Black and White Part 12

Q. What are the princ.i.p.al crops there?

--A. Our people are raising their own supplies, fruits and vegetables. For instance, it was stated by the land agent of the Iron Mountain Railroad at a public meeting in Little Rock some weeks ago that that road had carried out from the State of Arkansas in one week 800,000 pounds of green peas and strawberries.

Q. To what market?

--A. To Saint Louis, going to different markets. The section of the State lying between Little Rock and Fort Smith is peculiarly adapted for growing fruit, and there is a very large fruit trade.

Q. What kinds of fruit?

--A. I might say almost all kinds, but particularly apples; that section of country is noted for its apples.

Q. Are peaches raised there also?

--A. Very fine, indeed.

Q. Plums?

--A. Yes, sir.

Q. Are oranges raised there?

--A. No, sir; we do not raise any of the tropical fruits, such as oranges, bananas, and lemons.

Q. How in regard to oats, rye, corn, wheat, potatoes, and crops of that description?

--A. If our exhibit, which is now being made at the Louisville Exposition, can be seen it will compare favorably with that of any other portion of the United States.

Q. Even with the Northwest?

--A. Even with the Northwest.

Q. Would you judge that one-half the cultivated surface of Arkansas is made up of the larger plantations?

--A. No, sir; I should not say more than a third, as a rough estimate.

Q. Upon these plantations is there any crop raised for consumption anywhere but upon the plantations, save the cotton?

--A. Only in a very limited way. We raise Irish potatoes for the northern markets, and it is an extremely profitable and productive crop with us.

Q. What is the home market price?

--A. We do not sell these potatoes at home at all. We get them to Saint Louis, Chicago, and Cincinnati before the ground is really thawed out up there. We get from $5 to $10 a barrel for them.

Q. A barrel of about 3 bushels?

--A. A barrel of about 3 bushels. That of course is a fancy price, and only lasts until the product comes in from other sources.

Q. That is an advantage no farmer has elsewhere in the United States than in Arkansas?

--A. In Arkansas and Louisiana, on the Mississippi River.

Q. Are potatoes raised largely in Louisiana?

--A. Yes, sir; in parts. The cultivation of the alluvial lands in Louisiana is very similar to what I am speaking of in Arkansas.

Q. Is the potato of good quality raised on those rich lands?

--A. Of very fine quality.

Q. Can you give the average crop of potatoes per acre?

--A. I cannot, as I have never raised any myself for market.

We leave it almost entirely to our small farmers to do that sort of thing.

Q. About 300 bushels per acre, Senator Pugh says. This is the Irish potato you speak of, not the sweet?

--A. The Irish potato. We raise also the sweet potato there.

I have raised sweet potatoes that weighed five pounds.

Q. And of good quality?

--A. Of fine quality.

Q. The size does not depreciate the quality, then?

--A. Not at all.

Q. They, I suppose are raised for exportation from the State?

--A. No, sir; they are raised almost entirely for home consumption by our farmers.

Q. Do your people at home prefer the sweet to the Irish potato for their own use?

--A. I cannot say they do. I think they raise both in equal proportions.

Q. Which, on the whole, is the most profitable crop to raise of potatoes?

--A. The Irish potatoes because we export and sell them. The sweet potato does not mature until the fall of the year.

Q. Upon your plantations you encourage the raising of the variety of crops you have spoken of for consumption, by the laborers, and for the use of the planter, I suppose, but not for exportation and sale?

--A. Not for sale. We merely raise them for home consumption in case of a disaster to our cotton crops. The cotton crop is subjected to very many vicissitudes, and we want to have all our supplies at home, so that in case of a failure of the cotton crop we have our living made at least.

Q. Are the planters and those who labor upon the plantations substantially independent of the small farmers surrounding them, or do they const.i.tute consumers for the smaller farmers in the interior?

