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the charges against them depends mainly upon the honesty and good will of the employer - whose interest it is to advance as much of his farm produce, at store prices, as he can safely do to be covered by the crop. The freedmen not having to pay cash does not keep such close watch over his expenses as he otherwise would, and his family is too apt to be a charge rather than a help in his crop. The contracts under which freedmen are generally laboring on shares, contain so many provisions - infractions of which is to subject the laborer to fine to be deducted from crop - that a wide door is opened for harsh dealing, should settlement, under these contracts, be had without the presence and intervention of a Bureau Officer in case the parties cannot agree. And in addition it is almost universally provided that Tobacco, the principal money crop, shall not be divided until the employer prepares and sells its entire crop, which in many instances will not be until after the 1st of May 1869. Meantime-during the winter months-the laborer and his family must live as best they can, and as I find in many cases store bills contracted on security of his share of the  proceeds, and when active operations commence in March and April, he is without means to enter on a cultivation of other land, except on similar terms to those now exacted, and when the crop is divided - or rather when an accounting is had - in far too many cases the due bill or note given by the employer is unpaid at maturity, and the holder finds himself too poor to secure prompt legal remedy, even if the maker is solvent. Those working for money wages - which range from eight to ten dollars per month, with few exceptions - are not entitled to receive pay until the expiration of the year, and if they have families, with the common ration of 2 1/2 pounds of Pork and 1 1/4 pecks of Meal per week, they

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