proportion to the amount of labor abstracted. It must therefore be apparent to all that the amount of prompt, faithful, and well-directed labor, necessary to cultivate a given quantity of land efficiently, must be available at all times, when the cultivator deems it necessary, or the crops must necessarily, to a greater or less extent, prove a failure. _Third_.--The rate of wages should be fixed--above which no one should be allowed to go. There should be at least four classes of hands, both male and female. If the laborer should be furnished, as this year, 1864, with clothing, shoes, rations, houses, wood, medicine, &c., the planter cannot afford to pay any more wages than this year, and to some hands not so much. Wages should not be paid oftener than once a quarter. As long as a negro has a dime in his pocket he will go every Saturday to some store or town. Besides, if the men have money once a month they are constantly corrupting the women, who will not work because they expect to get money of the men. If the laborers are to pay for all their supplies, some think higher wages could be paid; but it would be necessary to require the negro to supply himself with at least two suits of clothes, one pair of shoes, a hat, and four pounds of pork or bacon, one peck of corn meal a week, vegetables at least twice a week, for a first-class hand. The laborer should pay for his medicine, medical attendance, nursing, &c.; also, house rent, $5 a month, water included; wood at $2 a cord in the tree, or $4 a cord cut and delivered. Instead of money, each employer should be required to pay once a week in tickets issued and signed by himself or agent, not transferable to any one off the premises of him who issues them, redeemable by the issuer quarterly in current funds, and to be received by him in the purchase of goods, provisions, &c., which he sold at current prices. _Fourth_.--A law to punish most severely any one who endeavors, by offering higher wages, gifts, perquisites, &c., &c., to induce a negro to leave his employer before the expiration of the term for which he has engaged to labor without the consent of said employer. _Fifth_.--Wages to be quarterly. One-half to be retained to the end of the year, unless it is found that more than half is required to maintain a man and his family. _Sixth_.--Lost time to be deducted from wages daily; fines to be charged daily; rations, of all kinds, to be docked in proportion to the time lost during the week, if rations are to be supplied. _Seventh_.--Fines to be imposed for disobedience of any orders. _Eighth_.--During sugar-making the laborer should be required to work at night as well as during the day. For night-work he might be allowed double wages for the time he works. _Ninth_.--The negroes should not be allowed to go from one plantation to another without the written permit of their employer, nor should they be allowed to go to any town or store without written permission.