The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1865-09-26
WORKING ON SHARES.

Various schemes have been suggested to our
farmers and planters, as to the best mode of
surmounting the difficulties that now surround
them, in consequence of the absence of all
regulated labor. In many parts of the North
ern States lands are worked on shares. and as
a general rule, with satisfactory results to
landlord and tenant. The land owners of the
South as class, are averse to selling their
homesteads. They must have labor to enable
them to exist. If, therefore, they will not
sell, we do not see that they can do better
than to let their lands out on shares as is now
done at the North, Or following the example
Of the English land owner, rent out his farm
for so much per acre for the cleared land. If
we of the South adopt this latter system, and
take the trouble to make the fact known
throughout Great Britain, we may confidently
expect heavy access of population from her
overcrowded agricultural districts. ~
From several of our exchanges we give sug-
gestions on this all important topic of labor !;
"Let each family of negroes be given an
acre or two of ground, enough for house and
garden, the latter to be cultivated, at odd
hours In vegetables, fruits and flowers. 50 &c
to inspire feeling of home attachment, while
the surrounding fields are cultivated ON shares
with the proprietor. This system Would en-
list the negros Pride and self-esteeD.l, as well
as his lnterest. IS, on the side of his bargain.
lie would nave everything to gain by stick
ing to y, and could make nothing by aban-
aonlp g it. The employer would be equally
Il 1nV ,rested in keeping faith with laborers who
lad Judgments on his premises. But the sue
cess of this, as well as every other scheme of
free labor, presupposes the existence of a
sense of justice and good faith between the
parties" ri
''The Southern planters, as class, do not
care how closely they are bound to their agree
ments with the freedmen. They are willing
to agree to and carry out, any fair and honor
able understanding. All they want is that the
contracts they enter into shall not be consider
ed one-sided affairs. While they are compell-
ed to fulfill their stipulations in letter and
spirit-to which they do not object--they de-
sire that the freedmen shall be constrained to
abide by their part of the bargain. Right
here the main difficulty presents itself The
planters enter into contracts, hire negroes, and
set them to work. The negroes violate their
obligations whenever whim or caprice seizes
them, abandon the farms they agreed to cult
vate, render unproductive the work that has
been done, damage their employers to that ex-
tent, and the latter have no redress whatever
On the contrary, instead of justice being melted
out with an even hand, the planters are COM
PEELED to pay the negroes for the work that
has been done, if not for the whole year, when,
instead of having been benefited, they have
been seriously disadvantaged." Ha ..u..
"Under such a system as this, it is folly to
expect that the leading staples of the South
can be produced to any important extent.
Unless the freedmen are compelled to fulfill
their contracts, by the same compulsory pro-
cess that operates upon white men, their la
Dor will never be very valuable; and the South
must look to emigration, on gigantic scale,
as the means through which her fertile fields
shall again be made to bloom, blossom and
mature, with abundant crops. .5.