84 TRINIDAD. 



lunar conditions, lasts for several months, and is scarcely touched 

 by insects ; but whenever cut during the crescent of the moon it 

 soon crumbles into dust under their attacks : the same remark is 

 applicable to the timite and carat. 



The following considerations may supply, at least, a plausible 

 explanation of the above-mentioned phenomena. When a tree is 

 felled during the active circulation of the sap, it becomes more 

 liable to rot : this is a general and unexceptionable fact, being 

 founded on actual experience. Now, the question is this : Is not 

 the quantity of the sap greater during the increase of the moon, 

 and particularly at the full, when the quantity of light is greater 

 throughout the twenty-four hours, than at any other period ? 

 This could be ascertained by experiments. And should the sup- 

 position prove correct, the influence of the lunar phases would no 

 longer meet with opposition or ridicule from the incredulous, and 

 the fact once ascertained would be the means of establishing some 

 beneficial principles and rules of guidance in the felling of trees, 

 and concerning other agricultural operations. I may conclude 

 this subject by remarking that, whatever may be the diversity 

 of opinions or of doubts among the scientific and the educated 

 classes generally, this idea of lunar influence, not only on woods, 

 but on the process of planting, weeding, pruning, reaping, &c, 

 is held as an undoubted article of credence by the small pro- 

 prietors and cottagers; and, what is more to the point, this 

 belief is successfully carried out in the management of their 

 cultivations. 



The inexcusable waste of our best timber-woods is really 

 something much to be regretted. Whenever a clearance is made 

 for the purpose of cultivation the under-brush is cut first, and 

 then the larger trees; after a few weeks, the whole mass of 

 vegetation is destroyed by fire, the most valuable timber often 

 becoming the prey of that wholesale destruction. I wish, 

 therefore, to repeat what I have already advised in my essay on 

 the cultivation of the sugar-cane, viz., that proper precautions 

 should be taken for the preservation of the best forest- woods, 

 either by allowing them to stand over, or by felling them after 

 the clearance has been made by fire, the timber being afterwards 

 removed to some safe place for use or sale, as opportunity may 

 offer, or occasion demand. 



Animal Kingdom. — It is not my intention to give here a 



