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tages of great importance in a warm climate. It is found to 

 be more uniform in its temperature, parting slowly with its 

 heat ; and it also absorbs moisture more rapidly and retains 

 it longer than any other soil not similarly constituted. 



There is a tendency, even in the best soils, under a state 

 of cultivation, to become deteriorated, rendering the aid of 

 manure necessary. By reflecting on the accumulation of 

 vegetable and animal matter, which for ages must have gone 

 on undisturbed, it is easy to account for the amazing fertility 

 of the lands of the New World on their first cultivation. It 

 must be equally evident, that, after a time, this store of 

 vegetable nourishment must have been diminished; the 

 quantity of sugar, &c. annually exported not being compen- 

 sated for by the articles imported, such as corn, tallow, oil, 

 wool, skins, wine, silk, &c., together with the fish derived 

 from the sea. There is no plant, indeed, in the cultivation 

 of which manuring should be carried to a greater extent than 

 in the Sugar Cane. Think of the immense load of vegetable 

 matter drawn annually from our fields, formed of principles 

 derived almost entirely from the soil, and your only wonder 

 must be that any land should for so many years be capable 

 of supporting such a demand on what may be called its 

 capital. We can thus easily account for the diminished pro- 

 ductiveness, and consequently the impaired value of Jamaica 

 properties. On many, the system of management has been 

 especially wasteful, there being, even in the present day, 

 planters who are not ashamed to declare that manuring has 

 been systematically avoided by them, as injurious to the soil. 

 Can we wonder, after this, that, in such estates, the returns 

 have fallen from 400 to 50 hhds. ? and is it not to this source, 

 rather than to the anti-colonial spirit which has been so 

 generally displayed in England, that we ought in a great 

 measure to ascribe the present depreciation of West India 

 property ? 



I need scarcely say, that, although the practice followed is 

 the reverse, manure ought in this, as in all the other depart- 

 ments of agriculture, to be used in a fresh state. It is true 

 that when it is employed in a decomposed slate, the effects it 



