On the Culture of fVheat within the Tropics. 233 



with wheat sent by Sir Robert Kerr Porter, first to England, from Caraccas, 

 and thence to that island, the results of which experiments I am about to state, 

 no attempt, that I am aware of, had been made to cultivate this grain in Ja- 

 maica. That theresultof these experiments, especially when made with grain 

 naturalized by a domestication of about three centuries within the tropics, 

 should be satisfactory, was what the example of Cuba naturally led him to 

 anticipate: and it only remains to vary these experiments, at progressively 

 decreasing elevations, and under every possible variation of climate, season, 

 and humidity, to determine the extent to which wheat cultivation admits 

 of being carried with advantage in our West Indian possessions, and what 

 are the lowest limits of elevation at which it can be attempted under the 

 several parallels of latitude. It will also be desirable to repeat the experi- 

 ments with the various kinds of wheat cultivated in Europe, for the pur- 

 pose of determining the sort best adapted for West Indian cultivation. To 

 render these experiments more instructive, they should be accompanied by 

 an accurate register of every circumstance of importance connected with 

 them, especially the kind of manure, the nature of the soil, the elevation 

 above the sea, the dates of sowing and of ripening j the interval between 

 sowing and the first appearance of tlie grain above ground ; the rapidity of 

 its grow th, the date of the first appearance of the ear ; the nature of the 

 weather as to heat, moisture, or dryness, the range of the barometer and 

 hygrometer; the quantity of grain sown, and tiie amount of the return, 

 with the average weight of the ears, the average number of grains in each, 

 and the number of grains required to weigh half an ounce or an ounce 

 avoirdupoise. By these means a more accurate comparison can be estab- 

 lished between the harvests of Europe and the West Indies, and the im- 

 portant problems of the influence of climate, the maximum of temperature, 

 and the inferior limits of cultivation corresponding to the distance from the 

 equator, will be rendered less difficult of solution. 



Having thus discussed the question respecting the practicability of cul- 

 tivating the cerealia in our West Indian islands, and endeavoured to shew 

 the advantages to be anticipated from its adoption, it only remains to shew 

 that this is not mere theory, specious in appearance, but impracticable in 

 execution ; and this I am fully enabled to do, by a letter received from Dr. 

 Bancroft, the enlightened president of the .Jamaica Agricultural and Hor- 

 ticultural Society, dated "Kingston, Jamaica, July 9, 1835, of which the 

 following is an extract : — 



"As you express in your late letters a desire to be informed as to the 

 growth of various plants which you have been the means of introducing 

 here, I will now proceed to give you such particulars of several of them as 

 1 have been able to collect to the present time. 



VICTOniA WIIKAT. 



" The Jamaica Society have received samples from three or four different 

 places, of the wheat produced there, all of which appear to be of a favour- 

 able sort. 



