PREFACE. Vll 



finest lands to be found in any British dependency, produce an 

 annual export value (in mahogany) of only 50,000. This sum 

 is attained in Jamaica in the export value of such a " minor 

 product ". as oranges. 



That the export value of oranges from Jamaica is equal 

 to that of mahogany the great staple industry of British 

 Honduras is a new and somewhat startling fact. It serves, 

 however, to show what a change is gradually taking place in the 

 development of the West India Islands by means of the fruit 

 trade with America. 



No other group of our Colonial possessions is, geographically, 

 so favourably placed as the West Indies for the development 

 of small industries. Within three days of New Orleans, and 

 within seven days of New York, they may be termed the 

 Channel Islands of the United States and Canada, supplying 

 tropical fruits and raw tropical produce to a population number- 

 ing over fifty million souls. Within eighteen or twenty days 

 of England and the Continent, they have markets for the larger 

 and more permanent staples, placing them at any time inde- 

 pendent of the States, and serving to keep up their connection 

 with the mother country. 



Wisely and generously regarded, the development of small 

 industries, and especially the fruit trade in the West Indies, 

 should lead, little by little, to the building up of a more whole- 

 some as well as a more permanent prosperity, than anything 

 which existed during the days of slavery. 



The fruit trade has initiated a system of cash payment on 

 the spot, which is fast extending to other industries ; the result 

 is, that the cultivator and the planter are placed at once in 

 possession of means for continuing their cultural operations, and 

 for extending them to their fullest extent. As a case in point, 

 I may mention that the development of the fruit trade in 



