JAMAICA 1' 1 1 



are also being made to establish a fruit-trade between 

 Jamaica and England by means of ships fitted with refri- 

 gerator chambers, and capable of performing the voyage 

 within fourteen or sixteen days. There is little doubt that 

 before long Jamaica fruit will be regularly shipped to that 

 country. 



No Jamaican of the old school ever thought of planting 

 tobacco. Tn ISSti, at the end of the great revolution, a 

 family of Cuban exiles came to the island and began the 

 cultivation of tobacco and the manufacture of cigars. 

 Now small colonies of Cubans can be found at many places 

 throughout the island, growing this crop, and Jamaican 

 cigars, manufactured in Kingston, are smoked from Colon 

 to Barbados, and have practically supplanted the Havana 

 article in the West Indian markets. Tobacco for local 

 consumption is twisted into long ropes and sold by the 

 yard. 



Jamaica coffee is of three well-marked qualities. The 

 sort that obtains the highest price is grown on the south- 

 ern slopes of the Blue Mountains, at elevations of from 

 three to five thousand feet. The quantity produced 

 is small, probably not one third of the whole, but the 

 prices obtained are high, ranging from twenty-five to 

 forty dollars per hundredweight. This is the famous Blue 

 Mountain coffee, every grain of which is carefully gathered 

 and shipped to England, where it is said to possess pecu- 

 liar qualities for blending. None of it is consumed upon 

 the island. While stopping at one of the largest estates 

 overnight, we observed that no coffee was served either 

 for supper or for breakfast, the overseer informing us that, 

 although he had been there for many years, he had never 

 been permitted to use a single berry for his own consump- 

 tion. The coffee-estates are most economically managed. 

 In looking over the books, which are kepi with great 

 accuracy, I found that every expenditure, however trivial, 

 was most carefully planned for, even down to including 

 twopence a week to feed the watch-dog. The Blue Moun- 



