Viewing page 158 of 237

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

The long drought of 6 or 7 weeks from which this portion of the State suffered so severely, has also dimished the prospects of prosperity which were so flattering in this section in early summer. 

The wheat crop harvested, was good; and at that time the corn & tobacco promised well. The drought however has changed the prospect, so that with the proper proportion of sun and rain for the balance of the season, there will be a small crop, & without it there will be none. Taking the county as a whole it is evident that the people will for the next year be in a very poor financial condition; poorer than this year if anything; and consequently I look for a continuance of the constant and numerous complaints by the Freedmen which now pour into this office that the rate of about 300 per month. Most of the complaints result from disputes concerning the settlement contracts; some of these disputes are confined to words & adjustment by the courts; while many of them lead to blows, & thereby occasion the necessity of a criminal as well as of a civil action.

I am well convinced that a year of prosperity -  such as to bring more money into this county than was sent out, would do away with much of the litigation & remove the cause of many of the personal quarrels, - now of frequent occurrence