FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB. 299 



his eggs in one basket." It bore sorely upon the "West Indian 

 Indigo planter when his industry was crushed by oppressive 

 taxation ; when the Exeter Hall Party through their tool, Sir 

 Ashley Edin, interfered between the labourers and the planters, 

 it was the bane of the East India Indigo planters ; practically 

 the only ones surviving, being those who were Zenimdars (i.e. 

 general farmers,) in addition to being Indigo planters. It is 

 now making itself strongly felt both upon the Indian tea planters 

 and the West Indian sugar planters. Once even within the 

 memory of some of our older friends, a time occurred when the 

 value of cacao fell to nothing, estates were valueless, and even 

 merchants threw bags of cacao into the Gulf rather than 

 ship them. Were it not so evident, it would hardly be credible 

 that to-day our cacao planters heedless of the grim axiom that 

 " history repeateth itself" are mostly if not all, committing the 

 same economic error. 



No farmer at home in his senses would plant up his whole 

 farm in roots or grain at once. No fruit grower would fill all his 

 orchards with apple trees alone. If the market for roots 

 fell, if the farmer grew no other crop, what would he have 

 to depend on 1 If the blight spoiled the fruit grower's apple 

 crop, and lie had no pears or plums, what would he have 

 to fall back upon ? If the history of 1841-6 repeats itself, 

 what has the Trinidad Cacao Planter to look to? Sugar 

 estates are being abandoned right and left, and the re- 

 maining planters base their hopes for the future on rather 

 doubtful central factories and cane farming, which at the best 

 promise but a scant measure of success, should Providence — in 

 the shape of the British Government, — not afford them some 

 protection. And that, — to say the least, — is doubtful in the 

 extreme. 



The only crop I have ever heard a Cacao Planter talk of going 

 in for in earnest besides his Cacao, is Coffee. This, if "gone in 

 fur " by itself with nutmegs or spices among it, and not planted 

 mixed with Cacao, will be profitable in localities where (1) suit- 

 able labor can be depended on, and (2) where there are facilities 

 for " rapid " or " stump " planting, which gives a first picking in 

 18 months. 



It is here, and for this purpose that my suggestions for the 

 introduction and trial of Guarana and Eadiane are made. Coffee 

 has no chance of being profitable in many localities, where per- 

 haps either one of these plants might l>e suitable to endow 

 the Cacao Planter with a mixed cultivation. 



In suggesting those plants for trial I do not wish to detract 

 from the merits of other plants which are somewhat better known, 

 and which also tend to fill the same useful purpose. These, at 



