CHAPTER XVL 



A PROVISION GROUND. 



The " provision grounds " of the Xegros were very inter- 

 esting. I liad longed to behold, alive and growing, fruits and 

 plants wdiich I had heard so often named, and seen so 

 often figured, that I had expected to recognize many of 

 them at first sight ; and found, in nine cases out of ten, that 

 I could not. Again, I had longed to gather some hints as to 

 the possibility of carrying out in the West Indian islands that 

 system of ''Petite Culture"' of small spade farming which 

 I have long regarded, with Mr. John Stuart ]\Iill and others, 

 as not only the ideal form of agriculture, but perhaps the 

 basis of any ideal rustic civilization. And what scanty and 

 imperfect facts I could collect I set down here. 



It was a pleasant sensation to have, day after day, old 

 names translated for me into new facts. Pleasant, at least to 

 me : not so pleasant, I fear, to my kind companions, whose 

 courtesy I taxed to the uttermost by stopping to look over 



