FOOTNOTES:

[1] As M. Chabaud de la Tour. He was examined as to his fitness

before being appointed. Gruyer, p. 165.

[2] This at least was his own claim and the _Orleanist_ view. The

matter became a question of partisan controversy, the legitimists

asserting that he frequently offered to serve against France, but

that his offers were contemptuously refused. A. Debidour in the

article "Louis-Philippe" in _La Grande Encyclopédie_ supports the

latter view; but see Gruyer, _La Jeunesse_, and E. Daudet, "Une

réconciliation de famille en 1800," in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_,

Sept. 15, 1905, p. 301. M. Daudet gives the account of the interview

left by the comte d'Artois, and he also makes it clear that Louis

Philippe, while protesting his loyalty to the head of his house, did

not disguise his opinion that a Restoration would only be possible if

the king accepted the essential changes made by the Revolution.

[3] To say that these protestations were hypocritical is to assume

too much. Personal ambition doubtless played a part; but he must have

soon realized that the French people had wearied of "legitimism" and

that a regency in the circumstances was impossible.

[4] There is a vivid account in Mr Featherstonhaugh to Lord

Palmerston, Havre, March 3, 1848, in _The Letters of Queen Victoria_

(pop. ed., ii. 156).

LOUISBURG, a town and port of entry of Cape Breton county, Nova Scotia,

Canada, on the Sydney & Louisburg railway, 39 m. from Sydney. Pop.

(1901) 1588. Under the French _régime_, Louisburg was second only to

Quebec. A fortress was erected at enormous expense, and the city was the

centre of the cod-fisheries. The fortress was, however, captured in 1745

by the American colonists, under Sir William Pepperrell (1696-1759),

assisted by the British fleet, and again in 1758 by a British land and

sea force under General Jeffrey Amherst (1717-1797) and Admiral

Boscawen. The jealousy of the British settlement of Halifax led to its

almost utter destruction, and only a few case-mates now remain. Under

English rule a fishing village grew up on the other side of the harbour,

and has now become the winter shipping port of the Dominion Coal

Company. The harbour is deep, spacious and open all the year round,

though occasionally blocked by drift ice in the spring.

LOUISE [AUGUSTE WILHELMINE AMALIE LUISE] (1776-1810), queen of Prussia,

was born on the 10th of March 1776 in Hanover, where her father, Prince

Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, was field-marshal of the household

brigade. Her mother was a princess of Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1793 Louise

met at Frankfort the crown prince of Prussia, afterwards King Frederick

William III., who was so fascinated by her beauty, and by the nobleness

of her character, that he asked her to become his wife. They were

married on the 24th of December of the same year. As queen of Prussia

she commanded universal respect and affection, and nothing in Prussian

history is more pathetic than the dignity and unflinching courage with

which she bore the sufferings inflicted on her and her family during the

war between Prussia and France. After the battle of Jena she went with

her husband to Königsberg, and when the battles of Eylau and Friedland

had placed Prussia absolutely at the mercy of France, she made a

personal appeal to Napoleon at his headquarters in Tilsit, but without

success. Early in 1808 she accompanied the king from Memel to

Königsberg, whence, towards the end of the year, she visited St

Petersburg, returning to Berlin on the 23rd of December 1809. During the

war Napoleon attempted to destroy the queen's reputation, but the only

effect of his charges in Prussia was to make her more deeply beloved. On

the 19th of July 1810 she died in her husband's arms, while visiting her

father in Strelitz. She was buried in the garden of the palace at

Charlottenburg, where a mausoleum, containing a fine recumbent statue by

Rauch, was built over her grave. In 1840 her husband was buried by her

side. The Louise Foundation (Luisenstift) for the education of girls was

established in her honour, and in 1814 Frederick William III. instituted

the Order of Louise (Luisenorden). In 1880 a statue of Queen Louise was

erected in the Thiergarten at Berlin.

See F. Adami, _Luise, Königin von Preussen_ (7th ed., 1875); E. Engel,

_Königin Luise_ (1876); A. Kluckhohn, _Luise, Königin von Preussen_

(1876); Mommsen and Treitschke, _Königin Luise_ (1876); in English,

Hudson, _Life and Times of Louisa, Queen of Prussia_ (1874); G. Horn,

_Das Buch von der Königin Luise_ (Berlin, 1883); A. Lonke, _Königin

Luise von Preussen_ (Leipzig, 1903); H. von Petersdorff, "Königin

Luise," _Frauenleben_, Bd. i. (Bielefeld, 1903, 2nd ed., 1904).

LOUISE OF SAVOY (1476-1531), duchess of Angoulême, mother of Francis I.

of France, was daughter of a cadet of the house of Savoy, Philip, count

of Bresse, afterwards duke of Savoy. Through her mother, Marguerite de

Bourbon, she was niece of Pierre de Bourbon, sire de Beaujeu, afterwards

duke of Bourbon. At the age of twelve she was married to Charles of

Valois, count of Angoulême, great-grandson of King Charles V. The count

died in 1496, leaving her the mother of two children, Marguerite (b.

1492) and Francis (b. 1494). The accession of Louis XII., who was

childless, made Francis of Angoulême the heir-presumptive to the throne

of France. Louise brought her children to the court, and received

Amboise as her residence. She lived henceforth in fear lest Louis should

have a son; and in consequence there was a secret rivalry between her

and the queen, Anne of Brittany. Finally, her son became king on the 1st

of January 1515 by the death of Louis XII. From him Louise received the

county of Angoulême, which was erected into a duchy, the duchy of Anjou,

and the counties of Maine and Beaufort. She was then given the title of

"Madame." From 1515 to her death, she took the chief share in the

government. The part she played has been variously judged, and is not

yet completely elucidated. It is certain that Louise had a clear head,

practical good sense and tenacity. In the critical situation after the

battle of Pavia (1525) she proved herself equal to the emergency,

maintained order in the kingdom, and manoeuvred very skilfully to detach

Henry VIII. of England from the imperial alliance. But she appears to

have been passionate, exceedingly rapacious and ever careful of her own

interest. In her malignant disputes with the constable de Bourbon on the

question of his wife's succession, she goaded him to extreme measures,

and her rapacity showed itself also in her dealings with the

_surintendant des finances_, J. de Beaune, baron de Samblançay (d.

1527), who diverted the money intended for the French soldiers in Italy

into the coffers of the queen, and suffered death in consequence. She

died in 1531, and Francis reunited to the crown her domains, which

comprised the Bourbonnais, Beaujolais, Auvergne, la Marche, Angoumois,

Maine and Anjou.

There is extant a _Journal_ of Louise of Savoy, the authenticity of

which seems certain. It consists of brief notes--generally very exact

and sometimes ironical--which go as far as the year 1522. The only

trustworthy text is that published by Guichenon in his _Histoire

généalogique de la maison de Savoie_ (ed. of 1778-1780, vol. iv.).

See _Poésies de François I^er et de Louise de Savoie ..._, ed. by

Champollion-Figeac (1847); De Maulde, _Louise de Savoie et François

I^er_ (1895); G. Jacqueton, _La Politique extérieure de Louise de

Savoie ..._ (1892); H. Hauser, "Étude critique sur le Journal de

Louise de Savoie," in the _Revue historique_, vol. 86 (1904).

LOUISIADE ARCHIPELAGO, a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean,

extending south-eastward from the easternmost promontory of New Guinea,

and included in the Australian territory of Papua (British New Guinea).

The islands number over eighty, and are interspersed with reefs. They

are rich in tropical forest products, and gold has been discovered on

the chief island, Tagula or South-east (area 380 sq. m.) and on Misima

or St Aignan. The natives are of Papuan type, and practise cannibalism.

The islands were probably observed by Torres in 1606, but were named by

L. A. de Bougainville in 1768 after Louis XV.

LOUISIANA, one of the Southern States of the United States of America,

lying on the N. coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Beginning on the N., its

boundary follows eastward the parallel of 33° N., separating Louisiana

from Arkansas; then descends the Mississippi river, separating it from

the state of Mississippi, southward to 31°; passes eastward on this

parallel to the Pearl river, still with the state of Mississippi on the

E.; and descends this river to the Gulf. On the W. the Sabine river,

from the Gulf to 32° N., and, thence to the parallel of 33°, a line a

little W. of (and parallel to) the meridian of 94° W., separate

Louisiana from Texas. Including islands in the Gulf, the stretch of

latitude is approximately 4° and of longitude 5°. The total area is

48,506 sq. m., of which 3097 sq. m. are water surface (including 1060

sq. m. of landlocked coastal bays called "lakes"). The coast line is

about 1500 m.

