THIS State possesses many characteristics in common with Alabama, which forms its eastern boundary. Its length from north to south is 334 miles, and its average breadth, 150. It contains 30,179,840 acres, of which nearly 5,000,000 acres are unsold public lands, open to the settler under the homestead and pre-emption laws, although probably the best lands are claimed by individuals, as in other long settled States. The population in 1860 was 791,395, of which more than one-half was colored. The total population is now estimated at 900,000.

The surface of Mississippi is generally undulating, with a prevailing slope to the south and southwest, as is apparent from the general course of its numerous streams. It possesses no mountains; but along the Mississippi are numerous hills, called bluffs, which rise to the height of from 50 to 100 feet above the bottom lands, which lie between them and the river. This bluff region forms, with some exceptions, a belt of territory from ten to twenty-five miles in width, bordered upon the east by extensive plains, and extending north as far as the mouth of the Yazoo River. The bluff region is fertile, and covered naturally with thick forests of ash, oak, gum, maple, poplar, &c. From the Yazoo northward, for 170 miles, embracing the valley of the Yazoo, is a vast swampy region, from 20 to 50 miles in width, annually overflowed by the Mississippi. Portions of this section are sufficiently elevated for cultivation, and are of astonishing fertility, producing almost unequaled crops of cotton and corn. The eastern and central parts of the State are generally elevated table-lands, filled with clear running streams, very healthy, with much very rich land, adapted to cotton and corn. In some portions the soil is fertile, but thin; and the loam is often washed away by the rains so as to expose the sandy subsoil. The bottoms are universally productive and desirable.

In the northeast is the "Tombigbee," or prairie country, extending for a considerable distance down the Alabama line. This region is level, and the streams are sluggish. The soil is an inexhaustible black adhesive loam, of great fertility, and yields immense crops of cotton and other products.

From the prairie region south, along the line of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, the surface is more uneven and hilly, with frequent beautiful and fertile valleys. The soil is sometimes sandy, and is not, as a whole, characterized by the extreme fertility of some other portions of the State. Some of the counties, as in Lauderdale, abound in limestone and iron ore. This section of the State is extremely healthy, and while not producing, comparatively, a large yield of cotton, is well adapted to grain, and is famous for its cattle.

The southern counties, for 100 miles from the Gulf, are generally low and sandy. They are covered with pine forests, interspersed with swamps, and are not remarkable for their agricultural capacity. The bottoms of the Mississippi are probably the best lands of the State, and where embankments are established to protect them from the annual destructive inundations of the river, they will equal in productiveness any lands upon the continent; and their "inexhaustible richness bids defiance even to the appetite of the devouring cotton-plant." Commissioner WILSON, of the Land Office, says:―" The agricultural capacity of Mississippi is incalculable. In the amount of land reduced to cultivation, the returns of 1860 show an increase in the number of acres of sixty per-cent in ten years, and in the value of farms and agricultural implements of over 200 per cent. The live stock have, on the whole, enlarged their numbers, and more than doubled in value. The animal products, of butter, cheese, wool, slaughtered animals, and honey, have increased their volume, in some cases, fifty per cent. The cereal crops, with tobacco, cotton, peas, beans, potatoes, and hay, have had a still greater increment.

"The reorganization of labor will require time after the struggles of the late civil war. With an entire revolution in the theory of the industrial system of the State, it is beyond doubt that the agricultural interests of Mississippi will yet be one of the great productive powers of American civilization."

A writer in the American Cyclopoedia says:—"The fertility of the soil, and a favorable climate, give to Mississippi eminent advantages as an agricultural State. There is, perhaps, no other country in the world that has such alluvial lands as the Mississippi bottom contains. An alluvial plain, in a mild climate, level as the surface of the ocean, and of inexhaustible fertility. And this plain is only a small part of the fertile lands of the State. The table-lands of the north, the loams along the bluffs and banks of the Mississippi, the dark and heavy prairie lands, and the inland bottoms, are of scarcely less fertility. The prairies, especially in the Tombigbee district, furnish excellent pasturage. The climate is remarkably equable; sugar is produced in the south, and cotton forms the great staple of a large part of the State. Wheat and other grains occupy the northern districts. All the fruits of temperate climates grow here in perfection. Plums, peaches, and figs, are abundant, and in the south, the orange. Most of the streams abound in fish. Paroquets are seen as far north as Natchez, and wild turkeys and pigeons abound."

