The following are the names of the principal authors who have written on Louisiana: His tory: Le Page du Pratz, Villiers du Terrage, Martin, Gayarre, Fortier. Description: Darby, Stoddard. Botany: Rafinesque, Chapman. Ornithology: Audubon. Literature: Fortier. History and Development of New Orleans: Cable, King. Castellanos.
For official information consult reports of State officers published at Baton Rouge and of Chief of Engineers. Washington, D. C.
The census figures from 1810, when it was first counted separately as the Territory of Orleans, are as follows: (1810) 76,556; (1820) 152,923; (1830) 215,739; (1840) 352.411; (1850) 517,762; (1860) 708,002 ; (1870) 726,915; (1880) 939,946; (1890) 1,118,587; (1900) 1.381.625. In 1910 it was 1,656,388, an increase of 19.9 per cent. The foreign born were 52,903, of whom 17,431, or about one-third, were Italians, 12,604 Germans, 6,500 French and 6,436 Irish. The colored population was 650,804, or nearly half, a relative decrease since 1890 of over 12 per cent, due to the higher death rate among the negroes. Louisiana was sixth in ab solute number of colored inhabitants and third in relative number, next below Mississippi and South Carolina. The population in 1918 was 1,884,778. The legislature is forbidden to create new parishes with less than 625 square miles and 7,000 inhabitants, or divide an old parish so as to leave either portion less than these magnitudes. There are no large cities, except New Orleans with 287,104 people, in 1900, and in 1910 over 339,075, in 1917, 371,747; the great Mississippi Dort, and destined to a much larger growth.
Shreveport, the next, on the upper Red River, had 28,015; Baton Rouge, the capital, on the Mississippi 14,897. The only others above 5.000 are New Iberia in the south and Lake Charles in the southwest and Monroe in the northwest, Alexandria on the lower Red River and Minden east of Shreveport.
Sociology.— Owing to the preponderance of population and the general importance of New Orleans it has been found useful to locate these institutions usually found at the State capitol. The Supreme Court sits in the newly built Law Courts, in which is the State Library. The two most important libraries in the State are the Howard Memorial Library for refer ence and the New Orleans Public Library for circulation established, which provide for the public of New Orleans the use of nearly 100,000 books. There are published in the State 188 newspapers, of which the New Orleans Times Picayune is the most important daily. The literature of the State consists of two groups of writings: the one in French covering the period between 1835 and 1855, including those of Gayarra and Rouquette, and a brilliant series of works in English prose and poetry by Town send, King, Davis, Fortier, Ficklen, etc., which have been produced in the last 30 years of the 19th century.