278 A PROVISION GROUND. 



He has no winter, and therefore some crop or other is always 

 coming forward. From whence it comes, that, as I just 

 hinted, his wife and children seem to have always some- 

 thing to eat in their mouths, if it be only the berries and 

 nuts which abound in every hedge and wood. Neither dare 

 I guess at the profit which he might make, and I hope 

 will some day make, out of his land,, if he would cultivate 

 somewhat more for exportation, and not merely for home 

 consumption. If any one wishes to know more on this 

 matter, let him consult the catalogue of contributions from 

 British Guiana to the London Exhibition of 1862; especially 

 the pages from lix. to Ixviii. on the starch-producing plants 

 of the West Indies. 



Beyond the facts which T have given as to the Plantain, 

 I have no statistics of the amount of produce which is 

 usually raised on a West Indian provision ground. Xor 

 would any be of use; for a glance shows that the limit 

 of production has not been nearly reached. Were the fork 

 used instead of the hoe ; were the weeds kept down ; were 

 the manure returned to the soil, instead of festering about 

 everywhere in sun and rain : in a word, were even as 

 much done for the land as an English labourer does for 

 his o-arden ; still more, if as much were done for it as for 

 a suburban market-garden, the produce might be doubled 

 or trebled, and that without exhausting the soil. 



