TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 18] 



taking up the seed ; the second, carrying it to the store-room ; 

 the third, returning it to the field ; the fourth, opening the fur- 

 rows ; the fifth, putting in the seed ; and the sixth, covering 

 the seed. 



Wlien all these circumstances are duly considered, it must be 

 admitted that the saving of labour in the culture of ptoatoes on 

 the island of St. Helena, would be immense ; and consequently 

 that this essential article of food, for man and cattle, ought to he 

 in the greatest abundance, and at very moderate prices ; particu- 

 larly as St. Helena tenants are neither subjected to high rents, 

 nor to poor-rates, nor to taxes of various descriptions, which bear 

 hard upon English farmers. 



These observations on potatoes will shew how little labour is 

 required to bring the new lands into cultivation for corn ; for 

 after enclosing, and paring, and burning the sward, spreading 

 the ashes, and twice ploughing and harrowing, the furrows are 

 opened with the plough, the seed dropped in them, and then 

 covered. These last operations are, in fact, a third ploughing; 

 which will bring the land into the finest state of pulverization ; 

 and no further trouble, as I have already noticed, will be recjuired 

 for the two or three following crops, than to take them up with 

 the plough about three weeks after the haulm has fallen ; leaving 

 a sufficiency of small potatoes for seed. After the third or fourth 

 crop is gathered, the land may be sown with barley-wheat, with- 

 out danger from grub or other insects. This process has been 

 successfully pursued at the Plantation-house farm : but if corn 

 l)e attempted as a first crop, there is great risk of losing it by the 

 ravages of the grub : this is the case in other countries as well as 

 at St. Helena. 



You must have observed, from the printed papers I occasionally 

 transmitted to you whilst at Madras, that the main objects of my 



