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board, or other expense. The prices, therefore, vary, as in Illinois for instance, 
- from three to seventeen cents per bushel. -And so in other States. The actual 
returns from Illinois would average 83 cents; question 11th, average 5), cents. 
In cutting and stacking hay, in Illinois, the returns ranged from $1 50 to $4 
per acre. . 
The following extracts from correspondence will show further the impos- 
sibility of obtaining uniformity in returns relative to machine labor, and to some ° 
extent, freedmen’s labor : . 
A Pennsylvania correspondent says of harvesting wheat: ‘‘Men are either 
hired by the day and furnished with horses and wagon, or receive a portion of 
the crops, (threshed,) to be agreed upon. In out-lots, adjoining towns, it is 
customary to get a neighboring farmer to do the work, and to deliver to the 
owner of the soil one-half the threshed grain, This includes ploughing and sow- 
ing, each party furnishing half the seed. 
“As to your 12th question, men are hired by the day, and the corn is eribbed 
or otherwise disposed of at the expense of the owner. The shelling of corn is 
done by the farmers themselves, with such hired assistance as the mode of 
operation requires. Large lots are tramped out with horses. It is generally 
sold in the ear, however. Cutting, curing, and stacking hay is done for one-half 
the crop, the cropper finding all.” 
Charleston, Kanawha county, West Virginia-—* I have had some difficulty in 
getting the price per acre for harvesting—no two agreeing as to the exact price ; 
for some machines require more labor than others, and no one, it appears, has 
kept regular account as to the real cost. I have, however, taken the medium. 
The greatest portion of this county is harvested by manual labor, except hauling.” 
Ottawa county, Michigan—'The person owning the threshing machine 
charges six cents per bushel for wheat, and three cents for oats, but his employer 
furnishes about seven men and two teams in addition, which would make the 
whole cost as reported. In consequence of the lumbering business, labor is no 
cheaper for the whole year than for six or eight months in summer.” 
Pmeville, McDonald county, Missouri.—<'This county is just recovering 
from the effects of the war, and it would be impossible to give a correct list of 
prices and wages, or anything near it.” 
Mt. Olive, North Carolina—* As to the price of harvesting and stacking 
wheat, husking and cribbing corn, shelling corn, &c., it is impossible for me to 
give an answer, as such work is never let out here.’ 
Thomasville, North Carolina.— There is no machinery used in this county 
for harvesting wheat. Corn is still husked by means of the old-fashioned ‘husk- 
ing,’ called by us ‘shucking,’ when the neighbors in turn assist each other in 
husking their corn at night.” 
Paris, Texas — The harvest labor mentioned in the report is the old style of 
harvesting by hand; we having but few machines in the county, not more than 
one-tenth of our grain being harvested by machinery.” 
Oceana, West Virginia—* We have no machines in this county for cutting 
wheat; hence I am unable to give a price, as it is always performed by day 
laborers with cradles.” 
Cornersville, Giles county, Tennessee.—*'The answers to the wages of hands 
are given from actual contracts. It is proper to remark that it costs more to 
feed a white laborer than a black one. The whites require flour, sugar, coffee, 
&c., whereas the blacks, in the main, have their thirteen bushels meal and one 
hundred and eighty-seven and a half pounds bacon per hand, together with 
milk, potatoes, and vegetables, given to them for a year’s allowance, and they 
do their own cooking. White men without families eat at our family table. 
Negroes are less in the way, and it don’t cost as much to feed them. Whites 
are more reliable, have better judgment, and a higher regard for their obligations.” 
° = . 
Sanilac county, Michigan. It is the universal custom here to board hired 
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