THE ALABAMA OPPORTUNITY. Ill 



In discussing his unique farming methods, Mr. Glass said : 

 At present we have about 1,500 acres in cultivation, all ol 

 it in cotton. Of all the land we cultivate we only own the Pitts 

 place, a farm of sixty acres in Uniontown. The rest of it we 

 lent from its owners. For this land we pay in cash a yearly 

 rental of from $2 to $2.50. Our regular labor, we make con- 

 tracts with, paying a good negro hand this year $12 a month. 

 The negro laborers under their contracts are paid off every Sat- 

 urday night. This method we have found saves considerable 

 trouble and annoyance. 



THE WAGE SYSTEM. 



"On the various places' we run we ordinarily employ enough 

 labor at $12 a month to cultivate the crops, but sometimes the 

 necessity arises for additional hands as in May and June of 

 the present crop season. Because of the lack of labor and the 

 pressing need for workers in the grassy crops about here we had 

 to pay our extra labor this season in June as high as $1 a day, 

 an unheard of price in this section. 



"On the places we cultivate we work this year seventy horses 

 and mules. We buy the corn and oats for our live stock in 

 car load lots. Being extensively engaged in the-, mercantile bus- 

 iness in Uniontown we have found it to our interest to follow 

 this plan. A littl^ of the land we rent is devoted to hay, but 

 it is raised in no considerable quantities. 



"We have found this system of raising cotton satisfactory 

 and profitable. We began it some eight or nine years ago as 

 a side issue to our Uniontown business and to give us some sort 

 of our activity and occupation during the dull months of sum- 

 mer. We have since then increased our farming interests very 

 materially and I do not mind saying that they have brought us 

 very satisfactory financial results ; although the system may 

 be very different from what is ordinarily followed in the grow- 

 ing of cotton in Alabama. 



"Outside of the money returns we have found the system 

 more advantageous in other ways. We have but little trouble 

 with the wages' negro. His accounts never get so involved that 

 he doesn't understand them. He knows exactly what he is get- 

 ting and he usually knows exactly how he stands. At the end 

 of the year there are no involved accounts to straighten out 



