Under the rental system proper, where a laborer is responsible and owns his team, &c., first-class land is rented to him for $8 or $10 per acre.  With the land go certain privileges, such as those heretofore enumerated.

Q. 6.  How many hours do the laborers work?  —­A.  This is an extremely difficult question to answer.  Under the wages system, from sunrise to sunset, with a rest for dinner of from one and one-half to three hours, according to the season of the year.

Under the share or rental system there is much time lost; for instance, they seldom work on Saturday at all, and as the land is fertile, and a living can be made on a much smaller acreage than a hand can cultivate, they generally choose one-third less than they should, and it is safe to say that one third of the time which could and would be utilized by an industrious laborer is wasted in fishing, and hunting, and idleness.

Q. 7.  Under what system do you work?  —­A.  We are forced to adopt all systems heretofore stated.  We prefer, however, the tenant system.  We wish to make small farmers our laborers, and bring them up as nearly as possible to the standard of the small white farmers.  But this can only be done gradually, because the larger portion of the negroes are without any personal property.  We could not afford to sell the mules, implements, &c., where a laborer has nothing.  Therefore the first year we contract to work with him on the half-share system, and require him to plant a portion of the land he cultivates in corn, hay, potatoes, &c.  For this portion we charge him a reasonable rent, to be paid out of his part of the cotton raised on the remainder.  In this way all of the supplies raised belong to him, and at the end of the first year he will, if industrious, find himself possessed of enough supplies to support and feed a mule.  We then sell him a mule and implements, preserving, of course, liens until paid.  At the end of the second year, if he should be unfortunate, and not quite pay out, we carry the balance over to the next year, and in this way we gradually make a tenant of him.  We encourage him in every way in our power to be economical, industrious, and prudent, to surround his home with comforts, to plant an orchard and garden, and to raise his own meat, and to keep his own cows, for which he has free pasturage.  Our object is to attach him as much as possible to his home.  Under whatever system we work, we require the laborer to plant a part of his land in food crops and the balance in cotton with which to pay his rent and give him ready money.  We consider this system as best calculated to advance him.  Recognizing him as a citizen, we think we should do all in our power to fit him for the duties of citizenship.  We think there is no better method of doing this than by interesting him in the production of the soil, surrounding