

CHAPTER I 

 INTRODUCTION 



IN the first part of this book, the elementary principles of 



agriculture have been considered, and the student should 



i now be well acquainted with plant life and its needs, and 



j with the way in which Nature works to enable man to 



! produce the fruits of the earth for his own use. 



The application of the principles of agriculture to the 

 ! various cultivations undertaken in tropical countries, will 



now be considered, and some hints on the preparation of 

 | the produce for the market will be given under each head. 



The great fault hitherto committed by many tropical Mixed culti- 

 planters, has been the confining of their attention to one va 

 kind of cultivation on their land. If several different crops 



- were taken off alternately, as in a system of rotation, or 

 grown in different parts of the land where the soil and 

 climate prove suitable, the planter would be in a much 

 better position than he is now, for he would not, as it were, 

 "have all his eggs in one basket." There is scarcely a spot 

 on any estate, whether large or small, in the West Indies, 

 that is not capable of giving remunerative returns from 

 some plant or other, and the successful planter will adapt 

 his cultivation to his soil, and not make the futile 

 attempt to grow crops on land and in climates quite 

 unsuitable to them. 



In all planting operations, there must be no carelessness, 



