The Athens Post

THE ATTAKAPAS, La., Feb. 7, 1850.

Editor Post:–I propose in this, my second "epistle," to give your readers some items relative to the culture of the Sugar Cane. I shall confine myself to the statement of a few facts, leaving the reader to make his own inferences. I presume the majority of your patrons are acquainted with the process by which the sugar is manufactured from the cane, after it is matured. Suffice it to say, in this respect, that it is similar to that by which molasses are manufactured from the corn-stalk as practiced in some portions of East Tennessee. This—the Parish of St. Mary—is emphatically the "Sugar Parish," producing more sugar than any other Parish in the State, as shown by reliable statistics. But what I particularly design to notice in this communication is some facts relative to the profits arising from the culture of the cane. A good field hand usually costs from one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars, according to quality, and will cultivate, besides corn sufficient to keep up his team, about ten arpents of cane, (the French arpent being a little less than the English acre,) which yields from one to two hogsheads of sugar, and from seventy-five to one hundred gallons of molasses, per arpent. Sugar varies from thirty to seventy-five dollars per hogshead, and molasses from ten to thirty cents per gallon. Assuming, then, one and a half hogsheads of sugar as the average yield per arpent, and fifty dollars as the average price per hogshead; eighty gallons molasses as the average yield per arpent, and twenty cents per gallon as the price, and taking twelve hundred and fifty dollars as the average cost of each hand, and the annual account for each may be stated thus:

15 hhds. sugar at $50 per hhd., $750
800 gallons molasses, at 20 cts., 160
Gross earnings, per hand, $910 00

Expenses incurred.
Interest on $1250, at 8 per cent, $100
Clothing and boarding negro, 75
Incidental expenses, 35
Annual expenses, $260 00

Net annual earnings, per hand, $700 00

The sum set apart in the above account for incidental expenses, is intended to cover the interest upon the amount invested in the teams, plows, and other necessary outlays, and from the best information I can gather is amply sufficient as stated above. We have, then, the sum of seven hundred dollars as the net annual earnings of each field hand, and the planter, who works one hundred hands may calculate with some assurance upon realizing about seventy thousand dollars, net, per annum. My own observation and experience go to confirm the above statement.

I know a planter in this vicinity whose crop the past season realized, gross, about one hundred thousand dollars. He works from one hundred to one hundred and twenty hands. The above account may be relied on as correct in the main, subject, perhaps, to some unimportant incidental deductions, of which I am not now apprised. The planter's net annual income is, of course, greatly modified by his own personal and household expenses, which in some instances exceed his income. I have already extended this beyond its intended limits, so I shall close for the present. I may probably write you again.

Yours, as ever,
Nimrod McHeasle.