342 DICKSON ON ME. N. WILSON'S REPORT 



accomplished, and with one or two years' practice, there is 

 nothing to prevent Jamaica competing with any part of the 

 world of ten times the same extent. The inducement to do 

 so cannot be much greater than it is at present. I find, by 

 a statistical account, that the imports of flax into the United 

 Kingdom during 1853 amounted to 94,163 tons 14 cwt., and, 

 at the exorbitant price of 110 per ton to which the average 

 price of foreign flax has already risen, shows a sum of 

 10,358,007, which has been paid in cash for foreign flax fibre 

 last year ; and since the prohibition of Russian hemp into 

 European markets, prices and demand are increasing daily. 



"My motive for laying before you my views on this 

 subject, and preparing the samples of fibre for your inspection 

 is, that I am anxious to submit to you, and through you 

 to the agriculturists and people in general of this island, the 

 desirability and advantages in an individual and national, 

 point of view to be derived from ;the adoption and extensive 

 cultivation of fibrousjplants. As I have already mentioned, 

 the great scarcity, exorbitant price, and widely-spreading 

 demand for fibre throughout the world, render the materials 

 of which it is manufactured of much importance, particularly 

 in this country, where labour is scarce and dear, and 

 agriculture at its lowest ebb. Many of these fibres will be 

 found of superior quality, and produced in greater abundance 

 than any grown in temperate regions. 



" I have made a very moderate calculation of the produce 

 of an established field with plantains, which I find as 

 follows : 



An acre planted with suckers, at 10 feet apart, s. d. 

 will contain 435 plants, and the first year will 

 produce as many bunches of fruit, worth 6d. 10 17 6 



Each, stem will yield 1 Ib. of finely-dressed 



fibre, worth 6d. . 10 17 6 



Amounting, in all, to . 21 15 