--A. We have our own gardens, and generally raise our own supplies, but every planter interests himself to find a market for all the products of his laborers. For instance, we encourage them to raise poultry to a great extent. If they have a surplus of potatoes, or eggs, or chickens, we will buy it and create a market for it, and s.h.i.+p the articles off in order that if they have any surplus they may realize on it. On the Mississippi River we have nearly all the markets. Boats are pa.s.sing there every day going directly by the banks of the river. We have the markets of New Orleans, Vicksburg, Memphis, Saint Louis, Chicago, and we have, you may say, the whole country open before us where we can create a market. We make the best market we can for the products of our small farmers.

Q. Do you know something of the prices in the North for the various crops you have mentioned, and if so, how do they compare with the price realized by your laborers at home?

--A. Our laborers realize the prices of the Northwest. We s.h.i.+p the articles for them. For instance, a negro has several barrels of potatoes; I consign them to my merchants in Saint Louis, and have them sold for his account.

Q. There are no middlemen, really; you transact this business for them?

--A. I transact this business for them direct.

Q. Charging them simply the cost of transportation?

--A. You are asking me the relations.h.i.+p between the proprietor and the negro. There are a great many stores on the Mississippi River, and negroes sometimes go and trade directly. There are a great many properties in the Mississippi Valley owned by non-residents. There are some plantations rented out to negroes that there is not a white man on at all. The proprietor comes and collects his rent at the end of the year when the crop is made; or it may be his negro tenant consigns the cotton to a factor in New Orleans.

Q. Where is the proprietor himself usually resident?

--A. In different States. We have people who are proprietors of real estate who live out in Orange, New Jersey; some live in South Carolina; some live in Georgia, in the various States, but they own property with us, and this property is rented directly to the negroes. Generally, though, there is a responsible manager in charge of this property, but there are instances where there is not even a white man on the place at all.

Q. In those instances, how do matters work? Do the negroes conduct affairs with reasonable prudence, and consult the interest of the owners?

--A. No, sir; in these instances the property generally goes to decay gradually; the negro will not make an improvement on real estate at all.

Q. In these cases do the negroes work together and carry on the plantation as a whole, or is the plantation cut up into small holdings and rented out to negroes?

--A. It is cut into small portions and rented according to the size of the family. Some men work two mules; some four.

It is regulated better by the number of animals he works.

For instance, a mule can cultivate in that country with ease about fifteen acres. A man with two mules would work thirty acres; a man with four, sixty, and so on. I know some negroes who work eight and ten mules that they have paid for; but I will say this right here, and it shows the necessity of the education of the negro and of fitting him for the condition of being able to take care of himself and make his own contracts and sign his own name to a contract: I have known of numerous instances where negroes, working under the management of a proprietor of a plantation, have made enough money to buy a home; such a one will go back out in the hills, that section of country lying back of the alluvial lands, and buy a home. In three or four years he will move back to the river again, having lost all his property, mortgaged it to some storekeeper, become extravagant, and that storekeeper in a short time--three or four years probably--will have absorbed all he had earned under the management of a planter.

Q. About that store system; how extensive is it, and how great an evil does it const.i.tute?

--A. It const.i.tutes a very considerable evil, but you cannot blame the storekeeper for it, for this reason, or he can only be blamed partially: Capital in that country is very limited. When you consider the fact that New Orleans, which handles the cotton crop of that country, has a smaller banking capital than any one of your little towns in Ma.s.sachusetts or New Hamps.h.i.+re, it shows at once that there is not enough capital to be advanced to the country people at reasonable enough rates of interest for those people to conduct a strictly legitimate business. I have known capital to cost in New Orleans, counting the commissions, 15 or 20 per cent, for money loaned. The storekeeper who borrows money to conduct his business with has to buy his goods from some merchant at some point who must make his profit. He cannot go directly to the producer, because he has got to have somebody to help him out if his capital falls short.

Therefore, before the goods get down to him, they cost him perhaps 30, 40, or 50 percent more than the first price.

Therefore he has to tack on an enormous profit to bring himself out whole and pay his expenses in order to meet his obligations with the factor in New Orleans. There is, however, among a certain cla.s.s, as there would be in all sections of the country, as exists right here in New York, or anywhere else, a set of people who will always prey upon ignorance. The best protection that can be afforded to the laborer of that country is education; fit him for his condition of life, that he may protect himself.

Q. Do you mean to be understood that these traders do business upon borrowed capital?