CULTIVATION OF COTTON. 
103 
He may, possibly, train himself to it gradually, but the 
chances are against bim. The white man, fresh from the 
North right in the heat of summer, cannot endure the labor ; 
a few days' working will lay him up for the balance of the 
season. But the white man who has been raised to labor, 
more especially one who has been raised in the country, 
can endure it. Our young men who returned from the 
army, laid down the sword and the gun, and took up the 
plough and the hoe— they have found themselves to be 
as able in the cotton field as they were on the field of 
battle. Tliey have laid hy their crops, and will be soon 
ready for picking. They have been blessed with an 
ordinary share of health, and indeed bid fair to make 
splendid laborers. 
Our " Northern brethren " also, as far as capacity for 
labor is concerned, appear to be doing nobly. They tug . 
and toil, and pour out their sweat in copious streams over 
their small cotton and big gTass, and demonstrate their 
physical manhood in a most satisfactory manner. 
The laboring foreigner, too, is coming in and joining 
the great congregation of workers, — the German, the 
Frenchman, the Irishman, the Englishman, the Scotchman, 
the Swiss, and the Italian. 
With proper care and prudence, the Caucasian accus- 
tomed to labor can work in the cotton field, though he 
cannot stand it as well as the negro. About one-third of 
the present laborers are white, the balance blacks. 
In answering the second question, How do the freed- 
men work ? facts alone must be our guide. We answer 
very briefly, and without any hesitation, when left solely 
to themselves, they do precisely as all the race have done 
who have gone before them. They sink down into idle- 
ness, filth, disease, and death. The report of Generals 
