348 



is a question witli me what we shall do with those who will not work. We 

 won't support them ; and those who are willing to work don't want to do it. We 

 have no influence to persuade them; I do not have aught to do with any but 

 those I have employed, all former slaves, and they will do Avell. They are well 

 pleased, and say that as long as I treat them as well as I do, they do not want 

 any better home. If we could keep them away from towns and villages, and 

 impress them with the idea that they must work, we could do as well as ever, 

 and better too, if cotton continues to command a high price." 



New Orleans, Louisiana. — " I would say, in connexion with the foregoing, that 

 not more than half the labor is performed now in comparison with forced or slave 

 labor." 



Hardin count]/, Texas. — " Three-fourths of the freedmen have left and gone 

 to the cities and toM^ns. Crops planted are small in comparison with 1859, and 

 almost all worked by white labor." 



De Witt county, Texas. — " The agents of the Bureau arrived too late to an- 

 swer the demands of the cotton crops. The blacks, in a majority of cases, re- 

 fused to make contracts for more than a month, thus making the labor too 

 uncertain for many planters to engage in the culture." 



Mississippi county, Arkansas. — " ' Proportion of hands to acreage compared 

 with lSo9,'-I understand to mean how much land one nigger made free will cul- 

 tivate compared to one slave in 1859. I say seven-tenths, some say three- 

 fourths." 



Hamilton, county, Tennessee. — " There is a disposition on the part of the natives 

 here to depreciate colored labor unjustly, for, properly treated and managed, the 

 figures would show an equality between whites and blacks in this respect. Both 

 work fiom a seemingly new impulse." 



Fayette county, Tennessee. — The negroes are indisposed to work unless by 

 threats, and an immense amount of coaxing. The prospects are so discouraging 

 that a great number of planters say they are abundantly satisfied with the ex- 

 periment of freed labor. It is an utter impossibility to force the negro to com- 

 ply with his contract. Thej' leave the plantation Avhenever they please — stop 

 work when it is absolutely necessary in grassy seasons, thus forcing the plan- 

 ters to go out and hire labor at exorbitant prices. Instances have been known 

 where from three to foiu- dollars per day and board have been given to save the 

 crop." 



Giles county, Tennessee. — " 1'here are only about one-half the number of ne- 

 gro fellows in our county that there were in 1860, having been killed or died of 

 disease in the Union army. There is a great disposition among them to flock 

 to the towns and cities. Nine-tenths of all laborers engaged in farming never 

 worked better." 



CASUAL NOTES. 



Imported fertilizers. — France is following ambitiously in the wake of Eng- 

 land in improvements in agriculture. Her importations of fertilizers increase as 

 this ^improvement progresses. In the first six months of the present year these 

 imports have been as follows: Guano, 331,822 quintals; nitrate of potash, 

 5,694 quintals ; nitrate of silver, 79,195 quintals; other manures, 49,296 quintals. 

 A small portion of the nitrates of potash and soda have been exported. 



The imports of fertilizers into England in the same time have been : guano, 

 72,352 tons; bones, 38,859 tons; besides a considerable quantity of other fer- 

 tilizers. 



