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among the colored people is that many of them have large families and none of them will work except the man, the head of the family, many of the women & children have ceased to work and lead an idle life, one man cannot support a large family these times alone by his field labor, Consequently they are hard run and Suffer, and no one wishes to feed or support so large a family for the labor of one man, when provisions are so scarce and high - the failure of the Cotton Crop, the decline in prices and the debts owing by planters, will Compel them to curtail and in many instances abandon planting, they havent the means to continue the business to any considerable extent, and will only employ the best working and those without families so far as practicable. I am satisfied that at least one third of the open land in this County will not be cultivated this year. This I think is not an overdrawn picture. From these causes I am fully satisfied that a large number of colored people will be out of employment this year and in a state of want & destitution as to the numbers it will impossible to say or form an estimate at present. As to the best means of relief, that is a very difficult and embarrassing question - I doubt if the classes I have mentioned could be employed to any advantage on any government or public work - the most