6 TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 



in the year 1731, and was completely successful. — Indigenous 

 trees sprang up spontaneously, and many parts soon became well 

 wooded, where no trees had been suffered to grow for many years. 

 It is therefore evident that the extermination of goats, and a 

 reduction in the number of sheep, cannot fail of being a most 

 important benefit to the whole island : and that, without this 

 previous step, there can be no hope of ever rendering it a valu- 

 able property to the Company: and with it, there cannot be a 

 doubt, from the success of trials upon a small scale, in various 

 parts of the island, that every species of improvement in agri- 

 culture and planting, might be carried on successfully and exten- 

 sively, and with infinite advantage to all parties concerned. 



I am perfectly aware of the arguments adduced in favour of 

 the goats — I have weighed them maturely, and I am thoroughly 

 convinced the whole are nugatory ; for it must be admitted that 

 a few sheep, imported by this Government from the Cape, would 

 lessen, or, perhaps, render unnecessary, any demands on the 

 planters for supplying the Hospital ; and that a large stock of 

 hogs, upon every farm, with the limited number of sheep before- 

 mentioned, would be no bad substitutes for the want of goat- 

 flesh. Hogs are also preferable to goats, on account of the great 

 quantities of valuable manure they would produce for meliorating 

 the lands. 



There is, indeed, no species of husbandry so well adapted to 

 St. Helena as that of hoggeries. — By their means, the most ex- 

 tensive produce in yams, potatoes, mangel wurzel, &c. might be 

 consumed on the farms ; which it would be impossible, in this 

 mountainous country, to carry to market, even if it were in de- 

 mand. For hogs there would also be a ready sale to the Company 

 (at the English price of pork), for the use of the garrison ; and 

 in supplying the other inhabitants : and the planters might feed 