_Physical Features._--Geologically Louisiana is a very recent

creation, and belongs to the "Coastal Plain Province." Most of the

rocks or soils composing its surface were formed as submarine

deposits; the easternmost and southernmost parts are true river

deposits. These facts are the key to the state's chorography. The

average elevation of the state above the sea is only about 75 ft., and

practically the only parts more than 400 ft. high are hills in Sabine,

Claiborne and Vernon parishes. The physiographic features are few and

very simple. The essential elements are five[1]: diluvial plains,

coast marshes, prairies, "bluffs" and "pine-hills" (to use the local

nomenclature). These were successive stages in the geologic process

which has created, and is still actively modifying, the state. They

are all seen, spread from N. to S., west of the Mississippi, and also,

save only the prairies, in the so-called "Florida parishes" E. of the

Mississippi.

These different elements in the region W. of the Mississippi are

arranged from N. to S. in the order of decreasing geologic age and

maturity. Beginning with elevations of about 400 ft. near the Arkansas

line, there is a gentle slope toward the S.E. The northern part can

best be regarded as a low plateau (once marine sediments) sloping

southward, traversed by the large diluvial valleys of the Mississippi,

Red and Ouachita rivers, and recut by smaller tributaries into smaller

plateaus and rather uniform flat-topped hills. The "bluffs" (remnants

of an eroded plain formed of alluvion deposits over an old, mature and

drowned topography) run through the second tier of parishes W. of the

Mississippi above the Red river. Below this river prairie areas become

increasingly common, constituting the entire S.W. corner of the state.

They are usually only 20 to 30 ft. above the sea in this district,

never above 70, and are generally treeless except for marginal timber

along the sluggish, meandering streams. One of their peculiar

features--the sandy circular "mounds," 2 to 10 ft. high and 20 to 30

or even 50 ft. in diameter, sometimes surmounted by trees in the midst

of a treeless plain and sometimes arranged in circles and on radii,

and decreasing in size with distance from the centre of the field--has

been variously explained. The mounds were probably formed by some

gentle eruptive action like that exhibited in the "mud hills" along

the Mississippi below New Orleans; but no explanation is generally

accepted. The prairies shade off into the coast marshes. This fringe

of wooded swamp and sea marsh is generally 20 to 30, but in places

even 50 and 60 m. in width. Where the marsh is open and grassy,

flooded only at high tides or in rainy seasons, and the ground firm

enough to bear cattle, it is used as range. Considerable tracts have

also been diked and reclaimed for cotton, sugar and especially for

rice culture. The tidal action of the gulf is so slight and the

marshes are so low that perfect drainage cannot be obtained through

tide gates, which must therefore be supplemented by pumping machinery

when rains are heavy or landward winds long prevail. Slight ridges

along the streams and bayous which traverse it, and occasional patches

of slightly elevated prairie, relieve in a measure the monotonous

expanse. It is in and along the borders of this coast swamp region

that most of the rice and much of the sugar cane of the state are

grown. Long bar-like "islands" (conspicuous high land rising above the

marsh and prairie)--Orange, Petite Anse, Grand Cote, Cote Blanche and

Belle Isle--offer very interesting topographical and geological

problems. "Trembling prairies"--land that trembles under the tread of

men or cattle--are common near the coast. Most of the swamp fringe is

reclaimable. The marshes encroach most upon the parishes of St

Charles, Orleans and Plaquemines. In St Charles the cultivable strip

of land along the river is only about 3 m. wide. In Orleans the city

of New Orleans occupies nearly all the high ground and encroaches on

the swamps. In Plaquemines there is practically no cultivable land

below Forts Jackson and St Philip, and above there is only a narrow

strip.

The alluvial lands include the river flood plains. The principal

rivers are the Mississippi, which flows nearly 600 m. through and

along the border of the state, the Red river, the Ouachita (or

Washita), Sabine and Pearl; all except the last are navigable at all

stages of the water. There are many "bayous," several of which are of

great importance, both for navigation and for drainage. They may be

characterized as secondary outlets of the rivers or flood

distributaries. Among them are Bayou Teche, Bayou Plaquemine,

Atchafalaya Bayou,[2] Bayou Lafourche and Bayou Boeuf. Almost all

secondary water-courses, particularly if they have sluggish currents,

are known as bayous. Some might well be called lakes, and others

rivers. The alluvial portion of the state, especially below the mouth

of the Red river, is an intricate network of these bayous, which,

before their closure by a levee system, served partially, in time of

flood, to carry off the escaping surplus of river waters. They are

comparatively inactive at all seasons; indeed, the action of the tides

and back-waters and the tangle of vegetation in the sombre swamps and

forests through which they run, often render their currents almost

imperceptible at ordinary water. Navigable waters are said to

penetrate all but four of the parishes of the state, their total

length approximating 3800 m.

Each of the larger streams, as well as a large proportion of the

smaller ones, is accompanied by a belt of bottom land, of greater or

less width, lying low as regards the stream, and liable to overflow at

times of high water. These flood plains form collectively what is

known as the alluvial region, which extends in a broad belt down the

Mississippi, from the mouth of the Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico, and up

the Ouachita and its branches and the Red river to and beyond the

limits of the state. Its breadth along the Mississippi within

Louisiana ranges from 10 to 50 or 60 m., and that along the Red river

and the Ouachita has an average breadth of 10 m. Through its great

flood-plain the Mississippi river winds upon the summit of a ridge

formed by its own deposits. In each direction the country falls away

in a succession of minor undulations, the summits of the ridges being

occupied by the streams and bayous. Nearly all of this vast

flood-plain lies below the level of high water in the Mississippi,

and, but for the protection afforded by the levees, every considerable

rise of its waters would inundate vast areas of fertile and cultivated

land. The low regions of Louisiana, including the alluvial lands and

the coast swamps, comprise about 20,000 sq. m., or nearly one-half the

area of the state. The remainder consists of the uplands of prairie

and forest.

The alluvial region of the state in 1909 was mainly protected against

overflow from the Mississippi river by 754 m. of levee on the

Mississippi river within the state, and 84 m. on the Mississippi

river, Cypress and Amos Bayou in Arkansas, forming part of the general

system which extends through other states, 1000 m. up to the highlands

about the junction of the Ohio river. The state and the national

government co-operate in the construction and maintenance of this

system, but the Federal government did not give material aid (the only

exception being the grant of swamp lands in 1850) until the

exceptionally disastrous flood in 1882. For about a century and a half

before that time, levee building had been undertaken in a more or less

spasmodic and tentative way, first by riparian proprietors, then by

local combinations of public and private interests, and finally by the

state, acting through levee districts, advised by a Board of

Engineers. The Federal government, after its participation in the

work, acted through a Board of Engineers, known as the "Mississippi

River Commission." The system of 754 m. of Mississippi river levees,

within the state, was built almost entirely after 1866, and represents

an expenditure of about $43,000,000 for primary construction alone; of

this sum, the national government contributed probably a third (the

state expended about $24,000,000 on levees before the Civil War). Some

of the levees, especially those in swampy regions where outlet bayous

are closed, are of extraordinary solidity and dimensions, being 20 to

40 ft. high, or even more, across streams or bayous--formerly

outlets--with bases of 8 or 10 ft. to one of height. The task of

maintenance consists almost entirely in closing the gaps which occur

when the banks on which the levees are built cave into the river.

Levee systems on some of the interior or tributary rivers, aggregating

some 602 m., are exclusively built and maintained by the state.

Louisiana also contributes largely to the 84 m. of levee in Arkansas,

necessary to its security from overflow. The improvement of bayous,

channels, the construction of canals and the drainage of swamp lands

also contribute to the protection of the state.

The lakes are mainly in three classes. First come the coast lagoons,

many of which are merely landlocked salt-water bays, the waters of

which rise and fall with the tides. Of this class are Pontchartrain,

Borgne, Maurepas and Sabine. These are simply parts of the sea which

have escaped the filling-in process carried on by the great river and

the lesser streams. A second class, called "ox-bow" lakes, large in

numbers but small in area, includes ordinary cut-off meanders along

the Mississippi and Red rivers. A third class, those upon the Red

river and its branches, are caused mainly by the partial stoppage of

the water above Shreveport by the "raft," a mass of drift such as

frequently gathers in western rivers, which for a distance of 45 m.

almost completely closed the channel until it was broken up by

government engineers. These lakes are much larger at flood season than

at other times, and have been much reduced in size by the cutting of a

channel through the raft. Lakes of this class are sometimes formed by

the choking of the mouth of feeble tributaries by silt deposited by

the Red river where the currents meet.

