The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1907-01-12
FARrlER AND PLANTER
DON'T GO 1T BLIND.
Planter Suggests a System Beneficial
to Landlord and Tenant.

Planter Suggests a System Beneficial
to Landlord and Tenant.
Working our farms with standing
wages hands" is fast becoming thing
of the past. The greater part of our
negroes much prefer to work ION
shares as they term it, or to rent
the land. The majority of our farm
ers have been very lax in their meth
DDS of making contracts. A mere
verbal agreement was entered into,
whereby the landlord was to furnish
so many acres of land to be cultivated
lint cotton. Very few landlords have
any definite understanding as to how
this land is to be kept up; how ferti-
lized; how plowed and cultivated and
what crops were to be planted. The
idea has been for the negro to plant
and make all the cotton possible, and
this was all. Now we all think the
time has arrived for a radical change,
and according to our best judgment,
1t should be something like this:
Cd There should be a written con-
tract The negro is free, and we had
as well begin to adjust our methods
to this condition and treat with him
as free agent, but put proper and
necessary restrictions upon him. No
one can enter upon contract with
another without assuming certain con-
ditions, and these conditions should
be clearly set forth and their fulfill
ment duly demanded.
CD The preservation of the soil
should be demanded and forfeit for
all failure to keep up terraces and
such safeguards fully agreed upon.
90 Some system looking to the
rotation of crops should also be de-
manded-
ca Just how much was to be fur
nished as the work on the crop pro-
crossed should also be clearly set
forth.
If any one can suggest other or Of
| fer a better form of contract our col
umns are open to them. We SO often
| hear men making remarks like these:
| Il would like to farm if ! could control
L
any care of the land Il can not
make them work like I want to-" etc.,
| and there is a universal complaint OF
| the unsatisfactory condition of negro
labor. Now the kuestion arises, Who
Is going to rule? If we will tamely
submit we will certainly be run over.
We may have more or less clash by
undertaking to have a rational agree
ment, but as we conceive it. it's ours
to dictate the terms, and then it Is left
with them to accept it or not The
sooner we begin some rational sys-
tenn the better for both parties. We
are fully aware there are many farm
ers of that forceful character that
| simply rule on their premises, and
they have been enabled to get along
well, but others are not constituted
this way and they suffer. The strong
should help the weak, and those who
can do without written contract,
should use one to help their neigh
bors. All other countries have a
written system, and we must have
one, too, If we wish the best results
in our farm operations. We admire
the example of Mr.. ]. c. Stribling, Of
Pendleton, s. c. He says no tenant
can stay on his land who will moi
agree to sow down one-third of his
land every year, or carry out regu
lar three-year rotation of grain, corr
and cotton. This is good business;
in the end it will be beneficial to Mr.
Stribling, to his land and to the negro
tenant OF course, our negro labor
ers are going to get worse and worse
each year as long as we submit more
and more to their trifling and careless
ways. 1t is simply question of wht
is going to dictate terms. We do no
advocate wronging the negro in an!
way, but If we are to dwell togethe
in unity and for the upbuilding OF ou
agricultural interest, then we mus
begin a more rational and exactin!
system of demands upon them for thu
| proper carrying out of all labor CON
tracts. We call upon every reade
of the Cultivator not to make trade
for another year without a writer
contract, and put it in there how the.
are to improve the land, about ter
races, rocks, stumps, gullies, galle'
spots, and what they are to plant AM
how they are to cultivate it. 1t 1
a little trouble, but it will pay bot
ways-it will pay in calling your al
tention more closely to the needs o
your land, and it will pay in gettin
the negro to do some better. We d
not claim it will be royal road;
there will be many obstacles to oyel
come; but it is certainly road leat
ing in the right observation-disclosures