families
living on the rice and cane plantations, who work for cash wages but
receive houses and such perquisites as do other tenants and whose
permanence is more assured than an ordinary day hand. They are paid in
cash, usually through a plantation store, that debts for provisions,
etc., may be deducted. Both owners and tenants find it generally
necessary to arrange for advances of food and clothing until harvest.
The advances begin in the early Spring and continue until August or
sometimes until the cotton is picked. In the regions east of the
alluvial lands advances usually stop by the first of August, and in the
interim until the cotton is sold odd jobs or some extra labor, picking
blackberries and the like, must furnish the support for the family. The
landlord may do the advancing or some merchant. Money is seldom
furnished directly, although in recent years banks are beginning to loan
on crop-liens. The food supplied is often based on the number of working
hands, irrespective of the number of children in the family. This is
occasionally a hardship. The customary ration is a peck of corn meal and
three pounds of pork per week. Usually a crop-lien together with a bill
of sale of any personal property is given as security, but in some
states landlords have a first lien upon all crops for rent and advances.
In all districts the tenant is allowed to cut wood for his fire, and
frequently has free pasture for his stock. There is much complaint that
when there are fences about the house they are sometimes burned, being
more accessible than the timber, which may be at a distance and which
has to be cut. The landlords and the advancers have found it necessary
to spend a large part of their time personally, or through agents called
"riders," going about the plantations to see that the crops are
cultivated. The Negro knows how to raise cotton, but he may forget to
plow, chop, or some other such trifle, unless reminded of the necessity.
Thus a considerable part of the excessive interest charged the Negro
should really be charged as wages of superintendence. If the
instructions of the riders are not followed, rations are cut off, and
thus the recalcitrant brought to terms.

For a long time rations have been dealt out on Saturday. So Saturday has
come to be considered a holiday, or half-holiday at least. Early in the
morning the roads are covered with blacks on foot, horse back, mule back
and in various vehicles, on their way to