IN THE VITI ISLANDS. JSS 
were about thirteen inclies bighj I took my hoe, and reacLiJig over the 
phmt, loosened a clod of soil, and, without breaking, turned it over 
toicards the centre of the first or seed hill. This process prevented 
the weeds for a long time from growing immediately around the 
plants, and the turned-up soil, gradually seasoning and ciiimbluig 
away, allowed them to make nice roots. Afterwards^ however, when I 
saw native cotton going on well without care or anything being done 
to it, I thought I made myself unnecessary trouble, and omitted the 
above mode of cultivation; but since then I have never again raised 
such trees as the first. This is what made me go to work with the 
spade. The two small old plantations I cut down to stumps in Ja- 
nuai-y last, and they are now all in blossom again. Those same two 
plantations, about six acres together, brought in a little more than four 
tons last year, and I dare say that just as much rotted on the trees 
before it was ripe, which bad result ao:ain I believe I can trace back 
to tcant of cultivation. I am perfectly satisfied that an acre of good 
land will yield from 2000 to 2500 pounds of cotton in seed. Since 
I saw that weeding alone would not do, and digging with the kind of 
labourers we have here is slow work, I have -written by Capt. Eobin- 
son for t\vo broken -in plough-horses and a set of ploughs, and for a 
man to drive them. The natives are growing independent, and dis- 
satisfied with the payment they get. The Tokutoku natives trj^ to 
monopolize all the work going on ; they don*'t care to clear any more 
land for me, thinking that there is enough already to give them em- 
ployment, and anybody else they won't suffer to work ; and if I go to 
the consul and complain of their interference, the poor man grows 
very red in the fi\ce, deploring his inability to do anything, and telling 
you, by way of a wind-up, that he only spent £5. 7«. Zf^/. Govern- 
ment money last twelvemonth, and that he found paper, ink, and wafers 
himself out of his own pocket. The loose, black-seeded cotton is iu 
great favour, both with traders and planters, but the credit I tnke in 
a great measure to myself. *I had some of that same cotton with \\ 
inch (good measurement) length of staple. Mr. Burt, at Naitasiri, is 
proving himself a very industrious Yankee, and will have off about ten 
acres, an unusually large crop, at least by all appearances. He had 
some very fine cotton last year, though only a small quantity, the 
plantation being too young; he is now clearing more land, and will 
strive hard to get fifty acres in by degrees. 
