May i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL" ACreiCTJLTTTRIST. 



857 



It will be remembered that the writer came to Jamaica 

 first from New York iu the Atlas Line S. S. "Ailsa" and 

 also voyaged iu the " Arrau " from Central America to 

 Kingston. Both of the above steamers have been here to 

 load bananas. There are some dozen steamers of this line 

 running in the West Indian fruit trade: the "Ailsa," 

 Captain Sansom; "Arrau," Captaiu Brown; "Andes," 

 "Japes,-" and "Alvo," :>pauish crew; "Arden," coast- 

 in- round Jamaica; "Athos," "Albauo," and "Aden," 

 coasting for fruit ; and others trad ing to Colon from 

 Kingston. They are painted slato colour and have a 

 scarlet ring on a white funnel, with name on the bow, 

 and nearly all of them have houses on deck for the 

 crew aud passengers. Captaiu Forwood is agent in 

 Kingston, aud a uice man he is too. Employment is given 

 to all the people who like to work on the plantations and 

 loading vessels at the wharf, some arrangement having been 

 made that the Atlas steamers come in at night and are 

 not to be detained over a limited time. The plantation 

 hands are turned out to work at any hour the Atlas boat 

 may come into the harbour and blow her whistle. The people 

 are paid from 4id to 6cl au hour, but often the vessels only 

 turn up at daylight and then the people get their usual 

 rate of pay: men Is 6d; Creole women Is; coolies from 

 Is 8d to able-bodied men to 9d to women; and boys' over- 

 time is paid liberally, and the people work fairly well. 

 Waggons and carts drawn by mules and cattle bring in 

 the fruit from surrounding farms or plantations, .and it is 

 valued and taken ou board direct when a vessel is there, 

 tho owner of the bananas getting a receipt for eight-hand 

 and seven-hand bunches, which is cashed immediately at 

 the office opposite the wharf gates. There are a num- 

 ber of bosses tallying from carts, waggons, boats, horse 

 and mule packs and even asses, to say nothing of numer- 

 ous bunches " headed" into the wharf or depot. The scene 

 is a busy one, good for us all, employing many people. 

 On " Bound Brook " estate we have harvested as many 

 as one thousand 1st class bunches in a mouth, so that, 

 say 10,000 bunches per annum at SI per bunch would be 

 $10,000 or £2,000 with an expenditure of little over £1,000 

 per annum. The estate is formed of detached fields of 

 bananas and other fruit-trees in full bearing. 



BiiiDGE Piece. — Skirting the public road near the bridge 

 leading into the town of Port Antonio, the show field of 

 bananas, ploughed, trenched, and hoed regularly— in fact, 

 highly cultivated. 



Rice Piece.— Near the Ranger's house (Isaac Carpenter), 

 containing some mango trees, and also well-cultivated aud 

 ploughed. 



Grass Field. — Planted with Guinea grass and fenced in. 

 Guinea grass grows well in Jamaica, and the stocks are 

 large, and in good condition; 



Plum Tree Piece. — Another good field of about acres 

 well-trenched and in high cultivation. Coconuts are plained 

 on all the above " pieces." 



Man-of-war Piece, on which stands Atlas Town, is being 

 trenched and cleaned up. The odd name given to this field 

 was on account of the crews of the men-of-war helping 

 themselves to fruit aud sugarcane in the old time days 

 when " Bug " was a sugar estate. 



Negro House. — This is a fine fruit garden of itself 

 covered throughout with coconut palms, mango trees, 

 oranges, limes, breadfruit. See., with bananas regularly 

 planted and yams, coco yams, &c., grown between the rows. 

 The largest bunches of bananas ever seen came from the 

 neighbourhood of the old sugar house ruins here and near 

 the river or brook flowing through the estate aud empty- 

 ing itself into the sea. 



Baktlev Piece.— Near the bungalow or manager's house, 

 trenched and supplied with a good stock of coconut plants 

 ready for plauting out. 



Cow Pen River. — A new clearing very promising: the 

 banauas are growing very well, nearly six feet high in three 

 months, A fine bathing place on the road to this field 

 shaded by a group of mango. 



Grvnt's Hole. — A new clearing of about thirty acres 

 being planted ; now the parts finished very promising in 

 growth. We have made two lime-kilns here, and supplied 

 firewood to tho firm regularly. 



Thi impSon's Bottom,— Another new clearing near Parsley's 

 House ou the highroad beyond tho cattle paddock : lower 

 part bullied by the sea crabs and land crabs; upper part 



108 



of this piece is the site of the cooly barracks and planted 

 up with banauas doing fairly well. Large plants or 

 " suckers " were carried to this piece from Negro House 

 field. 



