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 constitute 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 ship 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 passing 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 ship 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 relationship 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