but pay the
laborers more promptly, and increase their wages by many indirect means,
such as giving them bacon and molasses in proportion to the amount of
cotton land which they cultivate, providing a store for the plantation,
where the freedmen can purchase articles at a much lower rate than
elsewhere, keeping the cabins in good repair, building new ones, and
having always on hand the necessary plantation implements for
facilitating the culture of the cotton. Others pay higher wages, and
also increase the bonus which is paid for picking the cotton. Some
promise the freedmen so much per pound for the cotton which they shall
raise, and see that all their wants are supplied till the crop is
gathered; while still others, from lack of judgment or capital, offer
the negroes a certain portion of the crop--in some cases as high as two
thirds--in return for their labor. On all these plantations the freedmen
are doing better than on those which are still retained by Government.
The average amount of cotton land which has been planted this spring is
from an acre and a half to two acres for each 'full hand.' Under slavery
a full hand took care on an average of three acres, but it must be
remembered that all the able-bodied negroes, excepting only a foreman to
each plantation, have been drafted into the army, or are working in the
Quartermaster's Department.

At the present time all indications point to a successful season. Riding
over many of the plantations, I have seen the negroes at work breaking
up the ground or planting the seed, and everywhere found them laboring
diligently, and even showing a manly emulation in their tasks. Yet it
would be unreasonable to expect too much where so many obstacles beset
the way. As one of the new planters writes: 'For success in an
experiment of free hired labor among ignorant blacks just emancipated,
conditions of peace and quiet are absolutely necessary. However, the
difficulties in our way are purely natural workings, and merely show
that black is more nearly white than is usually allowed.' Perhaps the
greatest of these obstacles is the vicinity of the camps at Beaufort and
Hilton Head, which tempts the freedmen to leave their regular
employments and obtain an easy livelihood by the sale of eggs, chickens,
fish, oysters, &c. Such markets affect the blacks on the plantations
just as the California fever affected the laboring men of the North a
few years ago; and it is a matter of surprise a