Q. There is really no established market price? 
     —­A.  None at all, owing to the necessity of the one to sell
     and the desire of another to buy.

     By the CHAIRMAN: 

Q. At what rates per acre have you known the title to change in some instances?  —­A.  I have known lands to be bought there, including woodlands and cleared lands, at from $20 to $25 an acre, which would be, say, $40 or $50 an acre for the cleared land, and I have known other planters to refuse $80 an acre, cash.

     Q. Do you think that $80 or $100 per acre would be a
     reasonable price for these plantation lands? 
     —­A.  They sold before the war for $120 an acre.

     By Mr. CALL: 

Q. You are speaking now of the alluvial lands?  —­A.  I am speaking of the alluvial lands on the Mississippi River, cleared, ready for cultivation, with the improvements existing upon them.

     By the CHAIRMAN: 

     Q. Improved plantations? 
     —­A.  Yes, sir.

Q. Upon what price per acre do you think those lands would pay, one year with another, an interest of 6 per cent?  —­A.  I will best answer that question by the figures of rents which I have given.  The rent, without any responsibility attached to the proprietor at all, is from $8 to $10 an acre.

Q. In money?  —­A.  In money.  I will say further that I have been living in that country since 1869, and I have never yet known a year when there has not been a sufficient crop made to pay the rent, without a single exception.

     By Mr. CALL: 

Q. What is left to the tenant after he pays this $10 an acre?  —­A.  That land produces on an average 400 pounds of lint cotton to the acre, which at 10 cents a pound is $40.

     By the CHAIRMAN: 

     Q. To what extent is Northern capital availing itself of
     opportunity to invest in these plantations? 
     —­A.  I might say it is limited.

Q. From what fact does that arise?  —­A.  From the fact that the safety of investments there is just becoming apparent to capitalists.  Capitalists up to this time have been afraid to go to the South, owing to the disturbed condition of affairs politically and this very race-issue question.  A man does not want to carry his money down there and put it into a country that might be involved in riots and disturbances.  Those questions are now just beginning to settle themselves, and capital is beginning to find its way.

Q. Do you anticipate in the near or remote future any further difficulty from the race question?  —­A.  Not at all, and if we are left to ourselves things will very soon equalize themselves.

     Q. You are left to yourselves now, are you not? 
     —­A.  We are now.