The climate of Mississippi is mild and generally healthful. The winters average colder by a few degrees than points in the same latitude upon the coast.

There were 872 miles of railroad completed and in operation in the State in 1860, and there is no doubt that the railroad system will continue rapidly to expand.

Jackson, the capital, is situated on Pearl River, 45 miles from the Mississippi, from which point it is connected by the Vicksburg. and Meridan Railway, and with New Orleans, distant 183 miles, by the. New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railway. It is regularly built, on level ground, has a population of about four thousand and is a prominent depot.

Natchez is also the center of a large cotton trade. It is situated on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, 280 miles above New Orleans. Its population in 1860 was nearly 7,000. Vicksburg, 408 miles above New Orleans, on the river, is also an important commercial point. This city will long live in history as one of the principal objective points in the late war of secession. It was fortified by the Confederates at an early period of the war, and controlled the navigation of the river until its final capitulation to the Northern army under General Grant. Its population in 1860 was about 5,000, and before the war it was a great cotton mart.

The tenor of all our letters from Mississippi is, that immigrants are earnestly desired, and many inducements are offered to industrious tillers of the soil.

We copy the following from the monthly Report of the Department of Agriculture for March, 1868:—

VALUE OF LANDS AS COMPARED WITH 1860.—Returns from Mississippi indicate a large decrease in value of farm lands as compared with the valuation of 1860. De Soto and Tippah, in the extreme northern part of the State, show a decrease of 75 and 50 per cent, respectively, attributed almost entirely to the unsettled condition of political and financial affairs, and the disastrous results of the cotton culture of the past. In De Soto, one year ago, farming lands would sell for about three-fourths their value in 1860, but the financial distress, consequent upon the fall of cotton prices, has thrown a great deal of land on the market, and reduced the price to very low figures, more than three-fourths of all the land in the county being for sale, and much of it must be disposed of at forced sale, it having been mortgaged for supplies, &c. The same may be said of many other counties, largely engaged in cotton culture. Along the central tier of counties, Kemper reports a decrease of 75 per cent; Lauderdale; 70 to 80; Winston, 66 to 75; Attala, 66; Leake, 50; Washington, 75; Yazoo, 66; Madison, 60 to 70; Hinds, 75—with few sales at any price. In Pike County, in the south, bordering on Louisiana, farming lands have fallen in value 50 per cent, except those adjacent to railroads, while in the adjoining county of Marion the decrease is set down at 75 per cent. The average depreciation throughout the State is 65 per cent.

PRICE OF LANDS.—Half of the land of Mississippi is not included in farms, and only a third of the area in farms has ever been at one time under improvement. In the best cotton districts, cultivated lands have been comparatively high, but few were ever held at their intrinsic value, on account of the extent of the unoccupied area in the southwest. In the southeastern portion of the State, between the capital, Jackson, and Mobile, in Alabama, the population is sparse, the land mostly is unentered, the soil sandy, with a small extent of rich creek bottoms, the price of unimproved tracts varying from twelve cents to one dollar per acre. The growth is composed of oaks, hickory, gum, cypress, and long-leafed pine, the latter predominating, of with height and size, of industrial importance in connection with turpentine-making and lumbering. The soil, like other sandy loams, is easily worked, and productive for a few years, becoming exhausted with constant cropping and no fertilizing. A bale of cotton per acre has been obtained upon such soil; sweet potatoes in unlimited quantities are easily produced, and might prove a source of large revenue under the new mode of slicing and drying for distant markets; the castor-oil bean grows finely here, and might be made a source of profit and improvement to the soil; peaches are a sure and abundant crop, beginning to bear in three years from the seed; and wool-growing will prove remunerative and a valuable auxiliary to tillage farming, wild grasses everywhere abounding, succulent and rank in growth by the middle of February.

