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HEADQUARTERS 4TH MILITARY DISTRICT
[MISSISSIPPI and ARKANSAS]
OFFICE OF CIVIL AFFAIRS
Holly Springs, Miss., Nov., 30th 1867

CIRCULAR}
No. 22

1. Sheriffs and others concerned are informed, that General Orders No. 12 current series from these Headquarters applies so far as the crops are concerned to the crops not gathered or harvested and that cotton or other productions of the soil, gathered and ready for market are as liable for debt as other property.
2. To secure, however, an equitable adjustment of the claims upon this year's crops in disputed cases, where the laborers become a party in the dispute, Boards of Arbitration will be instituted, composed of three persons, two of whom will be selected by the two parties to the question, and the third by the two this chosen. The decision of these Boards will be final, and they will be respected and enforced by all parties and officers, civil or military, having jurisdictions in the questions adjudicated.
3. Boards of Arbitration will consider and adjust the claims on this year's crop,accrued in its production, of the laborer, the party furnishing supplies consumed on the plantation, the planter and the landlord only; and the claims will have precedence of all others on this year's crops. The claims of the laborer will be the first satisfied. This is deemed necessary to afford proper encouragement to free labor. But in cases where the portion of the crop allotted to the employer, is insufficient to satisfy the claim of the party furnishing the supplies, the deficiency will be filled out of the allotment to the laborer.
4. When the landlord or merchant enters complaint before a magistrate, that a tenant attempts in collusion with his laborers, to defraud them, by assigning to the laborer an undue share of the crop, the question will be adjusted by a Board of Arbitration, selected as above directed, the plaintiff being one of the party selecting a member of the Board, and the laborers the other party, and the decisions of the Board will be enforced by the officers before whom the complaint is made.
By command of BREVET MAJOR GENERAL ORD:
O.D. GREENE,
Assistant Adjutant General

OFFICIAL:
Jno Barker
First Lieutenant 34th U.S. Infantry,
Acting Assistant Adjutant General