_Mineral Resources._--Mineral resources are few, but important. In the

Tertiary region are found small quantities of iron ore and an

indifferent brown coal. The important mineral products are salt,

sulphur, petroleum and natural gas. The deposit of rock salt on Petite

Anse Island, in the coast swamp region, has been extensively worked

since its discovery during the Civil War. The deposit is in places

1000 ft. thick, and yields salt of extraordinary purity (sometimes 99%

pure). There are large deposits also on Orange Island (in places at

least 1800 ft. thick), on Week's Island, on Belle Isle and probably

beneath the intervening marshes. In 1907 Louisiana ranked sixth among

the salt-producing states of the country (after New York, Michigan,

Ohio, Kansas and California), its output being valued at $226,892,

only a few hundred dollars more than that of Texas. Near Lake Charles,

at Sulphur, are very extraordinary sulphur deposits. The beds lie

several (for the most part four to six) hundred feet underground and

are of disputed origin. Many regard them as products of an extinct

volcano; according to others they are of vegetable origin (they are

found in conjunction with gypsum). They were discovered before 1870 by

searchers after petroleum, but their exploitation remained in the

experimental stage until about 1900. The sulphur is dissolved by

superheated water forced down pipes, and the water with sulphur in

solution is forced upward by hot air pressure through other pipes; the

sulphur comes, 99% pure, to the surface of the ground, where it is

cooled in immense bins, and then broken up and loaded directly upon

cars for shipment. These mines divide with the Sicilian mines the

control of the sulphur market of the world. The value of the sulphur

taken from the mines of Louisiana in 1907 was a little more than

$5,000,000. Evidences of petroleum were discovered long ago, in the

very field where in recent years the Beaumont and Vinton wells were

bored. In 1909 Jennings was the chief field in Louisiana, lesser

fields being at Welsh, Anse la Butte, Caddo and Vinton. The Jennings

field, one of the greatest in the United States, produced up to and

including 1907 more than 26,000,000 barrels of high-grade oil,

twelve-thirteenths of which came from an area of only 50 acres, one

well producing a tenth of the entire output. In 1907 the state

produced 5,000,221 barrels of petroleum, valued at $4,063,033. Natural

gas is found in Caddo parish, about 20 m. N. of Shreveport. The depth

of the wells is from 840 to 2150 ft.; two wells completed in 1907 had

a daily capacity estimated at 35,000,000 to 50,000,000 ft. Shreveport,

Oil City, Blanchard, Mooringsport, Bossier City and Texarkana are

supplied with natural gas by pipe lines from this field. Kaolin is

found in the state; in 1907 the total value of all clay products was

$928,579.

_Climate._--The climate is semi-tropical and exceptionally equable

over large areas. In the S. and S.E. the equable temperature is

largely the effect of the network of bays, bayous and lakes, and

throughout the state the climate is materially influenced by the

prevailing southerly winds from the Gulf of Mexico. Some daily

variation in the temperature of adjoining localities is caused by a

dark soil in the one and a light soil in the other, but the

differences of mean annual temperature are almost wholly due to

differences of latitude and elevation. The mean annual temperature for

a period of nineteen years (Jan. 1888 to Dec. 1906) ranged from 70° F.

at Port Eads, in the extreme S.E., to 65° F. at Lake Providence, in

the N.E. The mean temperature of July, the hottest month, is

comparatively uniform over the state, varying only from 81° to 83°;

the mean for January, the coldest month, varies from 46° in the

extreme north to 56° in the extreme south. Even in the coldest

localities eight or nine months are wholly free from frost, and in the

coast parishes frost occurs only a few days in each year. Rainfall is

usually heavy in the S.E., but it decreases toward the N.W. As much as

85.6 in. have fallen within a year at New Orleans, but in this

locality the average for a year is about 57.6 in.; at Shreveport the

average is 46 in., and for the entire state it is 55 in. Much more

rain falls in summer than in any other season, but in some parts the

heaviest rainfall is in the spring and in others in the winter. A

light fall of snow is not uncommon in the northern parishes, but in

the southern part of the state snow falls not oftener than once in

three to five years. Hailstorms are infrequent everywhere, but

especially so in the south. Only a fourth to a half of the days of

the different months are wholly or partly clear even in the north, and

in the same district the monthly means of relative humidity vary from

65 to 70.

[Illustration: Map of Louisiana.]

_Fauna._--The entire state is included within the Austro-riparian life

zone; the higher portions fall within the Carolinian area and the

lower portions, including the Gulf and the Mississippi embayment

almost to the N.E. corner of the state, constitute a special

semi-tropical region. The native fauna of the state resembles in its

general features that of the other Gulf states. The feral fauna was

once rather varied. Black bears, wolves and deer are not yet extinct,

and more rarely a "wild cat" (lynx) or "panther" (puma) is seen in the

swamps. Of smaller mammals, raccoons, squirrels and opossums are very

common. Every bayou contains alligators; and reptiles of various

species, such as turtles, lizards, horned toads, rattlesnakes and

moccasins are abundant. Shrimps, frogs (of great commercial

importance), terrapin, clams and oysters are common. Only in very

recent years have oysters, though plentiful, become of competitive

importance in the national market; they are greatly favoured by state

protective legislation. In 1904 a state oyster commission was created

to supplant the independent control by the parishes. An important

boundary dispute with Mississippi arose over beds lying near the state

line. The state leases the beds at a low annual rental in tracts

(limited for each person, firm or corporation to 1000 acres), and

draws from them a considerable revenue. The avifauna is varied and

abundant, comprising eagles, vultures (protected by law), hawks, owls,

pelicans, cranes, turkeys, geese, "partridges" (called quail or "Bob

White" elsewhere), ducks, &c., besides numerous smaller species, many

of which are brilliant of plumage but harsh of voice.

_Flora._--Heavy rainfall, high temperature and fertile soil combine to

cover the greater part of the state, and particularly the alluvial

regions and the coast swamps, with a most luxuriant subtropical

vegetation, both arborescent and herbaceous. Louisiana is justly

celebrated for the beauty and fragrance of its flowers. The range of

temperature is not sufficient to give the variety of annual wild

flowers of more northern climates; nevertheless flowers cover the

bottom lands and uplands in great profusion. The upland flora is the

more diversified. Flowering annuals are mainly aquatic. Water lilies,

water hyacinths, which are an obstruction in many streams, and irises

in rich variety give colour to the coast wastes and sombre bayous.

Notable among the flora are roses, japonicas, hibiscus shrubs of

various species, poinsettias, tea olives, crepe myrtle, jasmines,

magnolias, camellias, oleanders, chrysanthemums, geraniums and

plumbagos. The value and variety of the timber are very great. Much of

the river swamp region is covered with cypress trees festooned with

Spanish moss. The most common species in the alluvial regions and, to

a less degree, in the drier portions of the swamps and in the stream

bottoms of the prairies are various oaks, black, sweet and tupelo gum,

holly, cotton-wood, poplar, magnolia sweet bay, the tulip tree,

catalpa, black walnut, pecans, hickories, ash, beech and short-leaf

pine. On drier and higher soils are the persimmon, sassafras, red

maple, elm, black haw, hawthorn, various oaks (in all 10 species

occur), hickories and splendid forests of long-leaf and loblolly

yellow pine.

_Forestry._--These forests are the greatest and finest of their kind

remaining in the United States. In 1898 it was estimated by Henry

Gannett (followed by the Federal census of 1900) that the timbered

area covered 28,300 sq. m. Professor C. S. Sargent estimated in 1884

that the stand of short-leaf and long-leaf pines aggregated

respectively 21,625 and 26,558 million feet. The timber product of

1900 ($17,294,444) was almost ten times that of 1880 ($1,764,640); and

in 1905 the product value ($35,192,374) was more than twice that of

1900. Nevertheless, in 1900 the cypress forests remained practically

untouched, only slight impression had been made upon the pine areas,

and the hard-wood forests, except that they had been culled of their

choicest oak, remained in their primal state (U.S. census). Between

1900 and 1905 furniture factories and planing mills became somewhat

important. Pond pine occurs only near the Pearl river. Curly pine is

fairly abundant. The eastern pine belt is composed of the long-leaf

pine, interspersed with some loblolly. It covers an area of about 3900

sq. m. The south-western pine belt contains the heaviest growth of

long-leaf pine timber in the world, covering an area of about 4200 sq.

m., and occasionally interspersed with short-leaf pine. The short-leaf

growth is especially heavy in the north-western portion of the state,

while the long-leaf is found mainly in large masses N. and S. of the

Red river around Alexandria as a centre. The cypress forests of the

alluvial and overflowed lands in the S. of the state are among the

largest and the most heavily timbered known. The hard-woods are found

in the river bottoms throughout the state.

_Agriculture and Soils._--Agriculture is the chief industry of the

State. In 1900 26.2% of the land was in farms, and of this area about

two-fifths was improved. The size of the average farm decreased in the

two preceding decades from 171.3 to 95.4 acres. The percentage of farms

operated by owners (i.e. owners, part owners, owners and tenants, and

managers) fell from 64.8 to 42.1% from 1880 to 1900, and the percentage

operated by cash tenants increased from 13.8 in 1880 to 24.9 in 1900,

and by share tenants from 21.5 in 1880 to 33.0 in 1900; the percentage

of farms operated by white farmers was 49.8 in 1900. The value of farm

property, $198,536,906 in 1900, increased 79.8% in the preceding decade.

