Norfolk day book. [volume] (Norfolk and Portsmouth Va.) 1868-1880, 1869-08-11

coItOn as Cney CaH SatneT' III
former years it was not an I'M
usual thing for planters to start
their plows bedding up fields
which were still white with I'm
| picked cotton. oalut.g esaa
The changes which the al
{ tered status of the laborers has
wrought in the conditions I'M
der which cotton is grown in
the South are Numerous. In
the frov pace I'D this neces-
sari7y prevents any colsidera-
BILE addition to the area already
cultivated-very little land, as
a general rule, is now plowed
before Christmas. The negroes
who are hired by the year,
consider themselves only inter-
ested in that years crop. They
prefer to reserve to themselves
the privilege of saying at
Christmas whether or not they
will remain. They don't choose
to commit themselves IN ad-
vance to stay another year, or
to expend labor in preparing
for crop which they may have
no hand in cultivating. Then
the work of cultivation at every
stage is more carelessly done
than in former years. The
trash gang as it is called, Of
the plantation, composed of
the younger children of both
sexes, who in old times, were
made very useful, are now said
to be totally beyond the reach
of control or discipline. The
women are scarcely less SO. In
fact both of these classes do far
less work in the field than for
merly. Information is to the
effect also that all the younger
hands who have grown up since
the war lack the steadiness and
careful training Of the older
set; that sickness is much more
common among them at all
seasons of the year, from the
absence of that compulsory
medical supervision and SAM
tary police which the owners
formerly exercised over their
property, but which it is said,
freedmen will by no manner of
means submit to. All this,
without taking into considera-
ton the other DEFICIENCIES and
drawback Incidents to want
OF forethoug It and proper
sense of the obligation of con-
tracts by he untutored freed
men, sufficiently accounts for
that demand for labor of a diff
ferent kind which the propos-
ed coming of the Chinese may
possibly supply. But Of course
this supply must be offered, if
at ali, in manner not to con
fiict with our law against the
Coolie trade.
That which the South wants
is not so much cheap labor
though cheap labor necessarily
implies abundant labor-as it
is more labor, and that of a
|sort which can be trusted and
depended upon for that patient
faithful, pains-taking, unre-
hitting toll which the cultiva-
ton of cotton and the other
great staples Oh tae 5onth re-
quiro. Emigrants of every ma
ton can find a home and a
welcome in the SoutA, but her
special need is agricultural
laborers capable of going into
the cotton field, the corn field
and therice field and perform
ing, under burning sun, the
task which the negroes once
did, but have ceased to do we'll.
lift be asked what is to be-
come Of the negro, it may be
answered that the very COM
petition thus introduced will
have beneficial effect upon
him, in rousing his dormant
energies, teaching him the
necessity of industry and APP
plication, and making him thus
more useful to himself and to
the community. AS the sup
ply of labor increases, and
greater confidence is felt in it's
quality, more land will be put
into cultivation. Thus the de-
mand will, in turn, be stimu-
lated by the supply, and the
effect eventually will be not so
much to cheaper labor as to
roise the standard and improve
the quality of labor, and with