221 



Henry Livingston, Port Maria, Islington i lots surface soil 



do do do ... I " subsoil 



H. Q. Levy, Brown's Town, Sheerness ... 2 " surface soil 



W. H. W. Westmoreland, Highgate, 



Charlottenburg ... 3 " surface soil 



do do do ... 3 " subsoil 



H. J. Rudolf, Hampstead, Rio Magno 3 " surface soil 



do do do ... 3 " subsoil 



The properties Rio Magno and Mt. Hermon Mission are in St. 

 Catherine. I visited in addition to these properties, Halcot Farm, 

 the property of H. D. Graham ; Llanrumney, the property of Mr. 

 Ernest Kerr, and many small settlers. 



I investigated complaints of cocoa trees dying from disease, 

 fiddler and other bugs. I think instead of individualizing pro- 

 perties it will be better to treat them generally, except as far as 

 remarks are necessary for the sake of information on the soils sent 

 up to be analysed. 



On Mr. X's estate the cocoa never had permanent shade, but, 

 before the hurricane, was well shaded with bananas ; of course the 

 hurricane destroyed the shade and exposed the trees to full sun 

 and wind in a few minutes. 



I think the best course would have been to have replanted the 

 whole field with bananas immediately after the storm. The 

 drainage at present is by no means systematic, ahhough Mr. X 

 has paid a good deal of attention to it of late years ; but the 

 trenching having been done subsequent to the planting of the 

 cocoa, it was not done on any definite plan. As it is well nigh, if not 

 quite, impossible to drain the field systematically, without replant- 

 ing the bananas, and as the bananas are obviously in want of re- 

 planting, I would advise the replanting of the bananas, doing 

 nothing to the cocoa except removing dead wood from the weak, 

 and suckers from the strong trees. By September of this year it 

 will be easy to see which of the trees will be worth saving, and 

 which are not. Then the trees which still look unthrifty should 

 be dug out and burnt, and young healthy plants substituted ; 

 if the replanting of the bananas were done by the end of April, 

 they will have grown enough to furnish shade for the young cocoa 

 in September, 



I would advise the planting of permanent shelter trees on the 

 ridges ; these I would recommend to be mixed fruit, timber and 

 rubber trees, — breadfruit, mangoes, cedar, star apple, kola, and 

 castilloa. I would advise regular contour drains of 2 feet in depth 

 and 24 feet apart. In steep places these drains should have stones 

 on piles driven in at intervals to retard the flow of the water and 

 thus prevent wash. 



The ridges of the land require regular additions of vegetable 

 matter, — banana trash, stable manure, grass and weeds are the 

 easiest to procure ; the wash is very great in these parts and unless 

 it is compensated for in some way, the cocoa trees will always look 

 poorer there than in the bottoms, where all the humus, &c., is 