The value of live stock in the latter year was $28,869,506. The total

value of all farm products in 1899 was $72,667,302, of which $59,276,092

was the value of the distinctive crops--cotton, sugar and rice. The

state bureau of agriculture in 1903 estimated that of the total area

14.9 millions of acres were timber land, 5.7 millions pasture and marsh,

and 5.0 millions cultivated farm land.

In the N. there are many sandy districts in the uplands, also sandy

clays; in the "second bottoms" of the streams fertile sandy loams;

abundant tertiary marls in the north-central region; some gypsum in the

cretaceous "islands"; and some fossiliferous marls with decomposed

limestones. The prairies of south-western Louisiana have much yellow

marl underlying them. Alluvial soil and bluff, the location of which has

been indicated, are of primary agricultural importance. Reclaimed

marsh-land and fresh alluvium (the so-called "front-lands" on rivers and

bayous) are choice soil for Indian corn, sugar-cane, perique tobacco,

semi-tropical fruits and cotton. The bluff lands are simply old alluvium

now well drained and above all floods. The prairies of the S.W. are

devoted almost exclusively to rice. On the hills yellow-leaf tobacco can

be grown. Cereals and forage plants can be successfully grown

everywhere, and varied and profitable agriculture is possible even on

the "pine-barrens" or uplands of the N.; but more intelligent and more

intensive farming is necessary than that practised by the average

"piney-woods" farmer. The alluvial section of lower Louisiana is mostly

devoted to sugar, and farther northward to Indian corn and cotton.

Cotton is the principal crop. In 1907 Louisiana ranked eighth in

acreage of cotton (1,622,000 acres) among the states of the United

States, and in 1907-1908 the cotton crop (675,428 bales) was eighth

among the crops of the states. The average yield per acre varies from

about .45 to .75 bale according to the season. In good seasons and

exceptional localities the yield may approach a bale per acre, as in

Assumption parish, and in the Mississippi valley at the junction of

Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. For many years there has been a

reaction against the all-cotton farming system. In general, the small

cotton farmer was at the mercy of the commission merchant, to whom he

mortgaged his crops in advance; but this evil has lessened, and in

some districts the system of advancing is either non-existent or very

slightly developed.

In 1907-1908 all the sugar produced from cane grown in the United

States came from Louisiana (335,000 long tons) and Texas (12,000

tons); in the same year cane sugar from Hawaii amounted to 420,000

tons, from Porto Rico to 217,000 tons and from the Philippines to

135,000 tons; and the total yield of beet sugar from the United States

was 413,954 tons. Of all the cane grown, an amount between one-sixth

and one-quarter--and that the best--must be reserved for seed every

other year, and this is a great handicap to the state in competing

with other cane regions and with the sugar beet. Of the total sugar

consumption of the country in 1899-1904 Louisiana produced somewhat

more than a fifteenth. Since about 1880 there have been central

factories, and their increase has been a very prominent factor in the

development of the industry, as it has been in Cuba. Though very much

of the region S. of the Red river is fairly well suited to

sugar-growing, it is still true that sugar cannot, over much of this

area, be grown to so great advantage as other crops. Its hold upon the

delta region is, however, almost unchallenged, especially since the

rice farmers have found in the prairie lands that excel the delta for

their purposes. Sugar is grown also in St Landry and the eastern part

of Attakapas--a name formerly loosely applied to what are now St Mary,

Iberia, Vermilion, St Martin and Lafayette parishes. Though introduced

with success from Santo Domingo about the middle of the 18th century,

the sugar industry practically dates from 1796, when Étienne Boré

first succeeded in crystallizing and clarifying the syrup. Steam

motive power was first introduced on the plantations in 1822. The

average product of the ten seasons 1894-1904 was 299,745 tons. A state

sugar experiment station is maintained at Audubon Park in New Orleans,

its work embracing the development of seedlings, the improvement of

cane varieties, the study of fungus diseases of the cane, the

improvement of mill methods and the reconciliation of such methods

(for example, the use of sulphur as a bleaching and clarifying agent)

with the requirements of "pure food" laws. Good work has also been

done by the Audubon sugar school of the state university, founded "for

the highest scientific training in the growing of sugar cane and in

the technology of sugar manufacture."

Tobacco might be grown profitably over a large part of the state, but

in reality very little is grown. The strong, black perique of the

delta--cultivated very generally in the lower alluvial region before

the Civil War, but now almost exclusively in St James parish--is a

famous leaf, grown since early colonial times. Bright or yellow plug

and smoking leaf are grown on the pine uplands and pine "flats," and a

small amount of cigar tobacco on the flats, prairies and "bluffs." The

total value of the tobacco crop of 35,000 lb. in 1907 was only

$10,000, an amount exceeded by each of the other 24 tobacco-growing

states, and the crop was about one-twentieth of 1% of the product of

the whole United States.

Rice farming, which had its beginning immediately after the Civil War

and first became prominent in the 'seventies, has developed enormously

since 1880. From 1879 to 1899 the product increased twenty-five fold.

Formerly the grain was raised by preference in the river bottoms,

which still yield, almost invariably, the earliest rice of the season

and perhaps the finest. The "buckshot clays" of the backlands, which

are so stiff that they can scarcely be ploughed until flooded and

softened, and are remarkably retentive of moisture, are ideal rice

soil; but none of the alluvial lands has an underlying hardpan, and

they cannot as a rule be drained sufficiently to make the use of heavy

harvesting machinery possible. In 1880 the prairies of the S.W. were

opened to settlement by the railway. These prairies are traversed by

ridges, which facilitate irrigation, and are underlaid by an

impervious subsoil, which facilitates both effective storage and

drainage. Thus the use of machinery became possible, and this

revolutionized the entire industry. The year 1884 may be taken as the

initial date of the new period, and the grain is now harvested exactly

as is wheat in the west-central states. Previously the grain had

ordinarily been cut with sickles and harvested by hand. The farms were

also small, usually from 5 to 10 acres. They are now very much larger.

All the prairies district--the centre of which is Crowley--is becoming

one great rice field. Some rice also is grown on the lowlands of the

Mississippi valley, notably in Plaquemines, Jefferson and Lafourche

parishes. In the decade 1881-1890 Louisiana produced about half of the

total yield of the country, and from 1891 to 1900 about five-sevenths.

In 1904 and 1906 the Louisiana crop, about one-half of the total yield

of the country, was larger than that of any other state; but in 1905

and in 1907 (6,192,955 lb. and 7,378,000 lb. respectively) the

Louisiana crop was second in size to that of Texas. Carolina and

Honduras rices were practically the only varieties until after 1896.

Since that time select Japanese species, chosen for superior milling

qualities, have been widely introduced, as the market prejudice in

favour of head rice made the large percentage of broken rice a heavy

handicap to the farmers. Hundreds of varieties have been tested by the

state and federal agricultural experiment stations. A strong tendency

to run to red rice (hardier, but not so marketable) has been a second

great difficulty to overcome.

Irrigation is almost entirely confined to rice farms. In the prairie

region there is abundant water at depths of 100 to 400 ft. beneath the

surface, but this was little used for irrigation for the first few

years of the development of this field, when water was pumped from the

streams and canals. In 1902 nearly one-eighth of the acreage irrigated

was by systems supplied from wells. The irrigated rice area increased

92.9% from 1899 to 1902, and the construction cost of irrigation works

($4,747,359 in 1902; $12.25 per irrigated acre) 87.7% in the same

years. This increase was almost wholly in the prairie parishes. Of the

total irrigated area for rice of 387,580 acres in 1902, 310,670 acres

were in the parishes of Calcasieu, Acadia and Vermilion. In the

Mississippi valley water is taken from the river by flumes in the

levees or by siphons. The danger of floods and the difficulty of

drainage make the extension of the practice unprofitable, and the

opening of the prairies has made it unnecessary.

Many of the fruits of warm-temperate and semi-tropical lands, whether

native or exotic, including oranges, olives, figs, grape-fruit,

kumquats and pomegranates are cultivated. Oranges are grown especially

on the coast. There are many fine groves on the Mississippi below New

Orleans. The fig is a common door-yard tree as in other Gulf and South

Atlantic states, and is never killed down by frost. Louisiana produced

in 1899 only a fifth as great a value in sub-tropic fruits as Arizona

and Texas combined. Orchard fruits are fairly varied, but, compared

with other states, unimportant; and the production of small fruits is

comparatively small, the largest crop being strawberries. Oranges and

pears are seriously damaged by insect and fungus pests. The total

value of fruit products in 1899 was $412,933. Among nuts the native

pecan is exceptionally abundant, the product (637,470 lb. in 1899)

being much greater than that of any other state save Texas.

