TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 131 



barley wheat : because this is a corn that can be most easily raised. 

 The other prizes to be allotted in gradation according to the 

 respective proportions of newly cultivated land and of corn deli- 

 vered : but no person should be entitled to any prize who shall not 

 have broken up five acres of uncultivated land, and delivered not 

 less than two hundred bushels of corn, the produce of his farm. 



I shall further recommend that the first six candidates for 

 prizes within the first twelve months from this date, in addition 

 to honorary prizes, should receive a remuneration equivalent to 

 the original cost of one plough and a pair of harrows. 



No expensive buildings would be required for the proposed 

 improvements, because the corn could be received into the Com- 

 pany's granaries in James's Town, or deposited in a small building 

 appropriated, or erected for the purpose at each farm, imme- 

 diately after it has been thrashed and cleaned. These operations 

 might be performed in the open fields, a practice which is usual 

 in India and in Egypt, and even in the colder regions in the 

 North of Europe.* 



But the advantages which the landholders would derive from 

 the appropriation of 700 acres to the culture of corn, would very 

 far exceed what has been stated. It must be recollected that the 

 St. Helena lands produce two crops a year, consequently, the 

 wheat and barley grounds might yield, annually, a second crop, 

 either of potatoes, mangel wurzel, cabbages, beans, or turnips, 

 and the like ; or of green fodder from corn, or from maize ; or 

 even, in some instances, a second crop of barley and oats, for 

 grain ; so that it seeuis possible to supply the proposed quantities 

 of flour and barley wheat by means of less than 700 acres — and, 

 therefore, it may be reasonably suppuS' ' that between 4 and 500 

 acres of corn land, would be oisnd sufficient, and the other two 



* Vide, Section III. 



