llars. The capital now employed, is 75,000,000 of dollars. The
protection afforded by the American tariff, has greatly increased the
production of sugar in the United States. From 1816 to 1850, this
increase was from 15,000 hhds. to 250,000 hhds.

In 1843, the State of Louisiana had 700 plantations, 525 in
operation, producing about 90,000 hhds. In 1844, the number of
hogsheads was 191,324, and of pounds, 204,913,000; but this was
exclusive of the molasses, rated at 9,000,000 gallons. In 1845 there
were in Louisiana 2,077 sugar plantations, in 25 parishes; 1,240 sugar
houses, 630 steam power, 610 working horse power; and the yield of
sugar was 186,650 hhds., or 207,337,000 lbs.

The introduction of the sugar cane into Florida, Texas, California,
and Louisiana, probably dates back to their earliest settlement by the
Spaniards or French. It was not cultivated in the latter, however, as
a staple product before the year 1751, when it was introduced, with
several negroes, by the Jesuits, from St. Domingo. They commenced a
small plantation on the banks of the Mississippi, just above the old
city of New Orleans. The year following, others, cultivated the plant
and made some rude attempts at the manufacture of sugar. In 1758, M.
Dubreuil established a sugar estate on a large scale, and erected the
first sugar mill in Louisiana, in what is now the lower part of New
Orleans. His success was followed by other plantations, and in the
year 1765 there was sugar enough manufactured for home consumption;
and in 1770, sugar had become one of the staple products of the
colony. Soon after the revolution a large number of enterprising
adventurers emigrated from the United States to Lower Louisiana,
where, among other objects of industry, they engaged in the
cultivation of cane, and by the year 1803 there were no less than
eighty-one sugar estates on the Delta alone. Since that period, while
the production of cane sugar has been annually increasing at the
south, the manufacture of maple sugar has been extending in the north
and west.

Hitherto, the amount of sugar and molasses consumed in the United
States has exceeded the quantities produced--consequently there has
been no direct occasion for their exportation. In the year 1815 it was
estimated that the sugar made on the banks of the Mississippi amounted
to 10,000,000 lbs.

According to the census of 1840, the amount of cane and maple sugar
produced in the United States was 155,100,08