[_Nov. 16._] Rose came to tell me this morning that there was no milk.
Henry had dropped the bucket (from his head) and spilled it all. "See
Henry here." Why, Henry, where did you spill the milk? I asked in
dismay; but he looked blank till she interpreted for him--"Which side
de milk churray?" (throw away). _How_, _when_, and _where_ they do not
use or know the meaning of. _Which side_, is _where_--_What time_,
_when_--but they do not understand a sentence with _how_ in it.

The next four extracts give a good idea of Mr. Philbrick's
letters to his superintendents and of the far-sighted,
honest thought which he put on his Port Royal undertaking.
The first was written in the summer; the others appear in
their proper place in order of time.

E. S. P. TO W. C. G.

_Boston, July 28._ If you can induce some old man who is a good judge,
I would let him pick select cotton all through the season for seed,
going over the whole field, or such parts of it as he finds the best
cotton, culling the best pods from the best plants. In this way you
can get seed enough to plant some acres next year, which would yield
enough for the whole plantation another year and of a superior
quality. This is the way the most intelligent planters got up their
famous varieties of seed, and we ought to be able to use as much
brains as they did. Perhaps you can get some refugee to do this,
without giving offense to the mass, but he must be a good judge.

I hope you will not feel it your duty to enlist in the army, for I
consider your position there a very useful one and difficult to
replace. I don't mean useful merely to the people with whom you come
in contact, but politically, upon the solution of the great social,
political problem which we have got to solve, viz., the worthiness and
capacity of the negro for immediate and unconditional emancipation. I
intend to publish the results of this year's operations next winter
and want to be able to show that we have raised cotton at a lower
price per pound than the former proprietors did, counting the interest
upon their capital invested in negroes as a part of their expenses,
which is no more than just.

This point, as regards the raising of cotton by free labor,
Mr. Philbrick did successfully make later, as will be seen
(see page 265). Another inducement to Northern capital to
come South was offered by him at this time in a letter which
appeared in the Boston