are very significant figures.  It is entirely an accident that I happened to get hold of them last night.  The live stock of New York in 1870 was 5,286,421; in 1880, 5,422,238, an increase of 2 per cent.  In Pennsylvania it was 4,484,748 in 1870; in 1880, 5,255,204, an increase of 17 per cent.  In Georgia, in 1870, it was 2,275,137; in 1880, 3,139,101, an increase of 38 per cent.  In Alabama it was 1,606,299 in 1870, and in 1880, 2,586,221, an increase of 61 per cent, and in Mississippi, in 1870, it was 1,724,295, and in 1880, 2,398,334, an increase of 38 per cent.  This shows that with all the disadvantages the South had to contend with of their stock cattle being destroyed, the natural advantages of climate and pasturage, to which I attribute it, existing in the South have enabled them to increase more rapidly their live stock than any other of the States of the Union.  That shows clearly the advantages which that country offers for immigration and labor.  This is an advantage to labor.  As I stated in my written reply to your submitted questions, we work but few white laborers in my section of the country.  Why?  Because they soon become land-owners with the opportunities which present themselves to them.  The white men will not be there more than two or three years before he has bought and paid for his land in almost every instance.

     By the CHAIRMAN: 

     Q. And he becomes an employer himself? 
     —­A.  He becomes an employer himself.

Q. Does he usually locate upon the plantation lands along the rivers?  —­A.  No, sir; he cannot buy this land, because the planter would not divide a large plantation into tracts; he would not sell off a portion of his land without selling the whole.

Q. In how large tracts are the plantations held?  Just mention the acreage of some of them that you are acquainted with.  —­A.  I would say variously from 500 to 2,500 acres in cultivation.

Q. How valuable are these plantations per acre?  —­A.  That is a question which cannot be answered definitely except in this way:  where a planter owns the land, and he is out of debt, the land is not for sale, because he cannot invest his money in anything that is so profitable; but where a planter’s property is mortgaged, and the mortgagee wants to foreclose and will foreclose, and there is not in that country the money which the planter can borrow to relieve himself of his indebtedness, he will probably sell his land at a small excess of his debt in order to save something.  You see there is a want of capital in that country, and if a planter is involved, as many planters are and have been ever since the war, he must do the best he can.  There are many planters in that country who are nothing but agents of the factors, from the fact that the interest and commissions they pay upon the debt amount to more than the rent for the property, and they hold on to it as a home.  Therefore, a planter in that condition will sell at a nominal price, whereas a plantation owned and paid for is not for sale.

     By Mr. PUGH: