The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1864-06-24

J
finds time to set Up farm and cultivate cab
gbage garden. AS an evidence of this last mem
toned good work, we venture to clip few ex-
! tracts from that very essence of loyalty-the
/ n. Y. Tribune:
/ '',Ihe Government farms on the South side
of the Potomac, in connection with Freedman S
Village, under the general direction of Col
Elias NJ. Greene embrace five separate confis-
Gated Virginia farms (wiithin miles of the riv
cry as follows Arlington ately Gen. Lees es-
tate,) upon which Freedman's Village IS STU
ated; Camp Todd Qately w. B. Hunters farm;)
Camp Rucker (Maj. Nuts near Falls Church,
Camp Wadsworth (the Means and Cook pla-
ces,) between Langley and Lewinsville; and
Camp Collins (Slades old place) just above
Fort Marcy In all of these places there are
about loo acres Of arabic land, including
$50 acres of meadow. The farms are cutiva-
ted by freedmen. This year the crops are to
be as follows: 200 acres Winter wheat look
ing well and sowed in grass; 200 acres corn,
100 acres oats, 30 acres potatoes, 80 acres
cabbage, % acres turnips 25 acres buckwheat,
10 acres melons, s acres tomatoes, and large
quantities of all kinds of garden vegetables for
the use of the contrabands and for the Wash
ington and Georgetown markets.
The number of able-boGied hands employed
on the farm is about one hundred. The num-
ber of men, women and children on the farms,
including Freedmans Village, IS about two
| thousand. Able-bodied men are paid for work
ing on The farms from eight to ten dollars per
month, and are furnished rations and quarters.
Ten dollars per month, rations and. quarters
is pretty good-in fact it is but three dollars
under the price paid to white men for leaving
their families at home and laying down their
limbs or dead bodies on the battle field In adj
dition to these comforts, care is taken to antic
lpate any real or supposed wants that may oc-
cur. Says the Tribune, again:
1.-The contrabands, on their arrival at camp,
are Immediately put in cleanly condition, and
provided with comforta ole clothing, ratons,
and the best quarters that can be assigned
them"
How nice is all this! What blessing if !,
one-hundredth part of our city poor could en-
/ Joy some of these worldly delights. " But the
/ journalist IS not done yet--he says:
/ "Ihe superintendent selects the most intelH
| gent of the young men and women and details
them to duty in the workshops transferring
! ble-bodied field hands to the farms, sending the
children TO school, the sick to the hospital, and
/ the aged and infrm TO the home provided for
| them"
And after all these essentials to this garden
of Eden have been attended to, further matters
of interest of q statistical and genealogical ma
ture receive attention. For instance:
GA book is kept in which the names of each
contraband arriving and departing at the Camp
is registered, with age, sex, condition in life,
and former place of residence, the condition of
each person on arrival, and the places to which
those who leave the village Or farms intend 20
go, and the date of their departure; also, the
disease, age, &c, of those who die"
All that IS wanted, probably, to this is {,
short biographical sketch Of each individual,
done up in gold for the centre-tables of New
England. But the above is not all, as will be
seen by the following paragraph:
''Iho educational and religious interests of
the village are under the supervision of the A
merican Tract Society. All the children under
Is are required 10 attend school during the
Winter months Besides the day schools for
children the Superintendent has established an
evening school for the benefit of the labore1s on
the farms and in the mechanical shops. Boys
over 6 and girls over IA are not allowed TO
attend the day schools while their services are
required in the laboring department All the
children under II and old enough TO be benefit
cd by school instructions required to at
tend. F."
| What an elisium is this springing up upon
the lands of Goth and Vandal--otherwise rcb-
els-wherein every want is supplied and every
taste gratified-even to the preparation for en-
tering upon the possession of an incorruptble
crown. And, after all these joys, mercy pre-
sides in judgment and softens the buffeting hand
of punishment-in case the elect should ever
have a contraband thought or do an unlawful
act We read:
''Punishments are of three grades. Tn slight
offences it is simply a reproof from the officer
in charge of the delinquent; in case of idleness
or disposition to shrink from labor, unclean-
ness. &c, deprivation of part of rations, &c,
in greater offences, such as dsobedience of or
ders, drunkenness, theft, &C., deprivation of
privileges, Imprisonment in guard-house, &C.
Before leaving this subject, we cannot help
congratulating the Government upon It's sue
cessful establishment an Independent plan
ter-the more SO, because it has surmounted
the difficult task of jumping claims and get
ting a clear title for them. Many more cab
bage gardens and corn patches may come of
this and many rails be necessary to fence them
in. How fortunate, then, that we have at the
head of affairs one who knows so we'll the pro-
cess of splitting them. There is but one thing
that we think could be improved, and that Is.
the establishment of little more white labor
that the colored ''children of the Government"
may not be subjected to even the slight labor
and exposure now required ofthem. With this
exception the system seems admirable How
bad it will make the poor enlaciated needle wo-
men of the eastern cities feel who make fifty feet
of stitches for five cents, and dying By inches
in consequence of the starvation prices paid for
doing Government work.
: How bad it viii make the poor soldiers wild
. nW an ornhan children feel too who have