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to be governed by any particular form, used in either of the States, so long as if contains fair and just conditions for each party, but a form prescribed by the Asst. Commissioner would be quite certain to embody such terms.

The freedmen have worked industriously and have generally observed their contracts, had the season proved favorable the practicability of free labor would have been demonstrated beyond [[?]]. But the failure of the crops, wholly the result of an unfavorable season, is not unfrequently attributed by bitter and prejudiced persons, to the indisposition of the negroes to work

The average rate of wages has been about $13.00 per month. Those who contributed for a share of the crops will have lost nearly their years labor

In and about Mobile and other large towns, there is among the freedmen who have come in from the country considerable idleness vagrancy and propensity for thieving. In Mobile there is a surplus of labor. The negroes profess to be afraid to return to plantations in the country on account of the outrages to which they have been subjected. This is no excuse for idleness as plenty of labor can be had in the neighboring State of Mississippi or along the Railroads