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and rations. Many plantations are being worked on shares—one-half or one- 
third, as the parties find their own provisions. There is a marked improvement 
in the condition of the negro, and when the political troubles are settled it will 
be still more’ preceptible. As an agricultural people the South has made pro- 
gress the past year slowly, but still they are in a better condition, from the fact 
that they have a greater amount of provisions, and are gradually becoming more 
self-sustaining. They are beginning to understand that their true prosperity is 
in making cotton a secondary crop. Could they be relieved of their terrible 
load of debt the country would soon be more prosperous than ever, for I do not 
know of any section of the Union that would so soon recuperate its wasted en- 
ergies. Planters are already preparing for spring planting, and in less than two ° 
weeks plans will be in motion for the corn crop. a 
Lauderdale county, Mississippit cultivated ten acres of sorghum last 
year. The yield was satisfactory considering the labor expended, and it is be- 
lieved that the crop will pay, the season giving ample time to ripen, and the 
plant growing luxuriantly. I am making arrangements to plant forty acres the 
ensuing season, and several of my neighbors will grow small patches. 
Pike county, Mississippi—F rom the difficulty of controlling labor there will 
be less cotton planted this year than heretofore. A general determination pre- 
vails to raise everything needed for home consumption. The cotton cultivated 
will be more from the force of habit than with the expectation of profit, for 
even with hands at fifty dollars a year and board cotton cannot be raised at 
present prices, burdened with the government tax. Should the present year 
be tolerably propitious the South will be hereafter self-sustaining. 
Giles county, Tennessee.—For the past four years cotton has been a specialty 
in this county. Last year the crop was a failure, or nearly so. This year we 
have made a fine crop, but the prices are a failure. It costs from fourteen to 
fifteen cents per pound to grow cotton here, and it is now netting but seven 
cents per pound. 4 a As a consequence, there has been a- larger 
amount of wheat sown than I have ever known before. It has been mostly 
sown in cotton land, and is now looking remarkably well, and at present prices 
will be very remunerative. I have never known a year when there was a bet- 
ter crop of everything than was made the past season in this county, and had 
cotton netted us twenty cents per pound we would have been in a prosperous 
condition. As it is, we are dependent, money scarce, and no demand for our 
surplus mules and pork. I fear there will be a good deal of suffering among 
the freedmen. There will not be one-fourth the acreage of cotton planted this 
year as last season ; hence many laborers are out of homes and are not disposed 
to work for wages. Anticipating fair prices for their cotton, our planters run in 
debt for dressing, and nine-tenths of those in this county are unable to pay 
their debts. There’is a general disposition among our farmers to raise more of 
the small grains, grasses, &c., and the large land-owners are wanting to sell and 
reduce their farms to two or three hundred acres. Lands in this county are 
very rich, water and timber in great abundance, the finest facilities for manu- 
facturing, and as fine a climate as in the United States. We need manufactur- 
ing establishments, cotton and woolen, labor-saving machinery, and steady, re- 
liable, and intelligent laborers, and only grow cotton as a surplus. 
Orangeburg county, South Carolina.—TVhere has been much wheat sown, 
and it is looking well. The great depreciation of cotton prices will largely 
augment the cultivation of grain crops this year. I do not think there will be 
more than half as much in cotton as last season. Provisions are more abundant 
than last year, but still there is too great a disposition to shun agriculture or to 
carelessly prosecute it. It is much to be regretted that our people are so little 
disposed to give attention to the culture of rice, a very remunerative employ- 
ment at present prices. There might be a great deal raised if attention were 
given to it. Our people are entirely too careless about agricultural improvement. 
