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: 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: