INTRODUCTION 121 



have been made, but shortage of labour and the incidence of 

 disease discouraged further development. 



St. Vincent. 



St. Vincent, like Dominica, is mountainous and broken, but 

 its physical features are on a somewhat smaller scale (highest 

 elevation 4,000 feet) and communication is easier near the coast. 

 A great part of the interior is occupied by forest. The rainfall 

 is heavy, averaging about 100 inches at Kingstown, and more in 

 some districts, but this is largely offset by the lightness of the 

 soil, a combination which produces conditions of a rather hybrid 

 character, so that the island cannot be classed with those in 

 which the conditions are specifically favourable to limes and cacao, 

 or placed without reserve in those which are distinctly confined 

 to an open arable type of agriculture. Such conditions are well 

 suited to crops of a vegetative nature and to short-term flowering 

 crops which can endure or evade damage from rain. In the 

 former class arrowroot yields the principal product of the island, 

 with cassava as another starch plant supplementing it to some 

 extent. The cultivation of sugar-cane is local in character, 

 and difficulties of transport seem to preclude the centralisation 

 necessary for the appUcation of modern methods of manufacture. 

 Of the crops dependent on flowers cotton is grown to a very 

 large extent. The yields have been usually small, partly as a 

 result of disease induced by the heavy rainfall and partly as a 

 result of insect-borne diseases, but the high value of the product 

 and the returns of occasional fortunate years have enabled 

 the cultivation to continue, and in recent years the control of the 

 cotton stainer has considerably lengthened the crop period, 

 and increased the yield. Black-eye peas and corn as catch 

 crops, and pigeon peas and groundnuts as rotation crops are of 

 considerable importance. There are a few small areas of cacao, 

 but no citrus cultivations. There are small but well-established 

 coconut groves on alluvial lands, and some new plantations 

 are being tried elsewhere ; in one case on some 1,000 acres of the 

 old sugar land of the Carib country, devastated in 1902 by the 

 volcanic eruption. 



Baebados. 



Barbados lies outside the chain of islands of volcanic origin ; 

 its surface rock is coral limestone except in the north-east corner, 

 where the underlying estuarine and oceanic beds of sandstone, 

 clay, and chalk are exposed. Practically the whole island is 

 cultivated, and the fields are mostly level or on gentle slopes, 

 the land rising by abrupt steps in successive long and rather 

 wide terraces up to the central maximum of 1,100 feet. There are 

 no streams on the limestone ; the fields are drained centripetally 

 into sump wells situated in the hollows. The soil is heavy and 

 retentive, and requires frequent thorough cultivation to maintain 

 a good tnth. The average annual rainfall is about 60 inches. 



