l68 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



ground, and after they acquire their growth need no 

 clearing beneath. 



A corps of boys and girls gather the limes as they 

 fall to the earth — they are never picked — and carry 

 them to the mill, where they are passed between two 

 upright rollers, such as were in use when the sugar 

 cane was raised there. The expressed juice is con- 

 ducted to evaporating pans and boiled down to the 

 consistency of molasses — to a density of one-tenth — 

 and then run into fifty-gallon hogsheads for shipment 

 to England. It was worth, in 1877, about twenty 

 pounds sterling per hogshead, and has brought thirty 

 pounds ; and the plantation has yielded from seventy 

 to eighty hogsheads in a season. 



The juice is used in making citric acid, and is 

 shipped in its concentrated form to reduce freight. It 

 would seem possible to further reduce this item of ex- 

 pense by the complete crystallization of the juice. 

 Such an experiment has been tried in Florida, though 

 without complete success. There is not there a suffi- 

 cient quantity of limes, though, from the experience 

 of Dr. Imray, it would seem more profitable to 

 raise limes than oranges. I do not, however, think 

 the lime will nourish so luxuriantly, nor produce so 

 much juice, in Florida, as in the rich soil of the 

 West Indian islands. The trees are without fruit 

 during two months only in the year — February and 

 March — and at other seasons are fragrant with fruit 

 in various stages of growth. 



One day, two or three weeks after my arrival, the 

 priest of a neighboring village, Pere Michel, came 

 over to the plantation for a little recreation, and 

 gathered some of the people together for a ftartie 



