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 him with home comforts, and imposing upon him
the responsibilities of his business. Who will make the best
citizen or laborer, he who goes to a home with a week's
rations, wages spent, wife and children hired out, or he who
returns to a home surrounded with the ordinary comforts, and
wife and children helping him to enjoy the products of their
joint labor? We recognize that no country can be prosperous
unless the farmers are prosperous. Under our system, we seek
to have our property cultivated by a reliable set of
tenants, who will be able to always pay their rent and have
a surplus left.

Again, a large portion of the cotton crop of the country is
made by small white farmers. These to a great extent are
raising their own supplies, and making cotton a surplus
crop. The number who do this will increase year by year. It
must be apparent that the large planters cannot afford to
hire labor and compete with those whose cotton costs nothing
except the expenditure of their own muscle and energy. The
natural consequence resulting from this condition of things
is that the negro, if he is to prosper, must gradually
become a small farmer, eith