REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 



131 



probabij more accurate, because it is easier to average the wages of 

 this ])riacipal class. 



states. 



North Carolina 

 South Caroliaa. 



Georgia 



Florida 



Alabama 



Mississippi 



Louisiana. 



Texas 



Arkansas 



Tennessee . . . . 



$110 

 103 

 1-24 

 139 

 138 

 166 

 171 

 166 

 170 

 121 



$49 



05 



75 



80 



89 



100 



120 



109 



108 



63 



$50 

 43 

 57 

 65 

 66 

 71 

 72 

 80 

 80 

 60 



1857. 



a 



$104 

 100 

 125 

 139 

 117 

 149 

 150 

 139 

 158 

 136 



$45 

 55 

 65 

 85 

 71 

 93 



104 

 84 

 94 

 67 



$47 

 43 

 46 

 52 

 52 

 61 

 65 

 67 

 78 

 65 



1868. 



93 

 83 

 97 

 87 

 90 

 104 

 130 



ys 



109 



$41 

 52 

 55 

 50 

 50 

 66 

 75 

 72 

 75 

 51 



$39 

 42 

 47 

 44 

 40 

 40 

 60 

 65 

 67 

 45 



1*78. 



3 



$105 

 101 

 102 

 110 

 107 

 124 

 136 

 144 

 148 

 120 



$55 

 54 

 57 

 63 

 61 

 76 

 82 

 90 

 92 

 60 



Labor contracts. — The contracts for labor are of three kinds: for 

 money-wages by the mouth or year, for a share of the crop, aud for spe- 

 cific rent in money or products. The first has been practiced to a lim- 

 ited extent by the best and most prosperous planters, and many more 

 who assume it to be impracticable under existing circumstances deem it 

 the best for planter and laborer if they could harmoniously agree to 

 adopt it. The share system has been most in vogue, for two prominent 

 reasons, the laborers greatly affected a quasi proprietorship, and the 

 owners of land were iuexperienced in managing free labor and disin- 

 clined to have anything personally to do with it. Between them, the 

 plan hit upon was the best possible to destroy fertility and profit and 

 demoralize labor. 



The share-allowance to labor varies in difiFerent situations aad circum- 

 stances. In North Carolina three-fourths of the proprietors allow one- 

 half, everything being furnished except rations ; others four-tenths, one- 

 third, and one-fourth in a few instances. One-half, one-third, and in 

 some instances three-eighths are reported in South Carolina, the former 

 rate predominating. Four-fifths of the counties of Georgia report one- 

 half for labor subsisting itself. In some cases one-third is given, or one- 

 fourth, with 100 pounds of meat to each laborer. There is much minor 

 variation of the terms of the contract. In Alabama and the States far- 

 ther west, essentially the same allowance is madej if rations are fur- 

 nished, one-fourth of the cotton and one-third of the corn is usually 

 allowed. If the laud is rented without implements or stock, one-fourth 

 to one-third is demanded, usually one-fourth of cotton and one-third of 

 corn. Much the larger proportion of farms are occupied on the share 

 system, nearly all in Mississippi by sharers and renters, and a very 

 large proportion in Louisiana, about two-thirds in Georgia, South Car- 

 olina, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Florida and Alabama report the pay- 

 ment of wages in larger proportion than the other States. So far as is 

 reported, the wages system is deemed best, though it may not be found 

 practicable, because laborers prefer not to hire for money, and the plant- 

 ers have not the money to pay promptly. It is almost universally ac- 

 knowledged that, in view of the greater yield and superior condition of 

 the land, the wages system is preferable. 



The testimony is general to a gradual increase in efficiency of freed- 

 men's labor. Still the disposition exists to congregate in towns, on the 

 part of many, and eke out a precarious living by transient jobs; and 



