11 



themselves and families, a garden spot, aud one to three acres of laud 

 iu addition, receiving no food provision. TS'hen hired by the day, they 

 receive $1, without board, for about six hours work. Hoe hands re- 

 ceive fifty cents per day, without board, and are never employed by the 

 season. 



In sugar i)lantations, fifty cents extra is given for night work in grind- 

 ing cane. 



A great loss to agricultural production results from the assertion by 

 freed women of what they assume to be the right of woman to a living 

 without labor. At present no industry is available for income except 

 field service, as cultivating or picking cotton, which is light and health- 

 ful, aud to which they are accustomed; but they imagine that to be free 

 means to be idle, to dress, to gossip, and to ape the style of those of su- 

 perior fortune. 



In portions of Virginia, as Princess Anne County, where women con- 

 stitute a considerable proportion of farm laborers, fifty cents per day, or 

 twenty-five cents with board, is allowed for their service. They will not 

 hire either by the month or year- 

 It is evident that the disinclination of women to labor in the field, 

 and the inefficiency of the men from being left to their own management 

 under the share system, have limited the production of cotton aud other 

 crops. The correspondent at Arkansas Post, James H. Moore, sends 

 records of cotton jiicking by thirty-five men and women and children 

 in 1859, showing an average of 10,291 pounds picked by each in four- 

 teen weeks, equivalent to eleven bales of four hundred pounds each. He 

 states that in 1809 nearly the same number of hands, on the same 

 land, did not average more than one-third of that amount. One of the 

 hands, "Guy," in 1859, picked 12,401 pounds in fourteen weeks; and 

 in 1809, but 3,010 pounds in fifteen weeks. "Sarah," in fourteen weeks 

 of 1859, picked 8,701 pounds; and in sixteen weeks of 1809, but 3,519 

 ponnds. He says the reduction is upon a similar ratio along the Arkan- 

 sas Iviver; and, if the same elsewhere, assumes that the present force 

 of colored laborers do not pick more than 1,000,000 bales of cotton. 



From data received from the entire cotton belt, it is evident that more 

 than half of the crop is cultivated and gathered by blacks ; yet it is un- 

 deniable that a considerable i^ortion of it is now made by white labor, 

 and the proportion is increasing. The time will probably come when 

 much the larger portion will be the product of white labor. 



HAEVESTING A^T> GAE:N^EEES^G. 



In addition to the inquiries concerning wages of labor paid by the 

 day or month, the following were included in the circular : 

 Price, per acre, of harvesting and stacking wheat, including all 



the labor of men and horses. 

 Price, per bushel, of threshing and separating wheat. 

 Price, per bushel, of threshing and separating oats. 

 Price, per bushel, of hu.sking and cribbing corn. 

 Price, per bushel, of shelling corn. 

 Price, per acre, of cutting, curing, and stacking hay. 

 Price, per acre, of cutting hay only. 



The results of the returns, so far as they admitted of tabulation, are 

 presented in the following tables, from which it a])pears that the aver- 

 age price per acre of harvesting and stacking wheat is $3 25. The ap- 

 parently low rate in California, where labor is well paid, is due to the 



