Effects of Heat and Drought. i 5 3 



* rations of proprietors ; while the plantations of 

 Europeans in the neighbourhood, upon which far 

 greater solicitude and labour have been expended, 

 but which have been left fully exposed to the sun, 

 have long since passed into decay and been aban- 

 doned. 



Of late years, however, the planters of the low- 

 lying districts have had a series of stern, practical 

 lessons on this subject, and these have not been 

 without effect. I believe it will be found that by far 

 the larger number of the estates that have " gone 

 out," and been abandoned during the past thirty 

 years, have been situated in such districts. The 

 " Borer," " leaf disease," or some other enemy have 

 here been conspicuous, and are seen to be the imme- 

 diate cause of decay; but a grim suspicion has at the 

 same time been gaining ground that these have had 

 the way prepared for them by predisposition, and that 

 their visitations might possibly have proved less 

 fatal, had not the trees been left in a miserably weak 

 condition by periods of prolonged and unmitigated 

 drought ; in other words, that the " Borer," &c., have 

 perhaps only hastened that decay, which in any case 

 could not have been long deferred. 



It is very significant that whenever Jack-trees 

 are found, as is often the case, standing here and 

 there upon these abandoned properties, there will 

 also inevitably be found a surviving remnant of the 



