APPENDIX. 



249 



in some few cases to great advantage; but it is not every 

 soil or situation that will admit the use of the plough, 

 some lands being much too stoney and others too steep. 

 And I am sorry I have occasion to remark, that a practice 

 commonly prevails in Jamaica, on j^roperties where this 

 auxiliary is used, which would exhaust the finest land in the 

 •world. It is that of ploughing, then cj-oss ploughing, round- 

 ridging, and harrowing the satne lands from year to year, or at 

 least every other year, without affording manure. Accordingly 

 it is found, that this method is utterly destruSlive of the ra-- 

 toon, or second growth, and altogether ruinous. It is in-- 

 deed astonishing, that any planter of common reading 

 or observation, should be passive under so pernicious a system^'' 



PAGE 215. 

 " Hitherto I have said nothing of a very important 

 branch in the sugar-cane planting : I mean the method 

 of manuring the lands. The necessity of giving even the 

 best W/ occasional assistance, is univerfally admitted', and the 

 usual way of doing it in the West Indies, is now to be 

 described. 



* " The manure generally nscd, is a compost, formed, 

 " First, Of the coal and vegetable ashes drawn from 

 the fires of the boiling-house and still-house. 



I i " Secondly, 



