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In renting to freedraen the idea is to make him assume, as far as possi- 

 ble, the obligation of providing his own rations. In Alabama, some 

 counties discourage the share-system, and seek to bringagriculture, as far 

 as possible, to the wages standard, but this is not yet fouud practicable. 

 The tenaut-freednian is favored with a larger share of the proceeds and 

 a more lenient treatment than the tenant-farmers of the North. Yet he 

 often falls in debt to his landlord and abandons his contract. Often 

 both parties are more or less to l)lanie in such cases. The blacksmith's 

 account is frequently a part of the settlement, and taken into consider- 

 ation. Generally, the freedmau furnishing only labor is allowed from 

 two-fifths to half the proceeds of the crop. Other tenants, able to fur- 

 nish stock and tools, obtain leases in which they are taxed but a third 

 of the grain-crops and a fourth of the cotton. In some counties of Mis- 

 sissippi the share-system is increasing. The usual terms of lease are 

 about the same as in the cotton States generally. In some cases the 

 rental is for 40 to 100 pounds of lint-cotton per acre. Freedmen being 

 destitute of stock and tools, as a general thing, these are provided as well 

 as rations in some cases in which the tenant gets but a third of the 

 crops. A distinction is made sometimes between sharers and renters. 

 The former receive a certain portion of the crop ; the latter pay a specific 

 rent per acre in cotton or corn. There is in many counties a growing dis- 

 satisfaction with the share-system, and hence there is a tendency to treat 

 tenants on the basis of renters rather than sharers. In Louisiana, the public 

 mind is becoming unfavorable to the share-system, and on the sugar- 

 estates it is being abandoned. It is the policy to change it to the rent- 

 system as far as possible. The same difficulties are experienced here as 

 in the other cotton States in the inability of freedmen to stock and furnish 

 their farms. In rice-culture the owner furnishes the water in flumes 

 and receives a third of the crop ; if he furnishes the seed, &c., he receives 

 one-half. In many instances the land is rented for $2 to $10 ijer acre, 

 but the share-system is still made an unwelcome necessity by the poverty 

 both of planters and freedmen. 



In Texas the same general principles are noticeable. A tenant fur- 

 nishing his stock, implements, &c., pays one-third of his corn and one- 

 fourth of his cotton crop, but if the landlord furnish those necessaries 

 he is entitled to half the produce. The share-system is universal in 

 many counties, but the popular feeling is against it. Efforts are made 

 to change it for a specific r.ent, or to supersede it by hired labor. 



In the cotton counties of Arkansas and Tennessee, the same rule 

 prevails as in other portions of the cotton States. Laud without stock 

 or implements is rented for a third of the grain and a fourth of the 

 cotton crop ; but the quality of the land sometimes varies this rule; 

 rich river-bottoms return one-half thQ produce for the land alone. If 

 the owner furnish stock, tools, and seed, he gets from half to two-thirds 

 of the crops. The effort to supersede the share-system by substituting 

 hired labor is resisted by the inveterate prejudices of the freedmen, 

 who desire to be master of their own time, and hence prefer the share- 

 contract system, which leaves them at their own disposal. In a few 

 cases land is rented for a specific price per acre either in money or i)ro- 

 duce. In the sections of the inland Southern States outside of the cot- 

 ton region, bare land rents at one-third to one-half its produce accord- 

 ing to its location and quality, but if the landlord furnishes and stocks 

 the farm, his portion is from oue-half to two-thirds of the crop. In the 

 tobacco counties of Kentucky, the landlord frequently claims half the 

 crop as a consideration for the use of land, and in some localities he is 

 entitled to half the wheat-crop. 