The water is excellent, and the climate healthy. All that is needed to start this region upon a career of prosperity is a railroad to the Gulf coast from some point on the Mississippi Central. With such a road, land now a drug at 12½ cents per acre, would be greedly taken at $1, and eventually, with improvements, would be cheap at $20. Similar lands, though generally better, on the line of the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern road, west of Pearl River, are now attainable at $5 to $10, or $20, near stations, and are bargains at those prices. In the northern part of the State, unimproved tracts average about $1 per acre; in Hinds County, $2.50; in Madison, $2; in Washington, on the river, fine Mississippi bottoms, perhaps unsurpassed in the world, $5 per acre. On the line of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, $2.50 is a common price. The Hinds and Madison County unimproved lands will yield 300 pounds ginned cotton, 25 bushels of corn or 200 bushels of sweet potatoes per acre without manure. Productive tracts in Yazoo can be purchased for 50 cents per acre. In De Soto are some sixty sections of "Mississippi bottom" at $4 or less, per acre.

The following statement concerning wild lands in Pike County is made by Wm. H. Garland, correspondent for that county:—

"The average value of wild or unimproved lands, within a circuit of three or four miles of a railroad depot, is about $5 per acre, but taking the whole county it is about 50 cents per acre. The general surface of the county is undulating, marked by long leading ridges, which divide the water-courses. The bottom lands are hommock, and are very productive, except where there is too much sand."

The southern portion of the State, west of Pearl River, is very similar in character of soil to western Tennessee. The surface is a loam, enriched with humus, underlaid with a stiff clay intermixed with loam, beneath which is a stratum of sand and gravel. Numerous water-courses drained bottom lands, varying from a few rods to a mile in width, still richer in plant food, and enduringly productive. This region, like that east of Pearl River, is well wooded with several species of oak, hickory, beech, poplar, cypress, magnolia, &c., from which considerable lumber has been profitably manufactured. The soil in Hinds, Warren, and Madicon contains limestone and marls, and is exceedingly productive. Much of the soil in the northern counties is very productive, and from Vicksburg to Memphis its fertility is unsurpassed, and its timber of enormous growth. Some of these counties report no minerals, "not even a grain of sand," the soil being an unmixed alluvial deposit of unknown depth.

"The altitude of this place and some of the adjoining hills being 500 feet above the gulf, gives the pine a closeness of texture that makes it very valuable. These forests will afford an average of 10,000 feet of lumber to the acre. Saw-mills in the range of transportation were doing well until the prostration of the country. Now, as the lumber can not be sold for cash, there is not enough capital in the country to run the mills, and most of them are idle."

COTTON.—Cotton is the only specialty of agricultural production. Mississippi has taken the lead as a cotton-growing State, and at one time produced one-fourth of the cotton of the United States. Our correspondent in De Soto County, in giving the local production of cotton for the years subsequent to and preceding the war, illustrates very fairly the proportionate product of the whole cotton-growing belt in those years. He says:―

"The yield in 1860 was 40,000 bales; in 1866, 16,000; and in 1867, about 20,000. In 1866, the culture of cotton yielded a fair profit; in 1867, not one pound has paid the cost of production."

"Wheat grows well here, and can be produced in quantities to yield a good profit—the average yield being about ten bushels per acre. Our best lands yield from fifteen to twenty bushels, and by manuring, a greater yield may be realized from average lands. But wheat and cotton can not be grown by the same set of hands, because the sowing season of wheat conflicts with the picking of cotton, and the harvesting of wheat comes at the most important season for working and thinning the cotton plant, a few days in the early part of June being the most important of any. in the whole cultivating season."

In the rich alluvial soils of Washington County, "wheat was grown during the war, and its yield was thirty bushels per acre." White and red varieties have been grown to some extent in Yazoo; white preferred, as less liable to rust. In Leake, a preference is given to the hardier red wheat. Red wheat is preferred in Winston. In Pike, little attention is paid to wheat, though the grain is plump and the bran is thinner than in more northern latitudes." In De Soto, "wheat has never been to any extent an article made for market, though the county has two or three times before 1860 sent the first to the St. Louis market. In 1860, fully half the flour consumed was grown here; in 1866 and 1867, very little was grown, though the land in wheat in 1867 yielded a good crop. A very large breadth of land is now in wheat." The usual time of sowing is between the 15th of October and first of November, though many sow in the early part of October, and some in the latter portion of September. The time of harvesting is generally the last week in May; early varieties, with good season, are cut somewhat earlier. The length of the season is variously stated, from six to twelve months. The fact is, that stock are never fed to any appreciable extent, with the exception of horses and mules. Sheep and cattle pick up their living in the winter months, as in summer. It is true that sheep and horned stock, as well as horses, are sometimes treated to occasional winter pasturage upon rye or barley sown in September. With this help it is possible to keep large flocks of sheep, with little expense; and other kinds of farm animals may be brought through the winter in good condition without other feed. The price of pasturage is estimated at very low rates; in some counties as low as $2 or $3 per season, while others range higher, up to $1 per month.

