129 



tainable. Even the sloping hills and dales of St. Mary, although ap- 

 parently drained by nature are in reality as dependent upon artificial 

 drainage as the flat lands. No one now attempts to drain a hillside 

 other than by a carefully graded c utour trench, and this means has 

 worked wonders already. 



HUMUS. 



The condition, the kindliness and the productive capacity of our 

 soils in Jamaica is mainly limited by the supply of organic matter or 

 humus. Under moist, tropical conditions the rate of decay of humus 

 is extraordinarily rapid. All our areas of high natural productive 

 power exhibit conditions favouring a rapid loss of humus. 



The Afr can agriculture practised by the peasantry when left to 

 their own sweet will with undefined areas of crown lands to draw upon 

 is generally recognised to be most pernicious. By burning a piece of 

 virgin land, they rob it of years of high agricultural condition through 

 the loss of humus and the land soon becomes hungry and poor. 



Lying at the root of the prosperity, comfort, morals and even reli- 

 gion of the p?ople is the chemistry of humus as a predetermining 

 factor. 



Fire-stick cultivation on outlying lands is responsible for a great 

 deal, both socially and morally as agriculturally. 



A residential holding with a combination of live-stock and planting 

 is the cure for many evils. Land is plentiful in Jamaica. Good 

 farming involves an intensive cultivation of the better lands by the 

 careful storage and use of all available sources of humus from the 

 outlying and inferior lands. 



To ttie Banaua cultivator Humus represents the crux of the problem 

 for maintaining the industry in Jamaica on a permanent basis. Green 

 dressing, compost of waste vegetation, manure from the animals of the 

 holJing, all these must be carefully husbanded and every effort used 

 to keep up the standard of humus in the soil. 



TILLAGE. 



The curse of Adam is upon us, even in the Tropics, and cultivation 

 of the soil is necessary if crops are to be secured above the minimum 

 and in the teeth of adverse conditions. 



For the peasant, the Fork should bs the chief implement of tillage; 

 M any a small holder would do well to keep two steers and use a small 

 plough and a light cultivator. The writer is of opinion that a small 

 hop-shim to be drawn by one mule would prove a most efficient sub- 

 stitute for the "lioeing grass" which is the bugbear of most planta- 

 tions in St. Mary. 



MARL. 



Some of the soils of Jamaica are singularly destitute of Carbonate 

 of Lime. Many of the alluvial soils are seriously deficient in this 

 respect : even the red soils above the limestone have in many cases 

 lust nearly all their original store of Carbonate of Lime. Fortunately, 

 marl is frequently to be had within a reasonable distance. On many 

 soils marl would prove the most profitable manure that could be ap- 

 plied. About 5 tons per acre is required to produce an appreciable 

 effect. It should be applied broadcast over the surface after the first 

 d. ep cultivation — forking or ploughing — and should afterwards be 

 worked in with hoes or cultivators. 



