The Press.
London, England, 1857-09-12 00:00:00

they become ripe, at different periods of the season. These
operations can be done as well, and consequently as
cheaply, by women or children, as by full-grown men. But
often a small proprietor in the Free States can command
no other labour than his own, which would be greatly mis-
applied in most of the manual operations connected with
tobacco culture ; because his team of horses might some-
times be standing in the stable while he was picking worms
off the plants, which would render this very costly work.
Thus, through the organisation and the division of employ-
ment which slave labour admits of, it is virtually cheaper
than free.

It now only remains for us to offer a series
of extracts exemplifying the culture of the
different southern crops, i.e., rice, cotton, sugar,
and tobacco :

Engagements preventing the gentleman to whom the
estate belonged accompanying me, I was directed to ask for
his " driver" named "Jupiter," whoml found a most intel-
ligent person. He was of pure African blood, and possessed
a powerful frame, with a great deal of energy and activity
in his character. The management of the plantation was
almost entirely confided to him. There were twenty-one
negroes, old and young, on the estate ; but there were
fourteen working hands ; and forty acres had been in cotton
this year, but last year on'y thirty acres. This seems
scarcely three acres to the hand, though each he assured me
managed five acres. The cotton is planted in ridges four
and a half feet in width, and a foot and a half between
each plant in the row. But if the soil is rich, as muoh
sometimes as three feet. The cotton seed is planted from
the 20th of March to the 20th of April ; and as the plants
rise the soil is thrown up to their roots by the plough
and the hoe. The seeds of the cotton plant, l►ke those of
peas and beans, are ripened soonest on the branches
next the ground; indeed while the lower branches of the
cotton plant have ripe seeds the upper are bearing flowers.
As the seeds ripen, the husks expand, and the cotton fibre
appears attached to the seed, in the form of a round ball
as large as an orange. As soon as the earliest husks are
open, which is usually about the last of July, picking com-
mences. This operation is long continued, for a succession
of pods ripen until the end of November. As the cotton is
gathered, it is dried and stored up till win►er, when the
separation of the fibre from the seed is effected.
• • • • •

- -
Considerable diversity prevails in the mode of cultivat-
ing the rice plant. Some planters plough all the grounds
every year. Those who follow this system give a light
furrow in the beginning of January, and afterwards make
shallow furrows or drills fifteen inches apart to receive the
seed which is sown broadcast, in the month of April, at the
rate of from two or three bushels per acre. A small quantity
of water is then admitted for a day or two until the grain
sprouts.
The plough used on these rather strong soils is exceed-
ingly light, and drawn by a mule. I have seen a negro
woman carrying one on her shoulder from one field to
another. On a plantation of 500 acres under rice, I have
found that twenty-two mules performed the whole plough.
ing, besides cultivating from seventy to eighty acres of
Indian corn on the light sandy soil of the pine country.
No one can say that there is any waste of animal power in
this case. Rice culture involves a large amount of
manual labour—for about one hundred negroes, men and
women, are required to tend and reap the crop on this
extent of land, and take the grain to market. This
number of field hands was only got out of 250 negroes,
young and old. The common calculation is, that the
working hands are about one-half of the total number of
negroes on a plantation.
The most approved and general mode of cultivating the
rice fields, when free from weeds, is to sow the seed with-
out ploughing. The stubble of the previous crop is
burned in spring, which operation is easily effected, owing
to the quantity that is left at harvest. A negro then goes
into the fields, and makes a rut with a hoe between the
rice rows of the former Drop. Sometimes a small drill-
plough is used. Either of these serves as a receptacle for
the seed, which is either covered with a rake or the water
is admitted at once, and covers it by washing down the
soil.
The water, in all cases, is admitted to the field as soon
as the seed is sown ; and when the young shoot appears
above ground it is again drawn off. In the course of a
week the crop usually receives another watering, which
lasts from ten to thirty days, according to the
progress which vegetation makes. This watering is
chiefly useful for killing the land weeds that make their
appearance as soon as the ground becomes dry. On the
other hand, when the field is under water, alnatic weeds
in their turn grow up rapidly, and to check their growth
the field is once more laid dry, and the crop is then twice
hand hoed. By the Ist of July the rice is well advanced,
and water is again admitted and allowed to remain on the
field until the crop is ripe. This usually takes place from
the Ist to the 10th of September. The water is drawn off
the day previous to the commencement of reaping. The
rice is cut by the sickle, and the stubble is left from a foot
to a foot and a half in length, according to the rankness
of the crop. The day after it is cut it is bound into
sheaves, and carried by the negroes to the bank of the
main canal, whence it is carried in flat•bottomed boats to
the threshing machine. The rice in the husks is then
sent to Savannah in boats.

In connection with the sugar plantations, per-
haps the most interesting facts will be the
following
The season for crushing sugar-canes in Cuba lasts for
six months at least. Now, from all I heard and saw, lam
fully persuaded that the negroes are much overtasked at
this time on almost all the sugar plantations. Until I
visited the sugar fields and factories, I had no conception
that such severe and long•continned exertion could pos-
sibly be endured by any race of men. The common prat,•