1884.] PLANTING ENTEBPBISE IN THE WEST INDIES. 343 



2,000 to 3,500 feet. The plants have much of the appearance of the 

 'wild gmger ' of the West Indies, and require little cultivation 

 beyond keeping the ground clear of rank-growing weeds. The return 

 per acre is estimated, at tlie end of three years, at about 170 pounds 

 of cardamoms, worth os. to 4s. per pound. 



Tobacco, rubber-yielding plants, and numerous medicinal plants 

 are also being introduced and cultivated in the West Indies with 

 marked success. With the valuable aid and by the instrumentality 

 of the lloyal Gardens at Kew, the Botanical establishments in the 

 "West Indies, and through them the planters in these possessions, are 

 being continually supplied with economic plants of great value, and 

 by these means new industries are being founded, which in course of 

 time should have most beneficial influences upon the commercial 

 prosperity of these islands. 



So far, tea has not been tried on a commercial scale in the West 

 Indies. I have some five acres of tea under my care, which, being 

 some seven or eight years old, indicates that the climate of Jamaica 

 is admirably suited to the growth of the plant. I estimate that, with 

 indentured coolie labour and an experienced tea-planter from Ceylon 

 or India, tea might be grown in the West Indies and placed in the 

 market at a cost not exceeding 7|-d. or 8d, per pound. At the present 

 time, very inferior China tea is sold in the West Indies at 4s, 6d, per 

 pound. Hence there is here a very good opening for a tea industry 

 — if only to supply local demands. I am glad to say that an attempt 

 is likely to be made to grow tea in Jamaica, under very favourable 

 circumstances ; and, as the parish of Portland, with its warm, moist 

 climate and splendid rich valleys, approaches so nearly the conditions 

 which obtain in the best tea districts of India, the undertaking pro- 

 mises every hope of success. 



Among the newer industries of Jamaica, I may mention that of 

 cinchona, or the quinine-yielding trees of commerce. 



For the first seeds of cinchona, Jamaica is indebted to the Home 

 Government, who, at the recommendation of Sir J. D. Hooker, 

 Director of the Eoyal Gardens, Kew, sent liberal supplies of seeds of 

 three species direct from Peru and Guayaquil. The industry owes its 

 initiation, on a commercial scale, to Sir John Peter Grant, v/ho 

 established an experimental Government plantation on the Llue 

 Mountains in 1869. 



For several years, and, indeed, up to the close of 1879, cinchona 

 cultivation had not been taken up by private planters. The number 

 of plants grown by private enterprise in the whole island, up to 1880, 

 would probably have not exceeded 900 or 1,000 plants : that is, a 

 number barely sufhcient to cover an acre of land. Owing, however, 

 to the favourable results of the sales of cinchona bark grown on the 



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