BOOK III. CHAP. Vn. 68i 



rci^ly from the place of growth. The encouragement was politic ; 

 yet this article does not feem as yet to be cultivated in our colonies to 

 ibch extent as to furnlfh the home-demand ; for the importation of 

 French indigo is ftill permitted. Whence it feems, that, for want of 

 employing more of our lands in this article, the market for fiioar 

 will be glutted, and that for indigo not fufficiently flocked. 



In 1672, Jamaica had fixty indigo-works, chiefly in Vere, which 

 produced fifty thoufand pounds weiglit per annum. If, therefore, it 

 had not met with fo fatal a check, we may judge, from this flou- 

 rifhing ftate of it at fo early a period, that, in the courfe of twenty 

 or thirty years, it would have yielded five or fix times as much, and 

 gone on increafing, in proportion to the home-demand, to the pre- 

 lent hour ; by which the nation might have fiived fome millions of 

 money. At prefent it is cultivated here by about twenty different 

 fettlers, moft of whom refide in the parifh of St. Thomas in the 

 Eaft. The medium produce, in Jamaica, of one cutting is fifty pounds 

 weight per acre. Few, who have cultivated it here in the lowlands 

 of late years, gained more than two cuttings, the firft in July, the 

 fccond in Auguft, for want of feafons. In the wet, rich lands of the 

 interior parts, it is probable, four or five cuttings a year might be got, 

 as in Hifpaniola ; where the French cultivate it on frefii wood- lands, 

 to fterilize and prepare them for fugar, repeating the cut every fix 

 weeks, five times, or even oftener, in the year. And this kind of 

 foil feems the beft-adapted, as it unqueftionably produces an indigo 

 of the bed quality, and worth feveral fhillings per pound weight 

 more than what is made from poorer foils, or in fituations which have 

 not feafbnable rains. Hence, it will not fucceed well in the lower fa- 

 vannah lands of Jamaica, whofe ftaple is rich enough, but not fuffi- 

 ciently watered. 



3. Coffee, — Coffee. 

 This fiirub, it is needlefs to mention, was originally brought from 

 Arabia Felix, where it is cultivated, between the hills, in a dry foil, 

 and watered frequently by artificial channels from rivers, cut on 

 purpofe. It grows luxuriantly in all the inland parts of Jamaica j 

 which are therefore, with great reafon, in general, thought too rich 

 and wet for it. The drier the foil, and warmer the fituation is, the 

 better will be tbe berries ; they will be fmaller, and have lefs pulp : 

 Vol. III. 4S and 



