compelled to walk three or four miles.  When he fell, fainting from loss of blood, he was tied to a tree, and the privilege of shooting him was sold at auction.  They required his companion to witness these brutalities.  Whenever he turned away his eyes, his captors pressed the point of a saber into his cheek.  Finally, they compelled him to take a spade and dig his own grave.  When it was finished, they stripped him of his clothing, and shot him as he stood by the brink of the newly-opened trench.

Blanchard and Robinson, two lessees near Natchez, both of them residents of Boston, were murdered with nearly the same fiendishness as exhibited in the preceding case.  Their fate was for some time unknown.  It was at length ascertained from a negro who was captured at the same time, but managed to escape.  That “slavery makes barbarians” would seem to be well established by the conduct of these residents of Louisiana.

In the vicinity of Baton Rouge and New Orleans there were but few guerrillas, and the plantations generally escaped undisturbed.  In all localities the “army-worm” made its appearance in July and August, and swept away almost the entire crop.  Many plantations that were expected to yield a thousand bales did not yield a hundred, and some of them made less than ten.  The appearance of this destructive worm was very sudden.  On some plantations, where the cotton was growing finely and without a trace of blight, the fields, three days later, appeared as if swept by fire.  There was consequently but little cotton made during the season.

The possibility of producing the great staples of the South by free labor was fully established.  Beyond this there was little accomplished.

My four months of cotton-planting was an experience I shall never regret, though I have no desire to renew it under similar circumstances.  Agriculture is generally considered a peaceful pursuit.  To the best of my recollection I found it quite the reverse.

For the benefit of those who desire to know the process of cotton culture, from the planting season to the picking season, I give the following extract from an article written by Colonel T. B. Thorpe, of Louisiana, several years ago.  After describing the process of preparing the ground and planting the seed, Colonel Thorpe says:—­

If the weather be favorable, the young plant is discovered making its way through in six or ten days, and “the scraping” of the crop, as it is termed, now begins.  A light plow is again called into requisition, which is run along the drill, throwing the earth away from the plant; then come the laborers with their hoes, who dexterously cut away the superabundant shoots and the intruding weeds, and leave a single cotton-plant in little hills, generally two feet apart.