y labor range from 60 to 75 cents, but the extra labor
imported for cotton picking makes over double this.

THE SUGAR REGION.

South of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the alluvial district is largely given
over to the growing of sugar cane with occasional fields of rice. The
district under cultivation stretches back from the river a couple of
miles or so to the edge of the woods beyond which at present there is no
tillable ground, though drainage will gradually push back the line of
the forest. These sugar lands are valued highly, $100 or so an acre, and
the capital invested in the great sugar houses is enormous. Probably
nowhere in agricultural pursuits is there a more thorough system of
bookkeeping than on these plantations. This land is cultivated by hired
hands, who work immediately under the eye of overseers. Nowhere is the
land let out in small lots to tenants. Conditions are radically
different from those prevailing in the cotton regions. The work season,
it is claimed, begins on the first day of January and ends on the 31st
of December, and every day between when the weather permits work in the
fields there is work to be done.

=CABINS ON SUGAR PLANTATION.=

These plantations present an attractive appearance. The cabins are not
scattered as in the cotton country, but are usually ranged on either
side of a broad street, with rows of trees in front. The cabins are
often for two families and each has a plot of ground for a garden. The
planters say the Negroes will not live in the houses unless the garden
plots are provided, even if they make no use of them. To each family is
allotted a house so long as they are employed on the place. Wood is free
and teams are provided for hauling it from the forest. Free pasture for
stock is often provided.

From the fact that the men would seldom work more than five and a half
days a week arose the custom of paying off every eleven days. Each
workman has a time book and as soon as he has completed his eleven days
his pay is due. This avoids a general pay day and the demoralization
that would likely follow. Work is credited by quarters of a day: Sunrise
to breakfast, breakfast to dinner, dinner to about 3:00 p. m., 3:00 p. m.
to sunset. Wages vary according to the season, being much larger during
autumn when the cane is being ground. For field work men get 70 cents
per day, women 55 to 60 cents. During the grinding season the men earn
from $1 to $1.25, the women about 85 cents