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10 

Some estimates are now presented of the pecuniary results which may reasonably to expected to follow such settlements. Suppose the settler to be upon a cotton plantation, engaged chiefly in raising cotton by means of the paid labor of freedmen. The rent of the land is assumed to be, to the owner, an average of three dollars fifty cents per acre, and to the company one dollar per acre. Total for rents, four dollars fifty cents per acre. Wages of ten freedmen, twelve hundred dollars per annum; cost of four mules, at one hundred and fifty dollars each, six hundred dollars; cost of carts, plows, and other agricultural implements, two hundred dollars. Expenses of family for first year after arriving on plantation, eight hundred dollars. The average product of cotton, with slave labor, is two bales per acre; but with paid labor, under the immediate supervision and co=operations of an energic Northern man having a deep interest in the result, it might be expected to be much more; but estimating it at no more than two bales per acre, and that seventy-five acres of the one hundred be planted to cotton, and the other twenty-five acres devoted to raising grain and vegetables for the family, the laborers and the teams, the result would be a yield of one hundred and fifty bales of cotton, besides a sufficiency of grain and vegetables to supply the wants of the plantation. The ginning and bailing of the crop, and transportation from the plantation to market, would be about four dollars per bale. The market price assumed to be one hundred and sixty dollars per bale.

The result would be as follows for the first year:

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11

INCOME.

150 bales cotton, at $160 per bale, is.................$24,000 00

EXPENSES.

Wages and board of 10 freedmen laborers..$2,200 00
First cost of 4 mules, carts, plows and other agricultural implements................. 800 00
Expenses of family......................... 800 00
Ginning, bailing and transportation........ 600 00
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$4,400 00

Rent of 100 acres of land, $4 50 per acre to owner................$ 350 00
Rent of 100 acres of land, $1 per acre to company.................. 100.00
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450 00
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Total Expenses 4,850 00

Net profits on 100 acres, first year.........................$19,150 00

Leaving on hand the mules and agricultural implements, and a probable surplus of grain for future operations.

But it may be objected to these estimates, although it cannot with truth, that the yield is too great, the price too high, and the rent of land too low. To meet this objection, let the yield of one hundred acres be estimated at one hundred bales, the price $100 per bale, and the rent of the land $5 per acre to the owner, and $1 per acre to the company, and the result would be as follows:-