10. Planters and their agents will be held to rigid accountability for their conduct toward the laborers, and any cruelty, inhumanity, or neglect of duty will be summarily punished.

TIME OF LABOR AND PERQUISITES OF LABORERS.

11. The time of labor shall be ten hours, between daylight and dark in summer, and nine hours in winter, of each day, except Saturday and Sunday. The afternoon of Saturday and the whole of Sunday shall be at the disposal of the laborer. On sugar estates, at the proper season, the hands will take their regular watches, the night work of which and the Saturday afternoons and Sundays, if positively necessary, shall be paid for as extra work. Laborers will be allowed land for private cultivation at the following rates: First and second class hands with families, one acre each; first and second class hands without families, one-half acre each; second and third class hands with families, one-quarter acre. On these allotments they will be allowed to raise such crops as they may choose for their own use and benefit, but will not be permitted to raise or keep animals, except domestic poultry.

POLL TAX.

12. For the purpose of reimbursing to the United States some portion of the expenses of this system, and of supporting the aged, infirm, and helpless, the following tax will be collected in lieu of all other claims under these regulations: From each planter for every hand employed by him between the ages of eighteen and fifty, $2 per annum; from each and between the same ages, $1 per annum. This sum will be payable and be collected on the 1st day of June next, and will be paid over to the superintendent of treatment for disbursement. Measures will be taken to collect the same poll tax from all colored persons not on plantations, so that the active labor of this race may contribute to the support of their own helpless and disabled.

GENERAL DUTIES.

13. Provost-marshals in the several parishes are charged with the general supervision and welfare of the laborers, reporting on these subjects frequently to Mr. T. W. Conway, superintendent, and will use all possible exertion by themselves and their deputies too see that industry and good order are promoted, and that the contacts under these orders are faithfully performed by both parties. Orders heretofore issued and published, so far as they are not changed or modified by this order, will remain in force.

14. This order shall be deemed and taken to have effect from the 1st day of February last, and all contracts entered into in relation to the labors of the present year will be held to be controlled, amended, and governed by the terms and conditions of this order.

LIEN AND SECURITY FOR LABOR.

15. All crops and property on any plantation where laborers are employed will be held too be covered by a lien against all other creditors too the extent of the wages due employees, and such lien will follow such crops or property in any and all hands until such labor is fully paid and satisfied.

By command of Major-General Hurlbut:

GEORGE B. DRAKE,

Lieutenant-Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.