194 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



his patieric6 apparent, his mode of inflicting punishment mild. He should be respectful to white people ; 

 suffering no freedoms from those under him, by conversation or trifling puerile conduct. It is rare, in- 

 deed to find this mass of perfection in a negro ; but you obtain a combination of most of these virtues ; 

 and 'as to petty vices, always inherent in some measure in human nature, they must be looked over, when 

 not too full of evil. The junior drivers likewise, if possible, should be men of this description ; but having 

 a good master over them in the head driver, they will be induced to behave tolerably. {Roughley, 79. 82.) 



1178. The laborers on a mgar Jamaica estate consist almost entirely of slaves, Creoles, natives, or 

 Africans, with some free blacks and men of color or mixed progeny. The overseers are almost always 

 whites, and sometimes also the head drivers. 



1179. The buildings required for a sugar plantation are numerous and extensive. In a centrical situation 

 by a stream or other supply of water, " an extensive .set of works, including an overseer's house, hospital 

 or hot-house, mill-house, large mill-yard, mule stable, trash or fuel house, cooper and carpenter's shops 

 boiling and curing houses, a distilling house, tanks, cisterns, &c. should be built and so arranged as all 

 to be seen from -the overseer's house. 



1180. The overseer'' s house, it would appear, must be both a comfortable and elegant building. It should be 

 built compact and convenient, not over roomy; and raised sufficiently high from the foundation, with 

 good masonry work, to admit of suitable stores underneath, to keep all the plantation stores and supplies 

 in. It should be placed .so, that all the works can be seen from it, and not far from the boiling-house. 

 The rooms should be all on the same floor, and closely boarded with seasoned stuff". Each white man 

 should have a small bed-room to himself, with a glazed sash window on hinges, and a shutter to it. The 

 bed-rooms should be eleven feet by nine each, of which five should be in every overseer's house on a sugar 

 estate, leaving the overseer's room somewhat larger than the book-keeper's. A large well-covered 

 piazza, with comfortable glazed windows, (to rise and fall occasionally,) will answer all the purpose of a 

 dining and breakfast hall, and for walking in. Large centre halls in such houses are of very little use, 

 take up a great deal of room, are very expensive, and make the house large, without any real convenience. 

 A small back piazza, made comfortable by moving blinds with stops, would be proper for the servants. 

 I think every dwelling-house on a plantation should have a small fire-place in it, with a well-raised 

 chimney, for fire occasionally in damp weather to be made in ; it will be wholesome and preservative. The 

 lire-place should be in an extreme angle of the dining piazza, and the overseer's cooking-room, washing- 

 room, &c., should be apart from the house, though not far off, conveniently fitted up, and of moderate 

 size The httle appendages of a hog-stye, fowl-house, &c., to raise small stock in, are easily built at a 

 small expense. {lb. 184, 185.) 



1181. A lime kiln is an essential building for a sugar estate, a considerable quantity of lime being wanted 

 to neutralize the acid of the expressed juice of the cane.' A fixed kiln at the works is best, as what lime is 

 wanted can then be burnt at any time ; but it often happens that temporary kilns, composed of layers of 

 stones and wood, with a funnel in the centre, are made in the woods, lighted and burnt, and the produce 

 carried home. Such a kiln, twenty feet in diameter, and ten or twelve feet high, will produce lime enough 

 to make sixteen hogsheads of sugar. (76. 314.) 



1182. The houses of the slaves are grouped together on some estates, and scattered in different places in 

 others, generally on the outskirts of the estate. They are low cottages of one or two apartments, with 

 open sheds, and pieces of garden ground of from one-eighth to one-quarter of an acre attJiched to each, 

 and some of them are kept neat, and have a clean, not uncomfortable appearance ; they are generally 

 built with stone, and covered with shingles. 



1183. Every building composing the works of a sugar estate should be composed of the most substantial 

 materials, durable, hard, well-seasoned timber, well put together, and supported by the best mason 

 work. They should be shingled instead of being thatched, and kept free from the hungry, destructive 

 ant, who, by his mighty though diminutive efforts, will level a substantial building to the ground 

 in a short time. Poisoning by arsenic is the most expedient mode of getting rid of them, as the living 

 will feed on the dead, so that the whole nest, (by devouring one another,) are thus killed. {lb. 194). 



1184. The live stock of a sugar estate are chiefly oxen, spayed heifers, and mules, as beasts of labor : the 

 overseer generally keeps a riding horse, as does the resident agent or proprietor if there are such ; and 

 there are pigs and poultry, with some sheep for consumption. The cattle and mules are kept on the 

 savannahs or open waste pastures, and on Guinea grass {Panicum) and Scotch grass {Panicum hirtellum, 

 fig.199 a.) on which they are folded, tethered, or soiled. Mares and Spanish or Maltese jackasses are 



kept for breeding the mules ; and the cattle are in general reared on the estate. A jack should be from 

 ten to twelve hands high, and either stubbled or put into a close pasture, with high, firm walls and gates 

 to it. He should be regularly corned once a day at least ; should have pure water to drink, and not 

 suffered to cover more than one mare daily. The mares should be put to him in season, and attended by an 

 experienced groom. A proper covering pit should be made for the mare to stand in, with a surmounting 

 stage for the jack to stand on. They should be daily taken and led out to exercise, kept well cleaned, and 

 bv no means allowed to stay out in bad weather, but comfortably stabled, foddered, and littered. 

 (lb. 141, 142.) 



1185. The agricultural operations of Jamaica are for the most part performed by the 

 'manual labor of indigenous slaves, but natives are also imported from different parts of 

 the coast of Africa. ITie soil is seldom either ploughed or dug, but generally worked 

 with the hoe pick. The spade the negroes are avs'kward at using ; and they are not less 

 expert at the plough. White ploughmen have been imported by some cultivators; but 

 the prejudices of the overseers, the awkwardness of the oxen and negro drivers, and the 

 effects of the climate in wearing out the spirits of the ploughman, are said to have dis- 

 couraged its use. Long in 1774, Dr. Stokes, (Young's Annals of Agr. xviii. 148.) and 

 others, have tried the plough, and strongly recommend it as doing the work better and 

 lessening the necessity of having so many slaves. Roughley, however, who was " nearly 

 twenty years a sugar planter in Jamaica," (Jamaica Planter s Guide, 1823.) is decidedly 

 against it, whether drawn by negroes or cattle ; both because it does not do the work so 

 well as the hoe, and because of the difficulty of getting ploughmen and properly trained 

 beasts. It is probable, however, that necessity may ultimately lead to the use of the 

 plough drawn by oxen, and that the operative man in the West India islands will in 

 time assume the same attitude as in Europe.^ 



1186. The agricultural productions of Jamaica of the greatest importance are 

 sugar, indigo, coffee, and cotton. The several species of grain cultivated in this 

 island are maize or Guinea corn, yielding from thirty to sixty bushels an acre ; and 

 various kinds of calavances, a species of pea ; and rice, but in no great quantity. 

 The island abounds also with different kinds of grass, of excellent quality : the arti- 

 ficial grass, called " Scots grass" (Panicum hirtellum, fig. 199 a.) grows sponta- 

 neously in most of the swamps and morasses of the West Indies ; and it is so pro- 



