Proceedinos of the Farmers' Club. 



■315 



sweet gum and white oak, and the surface is undulating, as in Ken- 

 tucky and Middle Tennessee. I had, on a common farm garden, by 

 the middle of April, without hot-beds, peas, turnips, beets, cab- 

 bage, and all the common vegetables. As regards profits, I give a 

 table showing the results of four farmers in my neighborhood, 

 which have been most successful: 



" C." was a small farmer and did all the farm work himself, 

 assisted by his daughters (had no sons), and sold vegetables in 

 town. His expenses were small and yield. All the other places 

 cultivated entirely by freedmeu. "J. & N." were Northern men, 

 had never run a cotton farm, and planted it principally. They 

 rented, consequently their capital was smaller in proportion than 

 the others, their expenses greater. They paid higher for labor, and 

 had a school for freedmeu. They worked twenty-seven hands. 

 There crops are far above the average, but not better than an indus- 

 trious, skillful farmer might expect to make with good season. 

 The expenses do not include family expenses or wages of overseer. 

 A skilJful farmer will make his family support itself, unless he be 

 rich and aim at style. 



The laborers are freedmen, and in my opinion the best free labor- 

 ers for agriculture in the world. The old planters do not think so, 

 but this opinion was produced by the habits contracted, and the 

 demoralization produced by the slave code. It is the universal 

 testimony of Northern men and liberal Southerners, that they are 

 better than can be procured north. In the counties of Aladma 

 and Marion, where the greater quantities of rich lands lie, and where 

 there are about fifteen thousand freedmen, they can be employed to 

 work from sun till sun, stopping an hour or two for meals, for from 

 five dollars to fifteen dollars a month and rations — one peck of 

 meal and three and a half pounds of bacon. They cook their own 

 rations and never think of cominsr inside the farmers' houses. 



Many think the cultivated grapes would do well. There is a 

 great deal of lime in the soil; the atmosphere is exceedingly humid, 