Figs and peaches everywhere abound, growing rapidly and bearing profusely and surely. Until lately no profit was derived from them, and now only on the line of railroad running lengthwise through the State. Formerly peaches were pecuniarily profitable only in pork-making. The crop is very sure in the southern part of the State; in the northern, it is sometimes injured by frosts.

Apples do pretty well, if kinds are selected which suit the climate. Small fruits produce in great abundance. The pear is apt to blight, but is favorably mentioned in some localities. Grapes do well in the poorest soils, and are free from disease; the Hartford, Prolific, Lenoir, Diana, Concord, and Catawba, are mentioned with approval in the southern part of the State. Our correspondent in Washington says:—

"The peach succeeds remarkably well; the trees are often from a foot to fifteen inches in diameter, and I know some 18 years old. One tree will yield more fruit than four in New Jersey."

The following comprehensive and interesting communication is from a prominent gentleman of Vicksburg, and will repay a careful reading:—

DEAR SIR: Before the war I was a cotton-planter, and had been for twenty-seven years, living on one of my plantations, where I made from 500 to 600 bales of cotton, managed the general affairs of the plantation up to the year 1861, and thus became familiar with all the details of planting. I planted on the alluvial land.

1st. The character of the alluvial land for productiveness is not surpassed by the prairies of Illinois. Cotton was our staple production. I have raised two bales of 400 pounds to the acre, and believe that as much as three bales have been produced, and 100 bushels of corn. Our average crop, however, was about one 500 pound bale to the acre, and 40 bushels corn to acre. The most favorably located alluvial land, perfectly free from overflow, with fine improvements, i.e., with good dwelling and quarters, steam or horse power gin, and about half the land cleared for cultivation, can be bought for from $10 to $20 per acre. Land equally good, but subject to overflow in the present condition of the levees, situated back a short distance from the river, can be bought at from. $3 to $5 per acre. Our hill lands can be bought at from $5 to $10 per acre, and some even at $2 and $3, owing to locality and convenience to river or railroad. They will yield half a bale of cotton and about 25 bushels of corn to the acre.

Big Black bottom lands of best quality, which are second only to alluvial lands of Mississippi River, can be bought for from $5 to $10 per acre, with fine improvements. They yield from f to 1¼ bale to the acre, and as much corn as the best alluvial lands, which is about 40 bushels average, but sometimes 75 and 80.

Irish potatoes can be raised on any of these lands, at the rate of 400 bushels to the acre, but will not keep through the summer.

Sweet potatoes are raised at the rate of 500 to 1,000 bushels to the acre. Poor, sandy land produces them as well or better than the richer lands.

Turnips, if the ground is properly prepared and the season favorable, generally make at least 600 bushels to the acre.

The rutabaga is the best variety for this climate, both for the table and stock. They ought to be planted by the first of July, and cultivated, but will make a good crop planted the first of September. Tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbages, lettuce, beets, watermelons, and cantaloupes, are perfect.

The peach grows to great perfection; and any man of industry can have peaches from the seed in two years. Pears and plums, figs, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, all grow here in the greatest perfection.

Grapes, apples, &c., do well, but not as well as the other fruits. The fig is the most delicious and. healthy fruit, and bears nearly all the summer.

2d. Price of labor this year has ruled low, and the supply has been abundant, but the two previous years it averaged at least $12 per month and found. The supply is limited when compared with our open land—not more than half of which could be cultivated by the present population, even if all were disposed to work. Field hands are most needed.

3d. Our climate is the most genial and delightful in the United States; our summers more pleasant than winter. We never have the extreme heat found in the West. Sunstroke is of rare occurrence. We have a breeze, generally, day and night. Persons coming here have to undergo an acclimating, which is generally mild, especially if they are temperate in eating and drinking. The writer raised a family of eight children on the alluvial land, and owned a plantation where there were 100 negroes, and out of that number at one period in three years there was but one death. White people are equally healthy. White men can raise cotton, as I will attempt to prove, with but little exposure or risk of sickness. Chills and fevers, of a milder type than they have in Illinois, is the principal disease; in fact, almost the only one peculiar to the climate. Yellow fever is never found in the country, even a mile from a city where it prevails.

