The Osceola times., 1875-12-18
PLANTATION TOPICS.
THE LABOR QUESTION IN ALABAMA

, THE LABOR QUESTION IN ALABAMA.
A committee of one of the grange
of Alabama, to whom the labor ques
ton had been submitted, reported tn
following recommendation,
l.. The landlord should reserve :,
} himself, or to his agent, the entir
control and supervision of his farm
and the right to establish such rule
and regulations for the government 0
his plantation and premises as he MAJ
deem proper, not inconsistent with hi
contract and the laws.
,. The best method of hiring w
consider is to employ laborers by tn,
year, in contract settin: fsrth thu
duties and obligations of each party
BY doing this way, the landlord vii
better be able to have all kinds of fworl
done in its proper season, fences re
paired, bitches cut and cleaned out
fertilizers collected, and the lands prop
erly prepared for receiving seed.
3. When land is rented, if the land
owners furnish supplies to the tenant
for his support, he (the land owner
should hold lien on the tenants share
of the crop, until such supplies are
paid for as the law now slistains. II
fertilizers be bought, the tenant should
pay, pro rata, in propotion to the part
of the crop he receives.
4. Those who work on shares should
divide the profits and responsibilities
with the landlord. The rent of the
land should be one-third, when prac.
ticable, the landowner reserving to
himself the direction of the labor,
gathering of the crops, etc.
The grange, also, resolved that its
members will not hire any laborer who
has hired to any person until he has
filled his contract or is liberated by
his employer.
wAsTEFUL WAYS WITH MANURE.
The Buncome invention for cleaning
stables by washing the manure into the
creek, has not, we are glad to he able to
say, come into general use; but We
have other methods of wasting the
manurial resources of the farm, which
are only little less absurd and foolish.
One of these is exposing the droppings
of our animals, for months, to the
alternate scorchings of the sun and the
drenching of the rain, by which near,
ly all the rich salts of lime, potash,
magncsia and ammonia are dissolved
and washed out. In an experiment
instituted in Scotland, to test the com
parative value of sheltered and unshel
tered manure, four acres of good soil
were measured; two of them were
manured with ordinary barn-yard
manure, and two with an equal quan.
tity of manure from covered shed.
The whole was planted with potatoes.
The product of each acre was as follows:
Potatoes treated with barn-yard ma.
nure: One acre produced two hundred
and soventy-two bushels. One acre
produced two hundred and ninety-two
bushels. Potatoes manured from the
covered sheds One acre produced four
hundred and forty-two bushels. One
acre produced four hundred and seven
ty-one bushels. The next year the
land was sown with wheat, when the
difference between the two plats was
more than ten bushels per acre in favor
of that manured from the sheds.
THE CONDITION OF LABOR IN GEORGIA.
The Georgia state agricultural de-
partment has investigated the condi-
tions of labor and land rent in that
state, by means of a series of questions
sent out to its correspondents in all
parts of the state. From the answers
to these questions, it is ascertained that
the average price paid to laborers is
for males, ten dollars per month and
board, and for women, five dollars and
fifty cents per month and board,
Twenty-eight per cent. of the able-bod-
led negro women labor i'm the field. In
a large majority of cases, they are
found unwilling to cook and do house,
work. When part of the crop is Civ.
en- for labor, the proportion generally
ranges from one-third to one-half.
When land is rented for a part of the
crop, the rate is most generally one
third of the corn and one-half of the
cotton and when the rent is in cotton
exclusively, one-fourth, or two bale,
to the plough. The money rent i,
three dollars per acre. To the ques
ton (Which has proved most profita
bic, hiring for wages, cropping or rent
ingg' fiftyitwo per cent. of the CORE
spondents say wages, twenty-four pei
cent. say cropping, and twaty-four pei
cent. say renting.
TURNING A PEST TO A PROFITABLE
ACCOUNT
There was large plantation neal
Selma, Alabama, a part of which had
been seeded with sorghum halapense
or Guinea grass, (there called "John
son Grass"). This grass finally spread
over the whole plantation and could
not be subdued, which SO discouraged
the owner that he gave up the place a,
utterly ruined. A Northern farmer
seeing this abandoned plantation witt
its luxuriant growth of grass, was SC
impressed with it, that he rented the
place for three years and prepared tC
attack the planters foe, big Genera