The total value of cereal products in 1899 was $14,491,796, including

Indian corn valued at $10,327,723 and rice valued at $4,044,489; in

1907 it was more than $27,300,000, including Indian corn valued at

$19,600,000, rice valued at $7,378,000 and oats valued at $223,000.

Indian corn is grown only for home use. Dairying interests are not

largely developed, and in Texas and the adjoining states the "Texas

fever" and "charbon" have done great damage to cattle. Forage crops

are little grown, though soil conditions are favourable. Cowpeas are a

common fertilizer. Garden trucking is very slightly developed, but has

been successful where it has been tried. The state maintains a crop

pest commission, the duties of which include the inspection of all

nursery stock sold in the state.

_Manufactures._--The state's manufacturing interests have during the

last few decades grown greatly in importance. From 1890 to 1900 the

capital invested, the cost of materials used and the value of output (in

1900, $121,181,683) increased respectively 225.4, 147.3 and 109.6%. The

value of the factory products in 1900 was $111,397,919; in 1905 it was

$186,379,592. Slightly above one-half of the product of 1900 was from

New Orleans, and in 1905 about 45.4%. A constitutional amendment of 1902

exempted from parochial and municipal taxes between 1900 and 1910

practically all factories and mines in the state, employing at least

five hands. Manufacturing industries are for the most part closely

related to the products of the soil, about two-thirds of the value of

all manufactures in 1900 and in 1905 being represented by sugar and

molasses refining, lumber and timber products, cotton-seed oil and cake,

and rice cleaned and polished.

Rice is milled at New Orleans, Crowley, Abbeville, Gayden, Jennings

and Lake Charles. Ramie fibre and jute are available for coarse cloth;

cotton weaving is almost non-existent. The lumber industry is centred

chiefly in Calcasieu parish. Lake Charles, Westlake, Bogalusa, Bon

Ami, Carson, Fisher, Fullerton, Leesville, Oakdale and Pickering were

the leading sawmill towns of the state in 1908. Of the rarer woods

particular mention may be made of curly pine, yielding a wood of

beautiful figure and polish; magnolia, hard, close-grained, of fine

polish and of great lasting qualities; and cypress, light, strong,

easily worked and never-rotting. The timber cut of 1900 was officially

stated as 1,214,387 M. ft. B.M., of which two-thirds were of yellow

pine and most of the remainder of cypress. In some localities,

especially in the "Florida parishes," small quantities of rosin and

turpentine are taken from the long-leaf pine, but this industry was

unimportant in Louisiana before 1908. Sawdust, slabs, stumps and large

quantities of logs are wasted. Other manufactures with a product value

in 1905 of between $4,000,000 and $1,000,000 were: bags (not paper);

foundry and machine-shop products; planing-mill products; railway

cars, construction and repairs; malt liquors; men's clothing;

cooperage; food preparations; roasted and ground coffee and spice;

fertilizers; cigars and cigarettes; cotton goods; and manufactured

ice.

_Communications._--The length of railway in the state was 1740 m. in

1890 and 4943.55 m. at the end of 1908. By the state constitution of

1898 and by amendments of 1902 and 1904 tax exemptions for ten years

were granted to newly-built railroads completed before 1909. The

principal roads are the Missouri Pacific (St Louis, Iron Mountain &

Southern, New Orleans & North-western and St Louis, Watkins & Gulf),

the Southern Pacific (Morgan's Louisiana & Texas Railroad & Steamship

Co. and the Louisiana Western), the Texas & Pacific, the Kansas City

Southern, the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific, the Louisiana Railway &

Navigation Co., the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, the Illinois Central,

and the Louisiana & Arkansas. The Illinois Central, the first railway

giving Louisiana connexion with the north, and of immense importance

in the trade of New Orleans, has only about 100 m. of double track in

the state. The problem of inland waterways has always been a most

important one in northern, eastern and southern Louisiana, where there

are systems of improved bayous, lakes and canals which, with the

levees, make this region something like Holland, on a greater scale.

Many bayous are convertible by improvement into excellent drainage and

irrigation canals. The canal system is especially well developed in

the parishes of the Mississippi delta, where, at the close of 1907,

there were about 50 m. of these waterways of decided commercial

importance. They serve the trade of Lake Pontchartrain and the Florida

parishes, the lumber, coal, fish, oyster and truck trade of New

Orleans, and to some extent are the highway of a miscellaneous

coasting trade. The most important canal is probably the new

Atchafalaya Bay canal (14 ft. deep), opened in 1907, connecting the

Atchafalaya river and Morgan City with the Gulf of Mexico. In 1907

active preliminary work was begun on the Louisiana section of a great

interstate inland waterway projected by the national government

between the Mississippi and Rio Grande rivers, almost parallel to the

Gulf Coast and running through the rice and truck-farm districts from

the Teche to the Mermenton river (92 m.). The competition of the water

lines is felt by all the railways, and the importance of water

transportation is rapidly increasing. A state railroad commission,

organized in 1899, has power to regulate railway, steamer,

sleeping-car, express, telephone and telegraph rates within the state.

Foreign commerce is almost wholly centred at New Orleans.

_Population._--The population of the state increased in the ten decades

from 1810 to 1910 successively by 100.4, 40.6, 63.4, 46.9, 36.7, 2.7,

29.3, 19.0, 23.5 and 19.9%. In 1910 it was 1,656,388 (36.5 per sq.

m.).[3] In 1900 47.1% was of negro blood, as compared with 51.5 in

1890. In 1910 there were nine cities with more than 5000 inhabitants

each: New Orleans (339, 075); Shreveport (28,015); Baton Rouge (14,897),

the capital; Lake Charles (11,449); Alexandria (11,213); Monroe

(10,209); New Iberia (7449); Morgan (5477); Crowley (5099). The urban

element is larger than in any other southern state, owing to the large

population of New Orleans. The Acadians (see § _History_ below) to-day

are settled mainly in St Mary, Acadia and Vermilion parishes; lesser

numbers are in Avoyelles and St Landry; and some are scattered in

various other parishes. The parishes of St Mary, Iberia, Vermilion, St

Martin and Lafayette are known as the Attakapas country from an Indian

name. A colony of Germans sent over by John Law to the Arkansas removed

to the Mississippi above New Orleans, and gave to its bank the name of

the "German Coast," by which it is still known. In recent years there

has been an immigration of Italians into Louisiana, which seems likely

to prove of great social and economic importance. The industrial

activity of the state has required more labour than has been available.

The negroes have moved more and more from the country to the towns,

where they easily secure work at good wages. Owing to the inadequate

supply of labour two important immigration leagues of business men were

formed in 1904 and 1905, and in 1907 the state government began

officially to attempt to secure desirable foreign immigration, sending

agents abroad to foster it. Roman Catholics greatly predominate among

religious denominations, having in 1906 477,774 members out of a total

of 778,901 for all denominations; in the same year there were 185,554

Baptists, 79,464 Methodists, 9070 Protestant Episcopalians and 8350

Presbyterians.

_Administration._--Since the admission of the state to the Union in 1812

there have been eight state constitutions (not counting that of 1861)

admirably illustrating--and not less the Territorial government

preceding them--the development of American democracy and the problems

connected with the negroes. Under the Territorial government the

legislative officers were not at first elective. The "parishes" date

from 1807; they were based on an earlier Spanish division for religious

purposes--whence the names of saints in parish nomenclature. The

constitution of 1812 allowed the General Assembly to name the governor

from the two candidates receiving the highest number of votes; gave the

governor large powers of appointment, even of local functionaries; and

required a property qualification for various offices, and even for

voters. The constitution of 1845 made the popular suffrage final in the

choice of the governor, abolished property qualifications, and began to

pare executive powers for the benefit of the General Assembly or the

people. From it dates also the constitutional recognition of the public

schools. In 1852 even the judges of the supreme court were placed among

the officers chosen by popular vote. The constitutions of 1864 and 1868

were of importance primarily as bearing on negro status and national

politics. That of 1879 showed a profound distrust of legislative action,

bred of reconstruction experiences. Nearly all special legislation was

forbidden. The last constitution (1898, with 26 amendments 1898-1906),

unlike all others after that of 1812, was not submitted to the people

for ratification.

