10 



tercsts, but an unwilling concession to the freeclman's desire to become 

 a propiietor, or an inability to make prompt payments of wages in cash. 



2. It is a complicated copartnership, opening the door to fraud on one 

 side, and unfaithfulness and desertion on the other. 



3. It is not equitable between the freedmen, as it renders impossible 

 a proper discrinnnation between the industrious and the idle, the dex- 

 terous and the incapable. 



4. It leaves uncontroled and almost undirected those "U'ho have never 

 been subject to self-management or self-restraint. 



5. It almost invariably inspires exaggerated expectations, leads to 

 improvident drafts upon an uncertain future income, and ends in disap- 

 jjointment and discouragement. 



G. It debars the proprietor from exercising a control over the planta- 

 tion, and its operations essential to present success, and the permanent 

 improvement of the estate. 



The whole history of cotton production in the past four years attests 

 the importance of these and other objections to the share system. It is 

 satisfactory neither to employer or employed. The best labor contract 

 is the simplest— stipulated wages for faithful service, which should be 

 paid i^romptly as agreed in cash, with an equitable portion reserved to 

 the end of tlie year, both to secure the planter against having his cot- 

 ton left unpicked, and to give the freedmen a surplus for accumulation, 

 or the suijply of other than daily wants. 



The present contracts are variou^s. On rich l^nds the prevailing 

 agreemejit makes labor alone equivalent to one-fourth of the crop ; labor 

 and rations one-third of the crop ; labor, rations, and forage for horses 

 or mules, one-half of the crop. The laborer "finding himself" and get- 

 ting one-third of the crop, also has a cabin to live in, and some- 

 times firewood, garden, and pasture for a cow. On poor land a third is 

 sometimes given for labor alone. Occasionally the bare land is rented 

 for a third of the crop. Perhaps the plan adopted in the largest num- 

 ber of cases is the furnishing of plantation, fixtures, stock, and forage 

 for two-thirds of the crop, labor obtaining one-third, subject to charges 

 for i^rovisions advanced for rations. 



Extra labor is obtained for cotton-picking, and paid at the rate of 

 fifty to seventy-five cents per hundred pounds of seed cotton in the At- 

 lantic States, and at seventy-five cents to one dollar jyer hundred in the 

 more western States, where labor is scarcer and the yield more abund- 

 ant. 



Kice, in Glynn County, Georgia, is harvested and stacked at a cost of 

 about $2 40 per acre, and is conveyed from the fields and stored at $2 

 per acre, and is threshed by steam at about six cents per bushel. The 

 rough rice bearing the outside hull is then sent to be milled into clean 

 rice, ready for market. 



Rice is a specialty in Georgetown County, South Carolina. All 

 other provision crops are insignificant, and no other grain is raised for 

 market. Drainage being a prerequisite to such cropping, a strong force 

 is required for heavy work in ditching and embanking. For these pur- 

 poses Irish are economically employed during the winter months at 

 twice the compensation of colored laborers. They receive $1 50 per 

 day, working from sun to sun, or $35 per month with board. Cultiva- 

 tion and harvesting are done by colored laborers. The threshing is mostly 

 done by steam ; in few cases by horse-power ; and occasionally by the 

 tedious and expensive method of the liail. Threshing-mills are found 

 on all the large estates, and are run by freedmen. Freedmen contract- 

 ing by the year receive $13 per month cash, with accommodations for 



