288 HOW TO GET A FARM, 



and addressed to the Hon. Henry T. Blow, of St. 



Louis : 



&quot; I write to you as my friend and as a public man, taking 

 interest in whatever concerns the public good. There is 

 an immense gold field down here, and nobody appears to 

 know it. I want it thrown open to the people, so the 

 people can work in it. I refer to the many abandoned 

 plantations from Helena, Arkansas, to Natchez, Louisiana. 

 The owners, most of them, have fled with their negroes to 

 Texas and elsewhere, leaving land that should be occupied. 



&quot;During this year, some of the plantations have been 

 worked by Northern men, by hiring negro labor. But few 

 leases were given, as it was late in the season when the idea 

 of cultivation was thought of. Three commissioners were 

 appointed by General Thomas, who gave the leases. The 

 plan was the best that could be adopted on the spur of the 

 moment. 



&quot; What leases were given expire in February next, and 

 then I want to see a large laboring population from the 

 North come down here and fill up the country. I lived at 

 Fort Kearney during two gold excitements. One was Cal 

 ifornia, the other Pike s Peak. I saw the great numbers 

 of people that moved there to dig for gold. The gold got 

 there was nothing to what can be made by coming to this 

 country. Let the prospect be advertised in the newspapers 

 of the West, that every man coming down here can have 

 80 or 200 acres of cotton land, according to his means for 

 working it to work for one year. Two hundred acres of 

 land means 200 bales of cotton, the net price of which, in 

 New York, will be $40,000. If 80 acres, it will be $16,000. 

 W 7 ith hired labor, cotton can be raised at 5 cents per pound, 

 which gives a profit of 45 cents per pound net. No farmer 

 of the North ever dreamed of such profit ; and if the ad- 



