612 REPOET OF COMMISSIONER OP PISH AND FISHERIES. [8] 



inhabitants of this island as a cornmuuity were never wreckers. They 

 are skillful and fearless boatmen, good fishermen, and make capital 

 sailors on the small craft of the Bahamas. They still cling to the hope 

 that the removal of the United States tariff on salt will restore some of 

 the old-time prosperity, but there is doubt if such would be the case. 

 The trade has sought new channels and is hard to turn back ; and new 

 deposits of salt have been found in the United States. The use of 

 canned provisions for sea life, and the supply of armies and navies, has 

 lessened the demand for salt provisions, so that the future of the island 

 must depend on agriculture and stock raising. 



"Pineapple culture has been started of late years, the first cargo being 

 shipped to the United States about 1878. At present four or five car- 

 goes are shipped every year, and the prospect for success is good. Fiber 

 plants of several varieties grow readily and efforts are being made to 

 cultivate them. Some attempt is also being made to establish cocoanut 

 groves. The agricultural products of the island were never sufficient 

 to support the population, mainly because more attention was given to 

 salt raking as more remunerative. Supplies were obtained from Wat- 

 ling's and Long Islands. At present, with a reduced population, the 

 products are still insufficient to supply the people, though Indian corn, 

 Guinea corn, sweet potatoes, yams, peas, tomatoes, beans, okra, melons, 

 bananas, plantains, and oranges are produced. Cattle, sheep, and hogs 

 are reared to some extent and shipped to Nassau. Under a careful 

 system of agriculture these products mightbe largely increased, but un- 

 fortunately a method of working land on shares, established just after 

 emancipation, has educated the laborer into carelessness as to the 

 life of the soil. No manuring is attempted, and land is worked until it is 

 exhausted; then new tracts are cleared. A liberal use of fire in clearing 

 often does harm. The soilis light and mainly composed of vegetable mold 

 and is inj ured as to producing qualities by the passing over it of the flames. 

 This working on shares, with its inherent defects, is not the fault of the 

 colored people, but is rather a legacy from the old slavery times, wheu, 

 after emancipation, the freedman had no capital but his daily labor, 

 whilst the proprietors held the land. The only way to bring land and 

 labor together was to start this share culture, one-third of the prod- 

 uct going to the land owner. This system is, however, steadily 

 being displaced by that of the small freeholder. The colored man's 

 first ambition is to own his house and plot of ground. The descendants 

 of the slaves are therefore buying land from the government and the 

 descendants of the slave-owners, often becoming owners of the land 

 where their forefathers were held in slavery, so that at the present time 

 a large portion of the island is owned by the colored race. The soil 

 will give rich returns when carefully cultivated, and as a quiet home for 

 the small freeholder of the colored people it can hardly be equaled. 

 A bad year may come, caused either by drought or hurricane, but alittlo 

 forethought in the good years will render the owner of five or ten acres 

 of land more independent and comfortable than a laboring man can pos- 



