Another gentleman furnished the following estimate of the expenses of one of the larger class of plantations, working one hundred slaves, and producing, per annum, four to five hundred hogsheads of sugar:—
Overseer $1,500
Physician's attendance (by contract, $3 a head, of all
ages) 300
Yearly repairs to engine, copper work, resetting of sugar
kettles, etc., at least 900
Engineer, during grinding season 200
Pork, 50 pounds per day—say, per annum, 90 hogsheads,
at $12 1,080
Hoops 80
Clothing, two full suits per annum, shoes, caps, hats,
and 100 blankets, at least $15 per slave 1,500
Mules or horses, and cattle to replace, at least 500
Implements of husbandry, iron, nails, lime, etc., at least 1,000
Factor's commission, 2-1/2 per cent. 500
$7,560
(It should be noticed that in this estimate the working force is considered as being equal, in first-class hands, to but one-third of the whole number of slaves.)
In the report of an Agricultural Society, the work of one hand, on a well-regulated sugar-estate, is put down at the cultivation of five acres—producing 5,000 pounds of sugar, and 125 gallons of molasses; the former valued on the spot at 5-1/2 cents per pound, and the latter at 18 cents per gallon—together, $297.50. The annual expenses, per hand, including wages paid, horses, mules, and oxen, physician's bills, etc., $105. An estate of eighty negroes annually costs $8,330. The items are as follows—Salt meat and spirits, $830; clothing, $1,200; medical attendance and medicines, $400; Indian corn, $1,090 (total for food and drink of negroes, and other live stock, $24 per head of the negroes, per annum. For clothing $15); overseer and sugar-maker's
