The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-12-23
Business Man Runs Big Place
 Without Aid of Negro Labor

VI tu1 0AACA fVU4ANE4 WNto AAhAND@ W come in and farm the property In sec tions (strips of both corn and tobacco land,( which they gladly did, and with excellent results. Some of these whites moved at once into the dwellings on the place: others came daily from their own homes two or three miles aIway to get at the rich opportunity of these splendid farming lands offered them for the first time. Comparatively little tobacco was cultivated this year. corn being the main crop, both river and creek bottoms and uplands being cultivated. and a crop of about 1000 barrels being garnered. Four tobacco barns were built during the year. In i1a03 no negroes were hired except the old house servants. White farmers
 with their families took their places. Nineteen barns were built, the teaming being done by the white tenants. The lumber for these barns was taken from the woodlands, where a sawn1ill was set up which furnished the material for a force of carpenters at one time numbering fourteen active men. Be- Sades the barns, tenant t-h ouses, stables and corn-houses were built, and pas
 lures were allotted the tenants for their cows and horses. At the time of Mrs Brace's death in April of 1907, which necessitated an ultimate ad- vision of the property, there were forty manufacturers with their families and help living on the place and eight more tenants cultivated their sections of
 land but lived In their own farms.
 Tn 1908 the leasehoIders numbered forty-two. For the first year or two the inefficient tenants were weeded out at the end of the year. Some ten ants have gone of and bought lands for themselyes; but there has been but little change among them for sey- eral years, There are within the plan tation limits about 260 buildings. rang ing in character from the necessary farm onthouses up through shops, dweHing-houses, and large country storehouse to the stately family home, In and around these buildings live and move an active industrious, thriv- ing population of about 400 persons. all (with the few exceptions already noted) white native virginiafe. chief ly from the immediate neighborhood
 The women and girls of the family must do their own homework. There iss however no evidence of overwork for them. Everything is done better and more economically than formerly; the saving for the family is cores are making money by saving as we'll as by farming.
 Self-help leads almost as a matter of coures to helping others. The ten- ants are loyal to Mir. Bruce and to one another. { A large force of men can be and Is thrown to any given section for any emergency that may arise. If tenant himself 10 sick his farm work goes right on; hts feliow-ten ants see to 1t that hls crops do not suffer. If there is sickness In the family, nafghbprs are ready to lend a helping hand until the trouble is over.
 The rule ,aEainst negro labor among the tenants is strickly enforced. Re- gently. for Instance a tenant asked permission to hife, contrary to his agreement e negro women to help while hts wife was ills Somewhat re- luctantly the peFfnision was granted. Then fl was learned that the negro woman was still coming on the place. although the sick woman was well again. Nothing was said to the ten- ant, who, of course, knew he was vio- lating the spirit of his agreement and of the place, but the negro woman was informed by the manager that if she came back to the place again to work she would be arrested for tresspass.
 In fact, the whole plantation is viz orously peIioed. Respect for the spirit Of agreement and for the law of the land is demanded from black and white alike. Swift and impartial ad- ministration of law is highly approved bS the tenants at~Iarge, to- whom 1t gives feeling of the, utmost security for all--men, women and children. That is no slight matter on any plan tation in any of the "black belts" of the South. Not only is the law itself duly observed and enforced. but Mir. Bruce Is constantly called on to decide all kinds of questions which might easily lead to litigation among the tenants, He is . sort of perambulat- ing court of commonsense equity in consthat session. the telephone mal1 ing him accessible by night as we'll as by day.
 As landlord. though himself a lessee, Mf; Bruce receives one-fourth of the tobacco crop and one-third Of the corn crop. That seems certainly not a high rent when lands, dwellings, to- bacco barns, cornhouses. stables, pas turage, fuel and one-fonrth of the manufactured fertilizer are all taken into consideration as the part of the operating plant furnished by the land- lord on the one hand, aE against la Dor. teams, forming implements and thres-fovrths of the fertilizer furnish ed by the tenants on the other hand
 The financing of the plantation has been one of the most interesting and valuable features of its development. The good hay crop on the place when rented and maturing in the summer of 1909 was used for. cash capital as soon as 1t was available; but the real key to the sItuation--tke plantation bank, so to speak--was furnished by the well-conducted country store on the