The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1864-01-11
Life on . Leased RlansatlOa n
Dixie.
GoODRIcH's LANDING,
December Is, 1868.

/ SDe~S
eight months since came to Dixie, an
having leased cotton plantation and al
tempted to cultivate it during the pas
season, l may be able to give you SOM
facts that may be useful if not interestin,
to your readers and in so doing shal
make no attempt at fine writing, for 20,
know the planter don't often indulge il
literary brilliancy, unless indeed th,
drinking of whisky and the use of profan,
language may be called by that name
As an illustration, l can refer you with
pride to your own fellow-citisen and bro.
ther chip. 7. W. c.
A certain one star General has been
writing Of late concerning the fabulous
profits of cotton raising, and understand
the working men of the North are pre-
pairing to come down here by the thousand
to inaagurase his small farm system. We
who have been here during the last sea-
son do most sincerely pray that this may
be true, though every practical man
must doubt its feasibility, as it will
necessarily require large expenditure in
the erection of new buildings on each
small farm, while the present buildings
will be much larger and more numerous
than viii be necessary, as they are always
Intended for the accommodation of the
hands, stock and implements for the
whole plantation, and are always built to-
gether on the same part OF the plantation.
But we say, send them on anything to
geta loyal population, that can be depend
ed upon, settled in the country bordering
upon the Mississippi river.
The results of the present season are
most unsatisfactory to every one engaged
in planting under the commissioners 4:
aud will give in brief manner the cir
cumstances that have combined to pre-
vent my success, which is, in the main,
true of others. In the first place, l be-
gan in May, when | should have done so
in January. For this l blame no one,
for | commenced with full understand
ing of this fact, but yet in time to make
good half crop if all other things had
been as favorable as the time OF com.
inencing and the season for growing. But
we were promised mules and implements.
as we'll as hands. The hands came prompt.
ly, but the mules never did. Think of
it, applied for 50 mules to cultivate
$50 acres, it being all thought / could
manage, and received 90. With these,
come 500 acres we're put in, IN ray
i. e: shallow furrow was run on the last
years ridge. the seed sown in it, and a
furrow run on each side throwing dirt to-
wards and over the seed. Thus 500
acres were put in cotton; expecting the
other so mules to break out the balks or
middles, but they did not come. The
commissioners failed to come to time
With this failure, on their part, gave
up the cultivation of 200 acres, and CON-
n,enced with 90 mules to tend 500 acres
of land, which included in the tending
breaking also. We got along finely until
the 29th of June, when the rebels made
raid in our neighborhood, after which
our people left the place, and could not
be got back until August, when again we
abandoned another loo acres, and with
about half cultivation, raised one-eighth
Of crop; the hands and numerous tan,i
~ eating all the while as much as though
they we're producing ten bales to the hand.
This year the military protection is nc
better than last; the rents are twice what
they were Last year, and the land has
been 90 generally overgrowu with weeds
that it will be much harder to tend and
last and largest, by all odds, if the pres
ent defensive attitude of our army is
maintained, the hands to cultivate the
land leased cannot be obtained. While
our army is storming fortified mountains
in the centre, it. right wing erouches in
lis earthworks, with we'll drilled and
brave soldicry, permitting far inferior
numbers of the enemy TO come into The
planting district and murder and rob will
impunity, and not even sending out ;
scout to feel or look after him. Oul
General is fine man, but l fear ha
chosen old Fabius as his model, which
with such men as Quantrel, is just wha
they want. a
| Quantrel is here, and is said to have
Majors commission; at least his adven
is marked by his wonted system Of mur
der and devastation.
Night before last, five negroes wer
murdered in cold blood, near Milliken'
Bend, and on Tuesday last, some sixt,
mules, nine wagons. three white men, am
twenty-five negroes we're captured by th