Under this constitution sessions of the General Assembly are biennial

(meeting the second Monday in May in even-numbered years) and are

limited to sixty days. The number of senators is fixed by the

constitution at 39; the number of representatives is to be not more

than 116 or less than 98. Any elector is eligible for election as a

representative if he has been a citizen of the state for five years

and a resident of the district or parish from which he is elected for

two years immediately preceding the election; a change of residence

from the district or parish from which he was elected vacates the seat

of a representative or senator. A senator must be at least 25 years of

age. Members of the legislature are elected for four years. Revenue or

appropriation bills originate in the House of Representatives, but may

be amended by the Senate. Contingent appropriations are forbidden, and

the constitution contains a long list of subjects on which special

laws may not be passed. The chief executive officers have four-year

terms, neither the governor nor the treasurer being eligible for

immediate re-election. The governor must be at least 30 years old and

must have been a citizen of the United States and a resident of the

state for 10 years next preceding his election. Within five days after

the passage of any bill by the General Assembly he may veto this

measure, which then becomes a law only if passed by a two-thirds vote

of all members elected to each house of the General Assembly. The

lieutenant governor (and then the secretary of state) succeeds to the

office of governor if the governor is removed, dies or leaves the

state. The five judges of the supreme court of the state are elected

by the people for a term of twelve years. The supreme court is almost

without exception a court of appeal with jurisdiction in cases

involving at least $2000, in cases of divorce, in suits regarding

adoption, legitimacy and custody of children and as regards the

legality and constitutionality of taxes, fines, &c. The supreme court

appoints courts of appeal to judge cases involving less than $2000.

The constitution prohibits lotteries and the sale of lottery tickets.

The suffrage clauses are of particular interest, as they accomplish

the practical disfranchisement of the negroes. The constitution

requires that a voter must (in addition to other qualifications)

either be able to show conclusively ability to read and write, or be

the owner of property within the state assessed at not less than $300,

on which, if personalty, all taxes are paid. But it excepts from these

requirements--thus letting down the bars for illiterate whites

excluded with negroes by the foregoing clauses--persons who were

entitled to vote in some state on or before the 1st of January 1867

(i.e. before the adoption of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments

of the United States Constitution); also the sons or grandsons of such

voters, not under 21 years of age, on the 12th of May 1898; and males

of foreign birth who have resided in the state for five years next

preceding the date of application for registration and who were

naturalized prior to 1898. The constitution provides that no person

less than 60 years of age shall be permitted to vote unless he has

paid an annual poll-tax of one dollar for the two years next preceding

the year in which he offers to vote. Convicts not pardoned with an

explicit restoration of suffrage privileges are disfranchised--a rare

clause in the United States. Suffrage was by this constitution first

extended to women tax-payers in questions "submitted to the

tax-payers, as such." The creation of a railroad commission was

ordered and the preparation of a code of criminal law.

The Louisiana Board of Levee Commissioners was organized in 1865. The

state board of health was the first one effectively organized (1855)

in the United States. It encountered many difficulties, and until the

definite proof of the stegomyia hypothesis of yellow-fever inoculation

made by the United States army surgeons in Cuba in 1900, the greatest

problem seemed insoluble. Since that time conditions of health in New

Orleans have been revolutionized (in 1907 state control of maritime

quarantine on the Mississippi was supplanted by that of the national

government), and smaller cities and towns have been stimulated to take

action by her example. Sanitary institutes are held by the state board

at various towns each year for the instruction of the public. Boards

of appraisers and equalization oversee the administration of the tax

system; the cost of collection, owing to the fee system for payment of

collectors, was higher than in any other state of the Union until

1907, when the fees were greatly reduced. The state assessment in 1901

totalled $301,215,222 and in 1907 was $508,000,000. Schools and levees

absorb about half of all revenues, leaving half for the payment of

interest on the state debt (bonded debt on 1st of April 1908,

$11,108,300) and for expenses of government. A general primary

election law for the selection, by the voters, of candidates for state

office came into effect in 1906.

_Law._--Louisiana has been peculiar among the states of the Union in the

history of the development of its legal system. In Louisiana alone (as

the state is known to-day), out of all the territory acquired from

France as the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, was the civil law so

established under French and Spanish rule that it persisted under

American dominion. In all the other states formed from the Purchase, the

civil law, never existent practically, was early expressly abrogated,

and the common law of England established in its place. After O'Reilly

established his power in 1769 (see _History_, below), the Spanish law

was supreme. All the old codes of the Peninsula, as well as the laws of

the Indies and special royal decrees and schedules, were in force in the

colony. The United States left the task of altering the laws to the

people, as far as there was no conflict between them and the

Constitution of the United States and fundamental American legal

customs. Copies of the Spanish codes were very rare, and some of them

could not be had in the colonies. Discussions of the Roman Institute and

Pandects were common in the deliberations of the courts. Great confusion

prevailed in the first years of American dominion owing to the

diversities of languages and the grafting of such Anglo-Saxon

institutions as the jury upon the older system. A provisional code of

judicial procedure, prepared by Edward Livingston, was in effect in 1805

to 1825. The earliest digest, completed in 1808, was mainly a

compilation of Spanish laws. The project of the _Code Napoléon_,

however--the _code_ itself not being available in Louisiana, though

promulgated in France in 1804--was used by the compilers in the

arrangement and substance of their work; and the French traditions of

the colony, thus illustrated, were naturally introduced more and more

into the organic commentaries and developments that grew up around the

_Code Napoléon_. This evolution was little marked, so similar in large

parts were the systems of France and Spain (although in other parts, due

to the Gothic element in the Spanish, they were very different)--a

similarity which explains the facility with which O'Reilly and his

successors introduced the Spanish laws after 1769. The Louisiana code of

1808 was not, however, exhaustive; and the courts continued to go back

to the old Spanish sources whenever the digest was inconclusive. Thus so

late as 1819, when the legislature ordered the compilation of such parts

of King Alfonso's _Siete Partidas_ (the most common authority in the

colony) as were considered in force, this compilation filled a

considerable volume. In 1821 the legislature authorized Livingston to

prepare the "Livingston Code" of criminal law and procedure, completed

in 1824 (in French and English) and published in 1833, but never adopted

by the state. In 1825 legislative sanction was given to the greater part

of a civil code prepared by a commission (including Livingston)

appointed in 1821, and the French element became steadily more

important. In its present form the law shows plainly the Latin and

English elements. English law has largely moulded, for example, criminal

and commercial law and the law of evidence; the development of the law

of corporations, damages, prohibitions and such extraordinary remedies

as the mandamus has been very similar to that in other states; while in

the fusion of law and equity, and the law of successions, family

relations, &c., the civil law of Spain and France has been unaffected.

_Education._--Schooling was very scant before the creation of the

public schools in 1854. Very little was done for education in the

French and Spanish period, although the Spanish governors made

commendable efforts in this regard; the first American Territorial

legislature began the incorporation of feeble "colleges" and

"academies." To some of these the state gave financial aid

($1,613,898) before 1845. The public schools were flourishing at the

outbreak of the Civil War. War and reconstruction threw upon them the

new burden of the black children. The constitution of 1879 was

illiberal in this respect, but a healthier public opinion soon

prevailed. The money given by the state to the public schools is

distributed among the parishes according to their school population,

and the constitution of 1898 set a generous _minimum_ to such aid. An

annual poll-tax is also collected for the schools from every adult

male. Local taxes, besides, are imposed, and these are becoming

heavier. The parishes retain primary control of the schools.

Institutes, summer schools and rural libraries have been introduced.

The salaries of white teachers advanced from a monthly average of

$38.87 in 1903 to $61.84 in 1906. The average attendance of enrolled

black and white pupils is practically identical, but the enrolment of

whites (about 52% in 1902) is somewhat higher and that of the blacks

about a third lower than their ratio in the population. The school

term for white children is much longer than for negroes, and white

teachers are paid much better salaries--in 1906 the average monthly

salary of a negro teacher was $29.15. The total enrolment is very low.

But progress is now being made very rapidly in the improvement of the

educational system. Higher schools include: the State University and

Agricultural and Mechanical College (1860) at Baton Rouge (q.v.);

Tulane University of Louisiana (1864) in New Orleans; Jefferson

College (1864; Roman Catholic) at Convent; the College of the

Immaculate Conception (1847; Roman Catholic) in New Orleans; St

Charles College (1835; Roman Catholic) at Grand Couteau; St Joseph's

College (1849; Roman Catholic) at Baton Rouge; the following colleges

for women--Silliman Collegiate Institute (1852; Presbyterian) at

Clinton, Mansfield Female College (1854; Methodist Episcopal, South)

at Mansfield, the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College for women (a part

of Tulane University) in New Orleans and the Louisiana Female College

(1856; Baptist) at Keatchie; the State Normal School of Louisiana

(1884) at Natchitoches and the New Orleans Normal and Training School;

the South-western Louisiana Industrial Institute at Lafayette; the

Louisiana Industrial Institute at Ruston; and, among schools for

negroes, the Peabody State Normal and Industrial School at Alexandria

and New Orleans University (1873; Methodist Episcopal), Luther College

(Evangelical Lutheran), Leland University (1870; Baptist), Straight

University (Congregational) and Southern University (1883; aided by

the state), all in New Orleans.

