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041

assigned to the farm. Enough cord wood can be cut and hauled to the Wharf to make them profitable and garden spots and small pieces of Corn ground could be prepared for the hoe, when women and children could complete the crop work.  

Abundant employment is offered by citizens for male labor. but the season has not advanced sufficiently to bring into request outdoor labor of females. but in many cases the poverty of the farmers disables them for paying steady wages monthly and the Freedmen are too poor to work on shares and support their families until the crop is realized. 

Returned soldiers with means sufficient to purchase a horse and support themselves, would find opportunities many to rent land on shares paying one third (1/3) when they find all, or one half (1/2) when the owner supplies land, team, seed and implements. 

The progress of farm operations in the vicinity of Norfolk is satisfactory but in distant parts of the county which I have recently visited, the want of labor and capital is painfully apparent. 

Referring to my report last month (January) on "the state of feeling prevailing among citizens of my Sub District"  I regret to report that recent proceedings at Washington (presented as they are by the New York Daily News, the only newspaper I ever find in the country) have produced a bad effect. Expectation was pretty general that "the Freedmens Bureau would be broken up within a month" and then, as an ex Rebel Major told me "we who understand the 'nigger" will work him on our way"  

I am pleased to report that the constant carrying of arms by Freedmen is rapidly being discontinued, and with the exception of a few, mostly deserters from the U.S. Army, the conduct of the Freedmen is orderly 

Respectfully submitted

Yr. obt. servt
Thos P Jackson
Asst Supt

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