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house rent and firewood free and $12 without these privileges ,are offered for first class male hands_ Females are offered from $3 to $6 per month_ These prices in all cases include board and lodging for the one who labors-Blacksmiths, carpenters, and other mechanics of which there is a large number in the county can get even higher rates_ But still with wages at these standards and a fair prospect of punctual payment I find comparatively few written contracts in my office. However I believe there is almost as much dislike to written contracts approved by me on the part of many Whites as on that of the negroes; so there may have been more bargains for continued service concluded than the copies of contracts in my desk would indicate. This disinclination seems always to have existed in Rockbridge as there were scarcely any written contracts in the official records when I arrived here[[?]]. Probably the officers who preceded me felt little interest in recommending a system which appeared to me so conveniently advantageous to both the employer and the employee.

Many of the Freedmen believe that, because they can make a dollar or a dollar and a half per day now and then, it is better for them not to make contracts for any length of time. But in this they are egregiously mistaken for when their lost time is considered and the habits of laziness and vice which it engenders taken into the account, any one can see that hiring by the month or year is to their great advantage.

The demand for labor is greater than the supply, and this is advanced by the farmers as a reason why they wish to hire by the year for they say that if their hands should leave them

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-03-10 11:05:05