In the preparation and compilation of data for the publication of such a
book as will give with accuracy and clearness the varied and immense
resources of a State which is only yet in the infancy of its development
it is necessary to cull from every available source possible. In this
book we have taken from our previous hand-books, we have given copious
extracts from Hon. Jos. E. Ransdell's On to Dixie speech in the House of
Representatives in the Sixty-first Congress, almost his entire speech,
The Lure of the Southland, recently delivered in the United States
Senate; we have copied from the National Magazine the article of
Garnault Agassiz on The Untold Treasures of Louisiana, and are under
obligations to Professors W.R. Dodson, W.H. Dalrymple, E.S. Richardson,
E. Pegram Flower and many others for courtesies extended, and to the
United States Agricultural and Census Bureaus for valuable data.