'Yes, it is heavy. We have, of course, to deduct it from the labor of the able-bodied hands.'
'What is the usual proportion of sick and infirm on your plantation?'
'Counting in the child-bearing women, I reckon about twenty per cent.'
'And what does it cost you to support each hand?'
'Well, it costs me, for children and all, about seventy-five dollars a year. In some places it costs less. I have to buy all my provisions.'
'What proportion of your slaves are able-bodied hands?'
'Somewhere about sixty per cent. I have, all told, old and young,—men, women, and children,—two hundred and seventy. Out of that number I have now equal to a hundred and fifty-four full hands. You understand that we classify them: some do only half tasks, some three-quarters. I have more than a hundred and fifty-four working men and women, but they do only that number of full tasks.'
'What does the labor of a full hand yield?'
'At the present price of turpentine, my calculation is about two hundred dollars a year.'
'Then your crop brings you about thirty-one thousand dollars, and the support of your negroes costs you twenty thousand.'