4th. Mississippi and Louisiana abound in the finest oak timber in the world. Large bodies of white-oak may be found throughout the country, but our cypress, which only grows in low or flat lands, is the great timber of the country. It makes the best fence rails, shingles, pickets, posts, and rails, split boards 6 feet long, or even 8 and 10, and saws into the finest plank, studding, flooring, weather-boarding, &c. There is no kind of building that can not be done with cypress, and it lasts, exposed as shingles, fence rails, &c., for 30 years, while under shelter it would probably last 300 years; and it has been dug up out of the ground where it probably had kept sound 1,000 years. Pine is not found in East Louisiana or West Mississippi. A large lumber trade is now going on between Vicksburg and St. Louis, every packet taking from our wharf thousands of feet of cypress lumber, sawed here, and pine brought from East Mississippi on railroad.

6th. Along the banks of the Mississippi the planter or farmer can send any of his products to market with convenience.

One man, living fifty miles above Vicksburg, made $3,000 this year, shipping roasting-ears to St. Louis in June and July. Another made $1,500 from five acres of Irish potatoes shipped to St. Louis in May and June. Our whole country is so well supplied with navigable streams and railroads, that no one has to haul to market over 25 miles; and on the alluvial lands we have thousands of miles of natural canals that only require clearing of trees and brush to make them navigable six months of the year. No improvements were made on them before the war.

7th. Schools are to be found in most neighborhoods, and country and village churches are found in many localities. There are but few people so situated that they can not reach a church or school-house, though the country is not settled—so as to make these things as common as in the West or North.

In the river counties, the large majority of the people are Africans—a docile people, inoffensive if let alone, and not improperly advised; naturally indolent, but small planters have worked them profitably, especially planters who will work with them.

We will suppose that three persons, able to work, compose the family, and the location on good upland—arrival on the plantation 1st January:―

Outfit.—One mule worth	$150.00
One plow and gear	8.00
One harrow, iron tooth	4.00
One ax and three hoes	2.50
One light wagon for one horse	50.00
	$214.50

We will give them 30 acres for cultivation, which would be divided as follows:—

If cotton or corn had been planted on the land the previous year, the two hands could clear off the ground for the plow as fast as the one could plow it. Giving the month of January for repairing fences and fixing the place up, plowing might be commenced on the 1st of February.

1st. The three acres for oats should be plowed well, and the oats sowed and harrowed in, which would take about three days. Then the garden spot plowed deep and put in good order for planting, first, garden peas, Irish potatoes, sow cabbage seed, lettuce, and radishes, all of which could be done in one day.

Feb. 5th. Commence plowing the ground for corn, which should be done by throwing up ridges from 3 to 5 feet apart, according to the strength of the soil; say, the preparation of the corn land would be completed by the 1st of March. Then ridge up the cotton land in same way, plowing deep and thoroughly, which could be completed by the 12th of March, allowing for some rainy days.

Mar. 12th. Plant corn, dropping from 2 to 3 feet apart in the drill, covering it with the plow, and harrow off; all of which could be done in about five days.

Mar. 15th. Lay down five bushels of sweet potatoes in a long bed, say three feet wide, each potato being put down so as not to touch the others; cover them over with light earth, all of which can be done in half a day by one hand.

From 15th March to 10th April might be devoted mostly to gardening and preparing potato ground.

April 12th. Commence working in corn, and all of April and to 10th May may be devoted to culture of corn and garden, not forgetting about 10th to 15th to plant the acre of speckled peas.

May 10th. The cultivation of the cotton crop would commence; one hand, running a side scraper on each side of the cotton, could go over the nine acres in two days, and the plow could be laid aside, and the three hands could scrape the nine acres of cotton with the hoe in about three days, and the plow could then be used to mold the cotton; whilst the two hoe hands followed, drawing the dirt around the stalks and thinning the cotton to a more perfect stand. Plow and hoe work taking about five more days. After this work was completed the corn would require plowing again, and the oats could be cut and stacked or housed. The plowing of fifteen acres of corn would take about ten days, all of which work could be completed by 1st June. After 1st May, in all wet weather, the sweet potato ground being prepared, the plants should be drawn from the bed and set on the ridges; this could be kept up till 1st July, and even the oats patch could be planted after the crop was taken off, in sweet potatoes, corn, or field peas, and there would be plenty of leisure to do it. About 10th of June the cotton would require a plowing, and the hoes should follow and take out what weeds were left in the drill; all of which work could be completed in six days.