_Charitable and Penal Institutions._--The State Board of Charities and

Correction, for which the constitution of 1898 first made provision,

and which was organized under an act of 1904, is composed of six

members, appointed by the governor for six years, with the governor as

_ex-officio_ chairman. The members of the board serve gratuitously,

but elect a salaried secretary. The board has no administrative or

executive power, but makes annual inspections of all public

charitable, correctional or reformatory institutions, all private

institutions which receive aid from, or are used by municipal or

parochial authorities, and all private asylums for the insane; and

reports annually to the governor on the actual condition of the

institutions. Any suggestions as to improvements in institutions must

be approved by the majority of the governing body of that institution

before they may be put into effect. The charitable institutions

include two charity hospitals--at New Orleans (1832) and Shreveport;

an Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, a Hôtel Dieu, the Touro

Infirmary and a Home for Incurables, all at New Orleans; an Institute

for the Deaf and Dumb (for whites--there is no state provision for

negro deaf and dumb) and an Institute for the Blind, both at Baton

Rouge; an Insane Hospital at Jackson and another at Pineville; and the

Louisiana Retreat for the Insane at New Orleans. At Monroe there is a

State Reform School, and at New Orleans a Coloured Industrial Home and

School. There is also a state home for disabled Confederate soldiers

at New Orleans on Bayou St John. The State Penitentiary is at Baton

Rouge, and a House of Detention at New Orleans; and there are parish

prisons. State convicts, and all places in which they are confined or

employed, are under the supervision of a Board of Control appointed by

the governor. This board may allow commutation or diminution of

sentence for good behaviour, meritorious services or exemplary

conduct. The leasing or hiring of state convicts is prohibited by the

constitution, but parish convicts may be hired or leased for farm and

factory work, work on roads and levees, and other public undertakings.

Such convicts are classified according to physical ability and a

minimum rate is fixed for their hire, for not more than ten hours a

day. Many state convicts are employed in levee construction, and there

are convict farms at Angola, Hope, Oakley and Monticello.

_History._--The early history of Louisiana belongs to the romance of

American history. It is possible that the mouth of the Mississippi was

discovered in 1519 by Alonso Alvarez de Piñeda, but this interpretation

of his vague manuscript remains conjectural; and that it was discovered

by the expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez cannot be established. That

Hernando de Soto entered the borders of the present state of Louisiana,

and that his burial place in the Mississippi was where that river takes

the waters of the Red, are probable enough, but incapable of conclusive

proof. Survivors of de Soto's expedition, however, descended the

Mississippi to its mouth in 1542. Spain set up no claim to the region,

and when Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, came down the river in 1682

from the French possessions to the north, he took possession in the name

of France, which hereby gained her first title to the vast drainage

basin of the Mississippi. In honour of Louis XIV. the new possession was

named "Louisiana"--a name then and until 1812 applied to a much larger

area than that of the present state. La Salle attempted to settle a

colony in 1684, but missed the Mississippi's mouth and landed in Texas,

where he was murdered in 1687 by some of his followers. In 1697, after

Ryswick, Pierre le Moyne d'Iberville (1662-1706) was chosen to lead

another colony, which reached the Gulf coast early in 1699. Soon after

Iberville had built Fort Maurepas (near the present city of Biloxi,

Mississippi) in 1699, a fort was erected on the Mississippi river about

40 m. above the mouth.

This was the earliest settlement in what is now the state of Louisiana.

It was unhealthy and unprosperous. From 1712 to 1717 "Louisiana," or the

French possessions of the Mississippi valley, was held by Antoine Crozat

(1655-1738) as a private grant from the king. It proved as great a drain

upon his purse as it had proved to the crown, and he willingly parted

with it to the so-called "Western Company," afterwards incorporated with

the great Company of the Indies. The head of this company was John Law,

who, after spreading glowing accounts of the new land, launched his

famous "Mississippi scheme" (see LAW, JOHN). The company accomplished

much for the colony of Louisiana. Jean Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur de

Bienville (1680-1768), a brother of Iberville, was sent out as governor.

For forty years he was the life of the colony. One of his first acts was

to found the city of New Orleans on its present site in 1718. In this

same year seven vessels were sent from France with stores and

immigrants; eleven followed during the next year. Five hundred negroes

from the Guinea coast were imported in 1719, and many hundreds more soon

followed. The Law company eventually came to an end fatal to its

creditors in France, but its misfortunes did not check the prosperity of

"Louisiana." The company retained its grant of the colony until 1731,

when it reverted to the crown. Meantime New Orleans had become the seat

of government in 1722. In 1766 an official census showed a total

population of 5552. The years of royal rule were uneventful. Cotton

culture began in 1740, and sugar-cane was successfully introduced from

Santo Domingo by the Jesuits in 1751. Tafia rum and a waxy, sticky sugar

syrup subsequently became important products; but not until the end of

the century were the means found to crystallize sugar and so give real

prosperity to the industry.

By a secret treaty of the 3rd of November 1762, "Louisiana" was

transferred from France to Spain. This treaty was not made public for a

year and a half, and Spain did not take full possession of the colony

until 1769. By a treaty between Spain and France on the one hand and

Great Britain and Portugal on the other, signed at Paris in February

1763, all that portion lying E. of the Mississippi river, the Iberville

river, and Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain was ceded to Great Britain.

The international interests thus created, and others that sprang from

them, heavily burdened the diplomacy, and even threatened the safety of

the United States after they were placed in possession of the eastern

bank of the Mississippi down to 31° in 1783.

The news of the cession of the colony to Spain roused strong discontent

among the colonists. Antonio de Ulloa (1716-1795), a distinguished

Spanish naval officer and scholar, came to New Orleans in 1766 to take

possession for his king. Merchants, people, and many civil officers held

toward him from the beginning a hostile attitude; the military,

especially, refused to pass into the Spanish service as stipulated in

the treaty; and Ulloa was compelled to continue in an ambiguous and

anomalous position--which his lack of military force probably first

compelled him to assume--ruling the colony through the French governor,

Philippe Aubry (who loyally supported him throughout), without publicly

exhibiting his powers. The fear of Spanish commercial laws powerfully

stimulated resistance to the transfer, and though Ulloa made commercial

and monetary concessions, they were not sufficient. When the colonists

found protests at Paris unavailing, they turned to the idea of

independence, but sought in vain the armed support of the British at

Pensacola. Nevertheless they compelled Ulloa to leave the colony or

exhibit his credentials. He took his leave in November 1768. The open

resistance by the colonists (October 1768) was a carefully planned

revolt. There is no doubt that the men who led the Creole opposition

contemplated independence, and this gives the incident peculiar

interest. In the summer of 1769 Alejandro O'Reilly came to New Orleans

with a strong military force (3600 troops). Beginning his rule with an

affability that allayed suspicions and securing from Aubry proofs

against the popular leaders, he invited them to a reception and arrested

them while they were his guests. Five were put to death and others were

imprisoned at Havana. O'Reilly put down the rebellion with determination

and in accord with the instructions of his king. Regarded without

republican sympathies, and in the light of 18th-century doctrines of

allegiance, his acts, however severe, in no way deserve the stigma of

cruelty ordinarily put upon them. He was liberal and enlightened in his

general rule.

Among the incidents of these troubled years was the arrival in Louisiana

(after 1765) of some hundreds of French exiles from Acadia, who made

their homes in the Attakapas country. There their descendants live

to-day, still somewhat primitively, and still in somewhat of the glamour

thrown over land and people by the _Evangeline_ of Longfellow.

On the 18th of August 1769 Louisiana was formally transferred to Spain.

Spanish law and Spanish tongue replaced the French officially, but the

colony remained essentially French. The Spanish rulers made efforts to

govern wisely and liberally, showing great complaisance, particularly in

heeding the profit of the colony, even at the expense of Spanish

colonial commercial regulations. The judicial system was much improved,

a better grade of officials became the rule, many French Creoles were

appointed to office, intermarriages of French and Spanish and even

English were encouraged by the highest officials, and in general a

liberal and conciliatory policy was followed, which made Louisiana under

Spanish rule quiet and prosperous. Bernardo de Galvez (1756-1794), a

brilliant young officer of twenty-one, when he became the governor of

the colony, was one of the most liberal of the Spanish rulers and of all

the most popular. During the American War of Independence he gave

valuable aid to the United States; and when Spain finally joined in the

war against Great Britain, Galvez, in a series of energetic and

brilliant campaigns (1779-1781), captured all the important posts in the

British colony of West Florida. The chief interest of the Spanish period

lies in the advance of settlement in the western territories of the

United States, the international intrigues--British, French and

Spanish--involving the future of the valley, the demand of the United

States for free navigation on the Mississippi, and the growing

consciousness of the supreme importance of the river and New Orleans to

the Union. With the Spanish governor Estevan Miro, who succeeded Galvez

in 1785, James Wilkinson of Kentucky, arrested at New Orleans with a

flat-boat of supplies in 1787, intrigued, promising him that Kentucky

would secede from the United States and would join the Spanish; but

Wilkinson was unsuccessful in his efforts to carry out this plan. In

1794 Spain, hard pressed by Great Britain and France, turned to the

United States, and by the treaty of 1794 the Mississippi river was

recognized by Spain as the western boundary of the United States,

separating it from Louisiana, and free navigation of the Mississippi was

granted to citizens of the United States, to whom was granted for three

years the right "to deposit their merchandise and effects in the port of

New Orleans, and to export them from thence without paying any other

duty than a fair price for the hire of the stores." At the expiration of

the three years the Spanish governor refused the use of New Orleans as a

place of deposit, and contrary to the treaty named no other port in its

place. Spanish rule, however, came unexpectedly to an end by the

retrocession of Louisiana to France in 1800; and French dominion gave

way in turn in 1803--as the result of a chain of events even more

unexpected, startling, and for the United States fortunate--to the rule

of the last-named country. On the 30th of November 1803 the

representatives of the French republic received formal possession from

the Spanish governor, and on the 20th of December lower Louisiana was

transferred to the United States. (See LOUISIANA PURCHASE.)

