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:

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
opp