June 15th. Plow the corn again, and plant, either in drills or by sowing broadcast, the yellow field pea, all of which would not require over 8 or 10 days, and the corn could then be laid by.

About 1st July, run the sweep through the cotton to clean the middles, which could be done in three days, and the hoes could pass over it in about same time. If it required any more work it would not exceed three days, about the middle or last of July, to run the sweep once or twice in the middle. Thus the work of cultivation would be completed early in July, after which all the crops could stand in the field till October or November. Turnips ought to be planted, if rutabagas (which are the best), about 1st July, and if other varieties, in August or 1st September.

Cotton will stand longer in the field without injury than any crop grown in the United States. Before the war half the cotton crop was gathered after the 1st of November, in the healthy season of the year, and planters were picking cotton, when from 12 to 15 acres were planted to the hand, till 1st March. The contractors, for saving abandoned cotton in 1863, picked the crop raised in 1862, in March and April. An immigrant raising one quarter of a crop, could put off gathering it till January if he chose, and could gather when all the cotton was open, the product of duct of three acres in one month, even if it was three bales.

or double that on alluvial land. Sweet potatoes, oats, and other crops, would go far toward supporting the family.

The second year the immigrant could plant 3 acres of wheat, and enlarge other crops, raise his own pork, and make the place support the family; still planting the same corn and cotton. Or, if he was disposed to enlarge his planting, he might hire one or two negroes, and plant double the quantity of cotton, letting the negroes gather cotton from 1st September and the immigrants joining them 1st October, or as soon as the weather was cool and pleasant. The third year, the immigrant could put in six acres to the hand for his family, and work through the season with safety, as he would then be fully acclimated.

* * The lands in this county consist of bottom land, at 75 cents per acre (average price); table-land, at 50 cents per acre; rolling land, at 25 cents per acre; and pine woods at 12½ cents per acre. Good water throughout the county, and very healthy. Crops―cotton, corn, wines, all kinds of fruit, pine lumber, rice and tobacco. The people are intelligent and law-abiding, and rowdyism is scarce.

By reference to the map you will find this place situated on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. The country is rich in prairie and "post oak" lands, that sold before the war from $25 to $40 per acre. This belt of prairie land is about 40 miles long, and say 20 miles wide, extending to the Tombigbee River. * * Now worth $7 to $15 per acre.

1st. Summers warm, but not oppressive; nights cool, good breezes; winters mild, seldom cold enough to freeze water; very healthy.

3d. Cotton and corn the chief staples, 250 pounds of lint cotton to the acre, and 30 bushels of corn, the average crop. Corn generally sells at 50 to 75 cents per bushel. Good for 12 to 15 bushels wheat to the acre, and all small grain. Every description of vegetable and fruit.

6th. The people native born Southerners. This county contains about 12,000 whites and 14,000 blacks, formerly all slaves, now worthless as members of society, and not good laborers. They work very well in the field, but will not keep up the farm repairs and care for stock.

The people are polite and courteous, and would hail new white settlers or immigrants among them, rent them lands, work on shares, or hire by the month.

Having answered your questions, I will state that I am a planter, owning 3,000 acres of land, 2,300 tillable, which was worth $40 before the war, and sold for that (a part of it) in 1858. It is 2½ miles from Brookville, a thrifty railroad town, ten miles from Macon, the county seat, and twenty miles from Columbus, a town of 6,000 inhabitants. I raise corn and cotton, and worked black laborers last year. This year some less. Give them one-fourth of all that is made, furnishing food and lodging.

This labor will not do. They work well (i.e., some of them), but neglect the stock and kill off the hogs. This is done by the idlers, who will not take permanent work.

SIR: Having resided in this and one of the adjoining counties for many years, engaged in the practice of law, my acquaintance is very general, both with the people and the lands, and in fact with all the subjects upon which you solicit information.

Just at this time lands have no market, and no sales are being made, although all the lands in the State are "for sale." One cause of this is the almost entire absence of capital and industry, resulting from the war.

