320 COST OF LABOUR HORSES. 



Time lost Sundays and usual holidays, 58 days. 



Bad weather and half holidays, and 

 sickness, suppose 30 



Making in all . . . 88 



Deducting 88 lost days from 365 leaves for working days 

 277, and makes the cost of each day ($93.53-j-277 =) 

 not quite, ....... cents 34 



A boy of 13 or 14 years, might hire for $25 00 



Food and clothing, two-thirds as much as a man's 18 12 

 Taxes (county and poor only) 80c. ; nursing, fuel, 



&c., &c., $4 4 80 



$47 92 

 10 per cent, for superintendence . . 4 80 



Total yearly expense $52 72 



And daily, for 277 working days, not quite, cents 19 1 



Women and girls over 13 years, may be averaged at the same 

 expense, though worth less for labour. 



According to the established custom, all the expenses of medical 

 attendance, and loss of time from the death of a slave occurring 

 when he is hired, are paid, or deducted from the hire, by the 

 owner, and therefore are omitted in this estimate. By supposing 

 the slave to be hired by his employer, instead of being owned, the 

 calculation is made more simple, and therefore more correct. Yet 

 it is well known that the labour of slaves owned by their employer 

 is much more profitable, and therefore should be estimated as 

 cheaper, than the labour of actual hirelings. 

 A work-horse. First cost in buying, at five years old, say $75 



supposed to last six years, makes the annual wear $12 50 

 Interest for one year on $75, and tax, 12 cents 4 62 J 



96 bushels of corn (2 J gallons for working days, and 



2 gallons when idle) at 45 cents, and 3500 Ibs. of hay 



or fodder at 50 cents the 100 Ibs. - $60 70 



Add 10 per cent, for expense and loss in 



keeping 6 07 



66 77 



Interest on $66 77 for one year - - 4 00 i 



Total yearly cost, $87 89 



whether going to marling or not, it is manifest that he is not affected by 

 any temporary fluctuations of prices of labour. The prices which will be 

 here stated as fair averages may fall or rise to any extent for a year or two, 

 without lessening or increasing the expenses of a proprietor who neither 

 hired, bought, nor sold labouring force during that time (1852). 



