veg e t ~b l e c;-~p ::tb le of attaining the developement of tts growth on almost all l ::~ n ds , and in all climates of the United States ~elow t~e thirty-fif h deg ree of north !atitude, every erni~r a nt is c;a fe I ll fonrnng calcul ations u pon it.:; culture, in the states of Louisiana .1\fississippi , and · ~h e terr itory of Alabama. In Darby 's Louisiana tl;~ grouud upon whtch sugar can be made is; laid down. ·rhe data a r~ drawn from what has already been cHectcd, an cJ from vegetaL! an alogy. In this work it h t~s been shmvn tl1at where snow is ' tuww11 to fall 'frequently, the po::, ·ible b e ~wficial cu(ture of the sugar cane j_· Joublful. It ha~ been also establJ 5i hed , th at hepvy snows are frequent at the church of Opelousas. It may be also remarked, that the live oak tree ceases also where, or very near where, snow commences. Jn some pl~ce.s the eJ,. istence of the live oak is supposed to be influeuced by pr Xlllllty to the sea. The correctness of the remark c.loubtful iu a_ll pl a ce~ , is deruonstrably erroneous in Louisiana anJ Alabama, where till tree grows at very different distances from th e shore of thP gulf of Mexico. ' • ~ e have been th ~ more careful in calling the attention of the tr:tv~ ll~r to the ~ubject of vegetable associations, from a thorough conVICtiOn, that trom this source may be drawn . orne of tbe most valuable facts that can interest thG stude1 t in c:tati:tica) in quir.,'. lt J. ·a • \ |