By an Act of Congress of the 25th of March 1804,[4] that portion of the

Louisiana Purchase S. of 33° was organized as the Territory of Orleans,

and was given a government less democratic than might otherwise have

been the case, because it was intended to prepare gradually for

self-government the French and Spanish inhabitants of the territory, who

desired immediate statehood. The foreign slave-trade was forbidden by

this organic act. English was made the official language. The

introduction of English law, and the changes made in the judicial and

legal systems of Louisiana after 1804 have already been described.

The machinations of Aaron Burr are of interest in connexion with

Louisiana annals, and likewise the settlement and revolutionizing of

West Florida by Americans. In November 1811 a convention met at New

Orleans and framed a constitution under which, on the 30th of April

1812, the Territory of Orleans became the state of Louisiana. A few days

later the portion of West Florida between the Mississippi and Pearl

rivers (the present "Florida Parishes") was included in its boundaries,

making them as they are to-day. In this same year the first steamboat

reached New Orleans. It descended the Ohio and Mississippi from

Pittsburg, whence there had already been a thriving river trade to New

Orleans for about thirty years. During the War of 1812 a decisive

victory was won by the American forces at Chalmette, near New Orleans,

on the 8th of January 1815. Up to 1860 the development of the state in

population, agriculture and commerce was very rapid. Donaldsonville was

the (nominal) capital in 1825-1831, Baton Rouge in 1849-1864 and again

after 1882. At other times New Orleans has been the capital, and here

too have always been various state offices which in other states

ordinarily are in the state capital.

By an ordinance of secession passed on the 26th of January 1861,

Louisiana joined the Confederate States. In the first year there was

very little military activity in the state, but in April 1862 Admiral D.

G. Farragut, with a powerful fleet, ascended the Mississippi past Forts

Jackson and St Philip, which defended the approach to New Orleans, and a

military force under General B. F. Butler occupied that city. The

navigation of the river being secured by this success and by later

operations in the north ending in July 1863 with the capture of

Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the state was wholly at the mercy of the

Union armies. The intervening months were signalized by the capture of

Baton Rouge in May 1862--the Confederates vainly attempting to recapture

it in August. Later, in April 1864, the Confederates under General

Richard Taylor won a success against the Unionists under General N. P.

Banks at Sabine Cross Roads near Mansfield and were themselves repulsed

at Pleasant Hill, these battles being incidental to a campaign

undertaken by the Union forces to crush opposition in western Louisiana.

A large portion of the state was occupied by them in 1862-1865. There

were various minor skirmishes in 1862 and 1863 (including the capture of

the Federal camp at Berwick Bay in June 1863).

As early as December 1862 the Union military government, at President

Lincoln's direction, had ordered elections for Congress, and the men

chosen were admitted in February 1863. In March 1864 also a state

government to supersede the military rule was established under the

president's auspices. By 1863 two parties had arisen among the loyal

classes: one of radicals, who demanded the calling of a constitutional

convention and the abolition of slavery; the other of conservatives. The

former prevailed, and by a convention that assembled in April 1864 a

constitution was framed closely following that of 1852 but repudiating

the debt incurred by Louisiana as one of the Confederate states and

abolishing slavery. Two-thirds of the delegates were from New Orleans.

The legislature was ordered to establish free schools for the blacks,

and was empowered to give them the suffrage: neither of these

provisions, however, was carried out. The extent of the Union control is

shown by the fact that the legislature of 1864 represented half of the

area and two-thirds of the population of the state. The army stood at

the back of the new government, and by the end of 1864 Louisiana was

apparently "reconstructed." But in 1864 the opposition of Congress to

presidential reconstruction had clearly developed, so that the electoral

votes of Louisiana (like those of Tennessee) for president were not

counted. By the spring of 1866 the ex-Confederates had succeeded in

gaining possession of most of the local government and most of the state

offices, although not of the governorship. The Republican party

naturally became extremely radical. The radicals wished to have negro

suffrage in order to get possession of the government. They, therefore,

wanted still another constitutional convention. A clause in the

constitution of 1864 provided for the reconvening of the convention in

certain circumstances, but this clause referred only to necessities

prior to the establishment of a government, and had therefore

determined. Nevertheless, the radicals, because it was impossible to

call a convention through the medium of the state government, took

advantage of this clause to reconvoke the old convention at New Orleans.

The day set was the 30th of July 1866. The ex-Confederate party

determined to prevent the gathering, but the idea of interference by

force seems to have been abandoned. A street riot was precipitated,

however, incidental to a procession of armed negroes; the metropolitan

police fired upon the assembled convention; and altogether some 200

persons, mostly negroes, were killed. This incident raised the crucial

question of national politics in 1866: namely, whether the states

reconstructed by the president should not again be reconstructed.

This being settled affirmatively, Louisiana was reconstructed with

vigour. A constitution of 1868 gave suffrage to the blacks, and

disfranchised all whites made ineligible to office under the proposed

Fourteenth Amendment to the national Constitution, and also

(practically) those who had by word, pen or vote defended secession.

Then the state ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, and was declared

readmitted to the Union in July 1868. Probably no other southern state

suffered equally with Louisiana from the corruption of "carpet-bag,"

"scalawag," negro legislatures. For four years (1868-1872) the

government expenses increased to ten times their normal volume, taxation

was enormously increased, and about $57,000,000 of debt was created. But

a quarrel broke out among the Republicans (1872), the result of which

was the installation of two governors and legislatures, one supported by

the Democrats and Liberal Republicans and the other by the radical

Republicans, the former being certainly elected by the people. The

rivalry of these two state governments, clashes of arms, the recognition

by the Federal authorities of the radical Republican government

(Pinchback and Kellogg, successively governors) followed. One historic

clash in New Orleans (on the 14th of September 1874) between the "White

League" ("White Man's Party") and the Republican police is commemorated

by a monument, and the day is regarded by Louisianans as a sort of state

independence-day. Finally, in 1876, Francis Tillon Nicholls (b. 1834), a

Democrat, was chosen governor, but the Republican candidate, S. B.

Packard, claimed the election, and with a Republican legislature for a

time occupied the State House. In the national election of 1876 there

were double returns (Republican: 75,315 for Hayes and 70,508 for Tilden;

and Democratic: 83,723 for Tilden and 77,174 for Hayes) from Louisiana,

which, as was the case with the double electoral returns from Florida,

Oregon and South Carolina, were adjudicated by the Electoral Commission

in favour of the Republican electors voting for Hayes. Civil war being

threatened within the state President Hayes sent to Louisiana a

commission composed of Wayne McVeagh, Gen. J. R. Hawley, Charles B.

Lawrence, J. M. Harlan, and John C. Brown, ex-Governor of Tennessee,

which was instructed to promote "an acknowledgment of one government

within the state." The rival legislatures united, organizing under the

Nicholls government, which the commission found was upheld by public

opinion. The president ordered the withdrawal of Federal troops from the

capitol on the 20th of April 1877, and the white party was thus left in

control.

After 1877 the state prospered markedly in all material respects. Of

subsequent political events perhaps the most notable, besides the

practical disfranchisement of the negroes, are those connected with the

Louisiana State Lottery Company (1868-1893). For the renewal of its

privileges in 1890 the company finally agreed to give the state

$1,250,000 yearly, and despite strenuous opposition by a powerful party

the legislature voted a renewal, but this measure was vetoed by the

governor. The United States government, however, forbade lotteries the

use of the mails, and the company withdrew its offers. The constitution

of 1898 prohibits lotteries and the sale of lottery tickets within the

state. In 1891 the lynching of eleven Italians at New Orleans gave rise

to grave difficulties involving Italy, the United States, and the state

of Louisiana. Since 1900 a white Republican Party has made some headway

in Louisiana politics, but in national and state elections the state has

been uninterruptedly and overwhelmingly Democratic since 1877.