The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-06-10

i
selves in the condition of English farm hands
and have led them in a series of strikes in
tended to better their condition, have been
appointed by the Federal Union of Agricul-
tural Laborers to come to this country and
ascertain whether the Mississippi Valley is
suitable for the settlement of such people as
they represent This is important news, for
it looks to a movement which may be of the
greatest use, not only to the Mississippi VAL
ley, but to the English laborers whom Messrs.
Odger and Wicks represent. Surplus men
are only men in the wrong place. There are
no surplus men, as yet, on This planet, unless
we except the small number of American pol
iticans who have committed themselves to q
third term. Certainly, if we count only men
able and willing to labor industriousy for
living, men with strong hands and
with willing hearts, even if they have
sometimes muddled brains for such men
there is room and to spare in the world. 1t
needs only that they put themselves in the
right place; and we can assure Messrs.
Odger and Wicks and their constituents that
there is just now probably not another region
on this or any other continent where the
English agricultural laborer with his
strength, habit of toll and poverty, can do so
well, or to which he can be got 50 choaply as
the Mississippi Valley.
In the first place, the manner in which
farm laborers ore employed in the richest and
most productive part of this great valley
namely, in the cotton region-is peculiarly
adapted to the condition of men who are poor
and need to receive support from the day
they begin to labor The cotton planters OF
the South almost universally rent their lnnds
out to laborers in tracts of from ten to forty
acres for share of the crop; and in
making this arrangement the laborer
not only takes cleared land, ready for
the plough, but with it is furnished
house, sufficient frewood, room for the
keeping of few hogs and O COW, and suf-
ficicnt ground for vegetable garden. Be
sides this the planter expects to make adj
vances to the tenants, from the time he signs
the contract, on the coming crop; he expects
to superintend and direct their labor seeing
that they plough, plant and cultivate at the
proper seasons and il the proper manners he
provides Clubhouse for cleaning and baling
the cotton and for that part of the product
which remains to the laborer at the close of
the season, and when he has paid for his adj
vances he can always get cash on the spot.
Cotton is the direct equivalent of money 1t
has always an instant market; and many
Southern negro rolls his bales on to the gal
lery Of his cabin and keeps them there as
though it was money IN bank, spending
bale as he needs.
1t will be seen that by this method of en-
gazing labor the workman needs. in fact, no
money ahead. If he is put on the land his
subsistence is assured from that moment.
And no doubt there are thousands Of planters
who will agree to take families on the levee
at New Orleans pay their way to the plan
tations and subsist them from the
moment they sign the labor con-
tract Nor is the culture Of cotton
difficult 1t needs but little knowledge in
advance. Tho planter always, now, watches
and guides the labor of the tenants. 1t needs
mainly industry and the skill to plough and
to care for animals In the South, at present,
it is customary Tor tenants to own their ami
mails and tools, but this is by no means an in
variable rule, and on thousands of plantations
the planter furnishes these necessaries, charg-
ing, Of course, for their use.
As to the future, an industrious English
ploughman cannot fail, unless he drinks over
much, to become in few years in the cotton
country the owner Of land. A negro tenant
now usually makes from seventy-fve to one
hundred and fifty dollars, clear of oil ex-
penses for living, from his years work II
he has two or three boys, and if his wife is
an active woman, he can make from one hun
dred and seventy-fve to two hundred and fifty
dollars clear money per nnnum. The South
ern negro cutivating cotton lives to-day be.-
ter than the average English agricultural
laborer, for he has meat at least once day
and he might live much better than he does if
he would keep vegetable garden. Land is
abundant in the cotton country and cheap.
A years toll would buy a small cotton farm
for any thrifty English ploughman, and there
Is no such man whom Messrs. O1ger and Wicks
can bring out who cannot hope, with patient
labor and thrift, to be, 10 two years after he
lands, the owner of homestead OF at least
twenty and perhaps forty acres, on which he
can live comfortably with his family and be
his own man.
II these two Englishmen have reilly con-
stitucncy behind them ready to como over
and willing to labor they cannot do better
than 60 at once TO the cotton region Of Louis
lana, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas.
They will find planters very ready to show
them that their people can have, not only
abundant labor, but on such conditions as
will enable them TO reap, in a proper and en-
couraging measure, the fruits Of their toll.
They will find communities where life and
property arc secure, where tho State provides
schools for children, where the climate is so
mild as to make living q small expense,