Page:Annual report of the superintendent of Negro Affairs in North Carolina, 1864.djvu/7

Rh so many colored men should have engaged in agriculture, or turpentine farming, upon lands leased of the government, through the Special Supervising Agent of the Treasury. It appears from his records that a majority of the leases given by him have been taken by colored persons, and the premises have varied in size from a single acre to a whole plantation. The negroes prefer turpentine farming to cotton raising, less capital being necessary, and the cash returns being quicker. The trees, after being boxed, begin to produce turpentine immediately, and the boxes are dipped four or five times in a season. The results of the first dipping being put in barrels, and sent to market before midsummer, it is not necessary to wait until autumn before realizing any gains by the operation. Negroes have hired from the Treasury Agent from 3,000 to 10,000 trees apiece. One plantation near Havelock, leased by a white man, contains 120,000 trees, and not less than 125 colored hands were employed upon it, at wages varying from fifteen to thirty-five dollars per month. On the Ball Plantation, near New Berne, about fifty negroes were given employment in raising cotton. Upon all these plantations the results were favorable, and the crops (thanks to our generals, who kept the rebel armies well employed elsewhere) were secured and marketed safely. It is impossible for me to give in figures the results of this labor of the freedmen. But this may be said, with an assurance of stating the matter within the bounds of truth. Two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars ($275,000) were paid during the last year to colored employees, upon these cotton and turpentine plantations, in cash, or in its equivalents, clothing, food, and domestic supplies. More than twelve hundred laborers were thus employed, ministering by their toil to the support of not less than 5,000 colored people. When this process can be carried on in extenso, the "negro question" need give political economists no more perplexity. Make them lords of the land, and everything else will naturally follow. There is more land lying waste in Eastern North Carolina, than is needed to support, in independence, ten times the negro population now within our lines. To present a full record of our operations during the year, the several localities must be taken up in detail. The headquarters