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Show JS4 EMIGRANT'S GUIDE. found near two feet in diameter, and afways a high tree comparewith its thickness., The sweet gum is the only tree in Louisiana, found in as many and in as different places as the persimon. The productiveness of this tree seems not to· depend upon its position: the author has seen individual trees loaded with fruit on the highest bills near Natchez, anu in the lowest swamps of Atcbafalaya ; in the deepest recesses of the heavy cane brakes of Bayou Breuf, and upon the al1uvion of the Sabine. High pine woods are the only parts of the country where the persimon is not plentiful ; but even there, the tree is never absolutely wanting. The quality of the fruit is every where excellent. There is much reason to Lelieve that the persimon could be applied to uses to which it has not yet been appropriated. It can be produced in situations where but few other useful vegetables and no other fruit tree will grow. It contributes, however, to human support indirectly by feeding swine, which devour this fruit with great avidity. l\1any specie.s of native grape vines abound; the most ·worthy of notice are the highland r>urple grape, the parsley leaved river crape, an~ th.e muscadine ... ~hey are all unimportant, except as they 0 seem to md1cate the poss1bdJty of a successful manufacture of wine. The quantity, exceJJence, and variety of the juclans Gn the Mississippi has, perhaps, no paraJJel on the globe. Bla~k walnut, white walnut, and .s~ven or eight distinct species of hickory, are found; the most dehc1oqs of the latter is the paccan, or Illinois nut. These nu~s, with acorns, constitute no small part of the nourishment of the swme. The size, majesty, and productive qualities of the oak of Louisiana, have been the subjects of admiration to all men who have travelled t~e cou~try, and have. a.ttended to th~ l?roducts of nature in this pro· l1fic regron. If the hnodendron tu1Ip1fera be considered the first tree o.f America in point of.elega?ce and towering beauty, the second rank IS due to .t~e quer~us .tmctona. As useful natural productiom, if both bore nutntwus frUit, It would be very difficult to determine the relative preference claimed by these two ornaments of our forests; but the quantjty and excellence of the fruit of the oak entitles it to a decided preference. The fruit of the oak has indeed ueen of no trifling ~id to the frontier inhabitants of the United States: by feeding tha~ ammal upon whos~ flesh they have most generally subsisted durmg the early stages of their settlements. Flax and hemp are, and will no doubt continue to occupy no s~all p~rt of. the att~ntion of the people in the higher parts of the M1ssou n ~ern tory. 'I he former is there, ~s in almost all other parts of the Umted ~lates, cuiti:ated in great part for home consumption, and of. course Is of more unportance to the cultivator than articles. de?ommated staples. Hemp will produce the double advantage of bemg ~t once .an article of dome.satic use and a staple. As long as cotton _IS _ex.ten~Ively cultivated in the s0uthern part of the valley of the MississJppJ, hefflp will be profitably produced in the northern. Every twenty lbs. of the former will demand at least one of the latter, or the necessary quantity of himp in bailing and cordage, is • ' EMTGRANT'S GUIDE. 185· about 5 per cent. of the weight of the cotton. A b~Ie ":eit?hing three hundred, will have 2851bs. of .cotton, and 15lbs. of balJ.ng :md r?pe. Mr. Niles caJculatPs the ctuantity of cotton produced Ill tl,'~ Umted States in .1816,* at 320,000 bales. 'fh is would demand 4 ,800,000lbs. of l.Jemp, formed into duck and cordage. . FJ:ix is a vegetable, that like cotton, will grow _upon a great var~ u ety of land;· moderately rich soil is ma-t congemal to il ... x. It JS an objection to hemp, tlu1t it demands fir t rate l:md. . The actual surfac.e upon which hemp Cfln ue pr~cluced WJtb pro6t, is very confined cempared with flax; the former, I'l, however, upon ]and suitable to its growth, a more beneficial crop tb~ n the .latte r. Hemp was more extensively cultivated some years past 1~1 the valley of the Mis!'issippi th•m it is at pres~nt. . The restoratJ.on ~)f th~ relations of commerce in Europe, has restncteJ tbe cult1~at10n ot hemp in the United States to nearly the quantity necessary for home consumption. Of vegetables that are congenial to the soil and climate, ~nd not yet introduced into general culture in Louisiana, there i" n~ne wonlJ, perh~ps, yield more beneficial product, th~n that spe~1es ot.ses:-~mum, called oriental bhene.'t This plant, whose growth ts rap1d, can be cultivated as extensivelv as cotton. The seed Yessel is a many seeded capsule, containing rou~d, oily seeds, which are used in various way.' by the negroes, who cook it as a pulse. It ba.s been leng knowt~ to produce an oil, containing all tbe valwable qualities of olive oil, w;_t~out the same liability of becornin<T rancid by a~e. The bbene ~.s certainly one of the most productive vegetabies that ever was cult1... vated by man. It is known in Louisiana, but much neglected. Peing broulrbt from the western coa'it of Africa from the banks of allu . vial rivet~, its growth i luxuriant on the fertile borders of the frfissil'isippi and Teche: it will vegetate extremely ·well, also on higb, dry, soil. It might, indeed, be made an universal object of culture from Tennessee to the gulf of Mexico. The silk worm is one of the products of Europe and Asia, not yet introduced into the United States, but to which the clim::tte is, in many places, no doubt congenial. Whether silk, as an object of humall industry, can be prouuced in America, Leneficially, is yet to ascertain; but some doubts may be iudulgetl on the subject. Cotton will answer almost all the uses of silk, and also supply many otber artic- les of clothing which silk will not. Cotton can no doubt be much ·>-'Page 124, of this treatise, No. 18 Vol. XII. Nile's Register, Darby's Louis-iana, 2d Ed. p. 320. t Class didynamia, ordt>r angiospermia of Linnreus. Sesamum fol·ius ovalo oblongis intcgris.-Millcr Digitalis oriental-i.Y, sesamttm d·iclo .-Toumefurt "This plant," say!) Miller, in his Ga,·denea·'s Dictionary, ~rt. Sosamum, cc was introduced into Carolina by the Af1·ican negroes, where It succeeds extremely well. The inhauitants of that country muke an oil from the seed, whicu ·will keep many years, and not take any rancid smell or tastf'; but i.n t"Yo. year·s becomes quite mild; 110 that when the warm taste of the seed wh~eh as an the oil when first drawn is worn oft~ they use it as a sallad oil, and fol' all the pur· poses of sweet oil." 24 |