* * * The lands are excellent. Cotton and corn, peas and potatoes (Irish and sweet), are the chief products; but the soil and climate are well adapted to a great diversity of crops. Labor is exceeding low, and can be had by paying employees $5 or $6 per month. Cotton culture, by Northern or Southern men, pays a splendid profit when conducted with skill, and energy, and sufficient means. Very little means or skill is necessary; the main desideratum is energy. The negroes will work well, if well paid.

Timber excellent and abundant. Health first-rate. Markets, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Memphis, Louisville, &c., accessible by Mississippi River and railroad.

Mr. P. R. LEATHERMAN writes from Woodville, Wilkinson County, in the southwestern part of the State, August, 1868:―

Cotton has hitherto been the chief export from this country. It was deemed the most valuable product we could raise, because the soil, climate, and kind of labor we had, were all well adapted to its culture. And our labor was not well suited for any other employment; for, be it known to all men, that the culture of cotton, is a very simple process; for which reason alone, the negro was better suited to that occupation than any employment which might require the least ingenuity and skill. This is the reason we devoted all our energies to the culture of cotton.

Let no one, therefore, imagine that the culture of cotton is not adapted to the labor of white men from the North and from Europe. With their industry and intelligence, they would very soon be able to produce two or three times as much cotton to the hand as the negro can, and would easily improve the quality of the article produced. It is well known that the cotton plant is susceptible of great improvement, both as to the quantity which each stalk will yield, and the quality of the lint.

* * * * Away with the foolish belief that negroes only can raise cotton profitably; it is the only thing they are capable of raising successfully, because its culture is simple and adapted to the labor of any person either male or female. Little boys and girls can assist in its cultivation.

* * * * Thousands and tens of thousands of acres of our best lands are lying uncultivated now, and we are ready to sell them at low rates to those who wish to purchase, or farm them out to those who are not able to buy, and furnish them with every facility for making crops.

Mr. FLEMING HODGES, a well known and respected citizen of Mississippi, who, before the war paid taxes on more than half a million of dollars which he had accumulated as a tiller of the soil, thus writes us from Okalona, Chickasaw Comity, August 4, 1868:—

* * * * I have about 5,000 acres of fine improved land; 3,000 acres are the finest upland in this vicinity, fertile, convenient to railroad, and the most healthy country I was ever in. Now for my object; I want 100 families of good laborers to locate on my lands.

I will furnish their outfit for the first year, and lease them my lands as long as they wish them. I know the value of this kind of proposition from most men, but I refer you to, &c., &c., who know me well by character, and can tell you, &c.

* * * * After reading carefully your circular and letter, my neighbors said to me, "Colonel, write to Mr. Goddard, and say for us all, that Mississippians would dispose of two-thirds of their lands to English, German, or any other good class of emigrants, at nominal prices, and do all in their power to give them kindly aid—and God bless his work."—August 6th. I suspended this letter, commenced on the 31st of July, at the request of Dr. Bretney and Mayor B. H. Shephard, who were delegates to a Railroad Convention called at Selma, Ala., in order that I might hand you the prospectus of a new railroad, to wit, running from Memphis to Selma, via Holly Springs and Okalona. It is now determined upon, and the survey of said road will commence next week. It will be chartered as the " Memphis Holly Springs, Okalona and Selma Railroad," connecting at Selma with the Charleston and Savannah Railroad.

They propose to enter all lands contiguous to this road as stock, at $1 to $3 per acre; to give to emigrants twenty acres per family anywhere on the line of this road, and to sell them as much, in addition to this twenty acres, as they wish to buy at the rates at which it is entered.

It is our duty to say, frankly, that among the numerous letters we have received from the Southern States are some, written apparently in a candid and impartial spirit, which indicate that in some sections a strong prejudice exists against Northern men who come there to settle. We do not believe that the better portion of the Southern people encourage violence or discourtesy toward respectable and industrious Northern immigrants; but where this adverse feeling prevails, it has been, in effect, a license to the lawless element to commit rough deeds with impunity. We refrain from publishing these communications, believing that, as we have before stated, a new era is about to dawn upon the South, and that the good sense of the Southern people will, at any hazard, suppress lawlessness, in view of the disastrous effect it must have upon their interests and prosperity.