MOUNTAIN GARDENS. 151 



MOUNTAIN GARDENS. 



The provision-grounds of the negroes present an 

 interesting object to a stranger. As I have said, 

 many of the black peasantry inhabiting the lowlands, 

 have their gardens on the summits of the mountain 

 (vv^here the soil is more productive), as well as around 

 their dwellings. The mode of proceeding is as fol- 

 lows. The negro having chosen his spot, in the un- 

 touched forest, hires it from the owner of the land, 

 at a certain yearly rent per acre. He then cuts 

 down the timber, piles the logs, and in a dry time 

 sets fire to the piles, much in the same manner as in 

 the United States and Canada: this is called "burn- 

 ing-over " the piece. It now presents a very unpre- 

 possessing aspect ; the large charred and blackened 

 stumps stand as thick as tombstones in a churchyard ; 

 the bare ground is strewn with half calcined stones, 

 unrelieved by a green leaf ; and great heaps of ashes 

 lie here and there with fragments of burned wood, 

 the only remains of the giant trunks that once reared 

 their verdant crowns to the skies. 



If we visit it in a few months, however, how 

 different is the scene ! A large portion of the ground 

 is seen to be occupied by that indispensable West 

 Indian root, the Coco [Colocasia esculenta)*, whose 



* The term " Coco " is applied in the West Indies to three very 

 distinct kinds of vegetable productions cultivated for the food of man. 

 The first is the Cocoa, which is prepared from the seeds of the 

 Chocolate tree, and forms a well-known beverage. The second is 

 the equally familiar Cocoa-nut, the fruit of a Palm ; the third is the 

 thick farinaceous root of an Arum, mentioned in the text. 

 H 4 