Coconut Piece. — A field of bananas near the piggery or 

 " Hog Pen " and bounded by the river. " Hog lYu " is 

 cleared for planting, and the pigs are to be removed to 

 "Shotover," auother property in a district called " Spring- 

 field'." Bound Brook estate has the very great advantage 

 of being bounded by the Government road at the base aud 

 by rivers east and west; the estate roads an; fairly good, 

 and carts and waggons are used on them. A bridge is being 

 constructed by Mr. De Costa, mason, to enable the fruit 

 waggons to go into the heart of " Negro House." (The 

 origin of the above curious name is the fact of it having 

 been the place where the negroes had their houses in the 

 old time days of slavery when "Bog" was a sugar f state.) 

 The bridge is nearly finished aud is built with the stones 

 of an old sugar house wall. These old ruins turn out very 

 valuable in the hands of au energetic man like Captain 

 Baker. All the foundations of the cottages and barracks are 

 built of the same material lying idle for years aud now 

 turned to good account. My " cottage by the sea " is 

 perfectly new and large enough for me, being a two-roomed 

 cottage, all wood, boarded floor, shingle roof paiuted with 

 a mixture of tar, kerosine aud red ochre. My garden con- 

 tains coconut palms, an orange tree in full bearing of good 

 quality, and some banana plants put down by myself. The 

 sweet potatoes, yams, bandikye, pea tree, cotton and 

 other plants, including the tomato, are all destroyed by 

 crabs. The mangrove swamp at the back of mo harbours 

 all sorts of vermin, rats, mongooses, mosquitoes, floas, sand- 

 flies, crabs, aud bad smells, &c., &c. There is a nursery of 

 orange plants ready for putting out, of a good sweet orange. 

 Baker & Co., however, do not wish to extend miscellaneous 

 cultivation ami stick to bananas,. 



" The Book-keefek." — The book-keeper or assistant 

 superintendent of an estate is to keep the people's time and 

 go round the working place as often as possible to see that 

 the work done is worth the money paid for it on the 

 followng Friday night. The Creoles work five days, and tho 

 Indian coolies 5i days, the pay rangiug from Od to women 

 cooking for gangs and children to Is and Is 3d to coolies, 

 and from Is Cd to Is 9d and 2s for coloured men of 

 Jamaica: hoeing grass, for instauce, is generally done by 

 unskilled labour, and Creole women are generally employed 

 at one shilling daily. Felling forest, the axe-men get Is 9d, 

 and bosses 2s and 2s Gd. On Friday afternoon the books are 

 made up at the office, aud the " weekly pay-bill "' taken in to 

 town by the manager or' 4 overseer," who brings out the need- 

 ful bag of money. Of course there is always a little growling 

 at the pay table, and some get sulky aud stay away from 

 work for some weeks cultivating their own yam patches 

 aud banana trees, &c. Nearly all the old people in Port 

 ADtouio own a piece of ground and house, or rent them 

 from Messrs. Baker & Co., and other large land- 

 owners : they are rather an independent lot of people 

 and won't stand much bullyiug or ill-treatment. Some 

 of the small farmers possess good horses and ponies 

 and ride them bare-backed, if without saddle and 

 bridle, aud a piece of rope being used for the latter. 

 Donkeys and mules are every day employed carrrying 

 bananas to market or rather to the shipping wharves : 

 a mule or ass carries six bunches, aud the farmer 

 rides home on the pack as happy as a lord. Banauas 

 falling from 3sto to Is Gd must be a hard blow to some 

 of them who have to pay rent for tbeir houses to 

 and grounds. " Breadkind " or ground provisions " keep 

 the wolf from the door " and they work with us on " task 

 work," trenching and felling etc., etc. Work begins at 7 

 o'clock. 



A Jamaica Lime-kiln.— The building of a Jamaica 

 lime-kiln would interest your Ceylon readers, it being 

 somewhat original. A place is selected that can 

 be easily levelled, surrounded by heavy timber, and 

 felling immediately commenced, the captain of the 

 kiln allowing six men to fell and lop the trees before 

 beginuiug to build. On the third morning the In avi- 

 est logs are placed rouud like the points of the 

 compass, and the crevices filled iu with chopped wood, the 

 flue being iu the centre about three feet square ; blocks 

 aud. tackles are brought to bear ou the logs at a distance; 



