A WINTER VISIT TO THE EAIIA.MA ISLANDS. 223 



of their product and from their persisting in sending tlie same 

 qualities and varieties wliich they shipped twelve and fifteen year& 

 ago, all unconscious of the fact that during that time there has been 

 a marked improvement in the quality of the varieties cultivated — 

 so nuich so that the best of former times are discarded ; and also 

 of another important fact that, owing to the great progress in the 

 winter culture of the tomato at the north, the consumer has become 

 more exacting as to the ripeness of this vegetable and rejects those 

 that are packed green to ripen in the crate during transportation. 



The pineapple is pretty generally grown in this district, but some 

 peculiarity in the tenure of the land, which is more or less held in 

 common instead of in severalty, has served to discourage cultiva- 

 tion, men being unwilling to assume the risk and responsibility of 

 a plantation where they do not possess the individual ownership of 

 the soil. This would seem to be an object lesson in the social 

 problem that is now discussed and would indicate that these people 

 are not sufficiently trained in sociology to appreciate the advantages 

 of communism, nor so far advanced as to look backward. 



At Governor's Harbor was found a thriving settlement of per- 

 haps fourteen hundred people with about one-tenth Avhite. The 

 bulk of the population is concentrated in a rocky cay, of about 

 three hundred yards in length and one hundred yards in width, 

 which is joined to the main island by a sandy beach, forming the 

 harbor. Here the culture of the pineapple is conducted under the 

 best auspices ; the lands are owned by the planters and every 

 effort is made by them to improve the quality and increase the 

 quantity of their crop. Of the lands in these islands only on those 

 having a red soil will the pineapple grow with the greatest suc- 

 cess, although it may be grown of an inditferent quality on the 

 gray soil, which is more common. This red earth owes its color 

 primarily to the iron in its composition, and its greater fertility 

 to the decaj'ed algiie which were thrown up by the sea in those 

 remote cycles when these islands were forming. This decomposed 

 vegetable matter is rich in potash and is found in holes and 

 pockets, crannies and caves in the rock all through the islands 

 and under the name of cave earth, it is sought after and 

 applied to add fertility to the soil. Thus a limit is placed 

 upon the area of land which is most desirable for the cultivation of 

 the pineapple and good available land is correspondingly appre- 

 ciated, selling readily at from eighty to one hundred dollars per acre. 



