Every laborer on a plantation has a comfortable house, with a plot of ground annexed, capable of raising a much greater quantity of provisions and poultry than the laborer can consume. For this he pays nothing. He is also provided with medical attendance, medicine, and a support at the expense of the estate, gratis, whenever he is sick. Fuel is abundant, and close at hand. It is needed only for cooking, and the laborer has but to help himself. Clothing, which in that climate is very light, may be amply provided, at one-third the expense incurred for that article in the United States. So many of the wants of the laborer are thus supplied, free of expense to him, or at a very trifling rate, that if he choose to do so, he can lay by a great part of his wages. The labor on a plantation is divided into tasks which a laborer of any activity can easily perform in four hours. The lowest rate of wages ever paid, is thirty-three and a third cents a task, and very frequently, much more is given. For cutting cane, attending in the boiling house, boating sugar, and several other kinds of labor, higher wages are always paid. The people employed in making sugar, in addition to their wages, are supplied with food at the expense of the estate. This is in addition to the laborer's house, provision ground, fuel, medical attendance, gratuitous schooling for his children, and a variety of other perquisites. The wages are paid weekly in cash. I have now before me an original journal, for the month of October, 1839, of the plantation _Thomas_, adjoining Georgetown, owned by Mr. Carbery. This journal is a printed form, with blanks filled up in writing, containing an account for each day of the month, of the number of laborers on the estate; the number actively employed, and in what way; the number, sick, absent, or otherwise prevented from working; the work done each day; with all the articles bought, sold or shipped, and all the money paid on account of the plantation during each day in the month,--in fact a complete history of all the business of the estate for that time. Similar journals are kept on every estate by the head manager, and are transmitted monthly to the proprietor. This excellent custom was derived from the early Dutch settlers.