FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 207 



grass, but on the other hand, I was told most 

 emphatically by a lady, whose husband breeds 

 cattle on a large scale in the Santa Cruz district, 

 not far from Santiago, that ticks are as abundant 

 there as ever they were, and that they are now, as 

 always, the ruin of both horses and cattle. 



The cattle on these pens, though of the first 

 importance, do not monopolise the owner's capital 

 and attention to the entire exclusion of agriculture, 

 for a few thoroughbreds are raised, and pimento 

 is grown and dried on barbecues for the market. 

 During my stay there was a meeting of pimento- 

 growers, at which, I believe, something was done 

 in the way of fixing the price of a product notori- 

 ously subject to artificial fluctuations. Pimento, 

 better known as allspice, is grown for the European 

 market practically nowhere else in the world, 

 though Mexico and one or two other countries in 

 those latitudes produce small quantities of inferior 

 grade. Spices, however, are a poor source of 

 wealth in these days, and even with this monopoly 

 the island cannot reckon on any serious revenue 

 from this vegetable. Tea of moderate quality is 

 grown in the island, and Blue Mountain coffee of 

 such exquisite aroma that the whole is exported, 

 bought up in advance each season, and you cannot 

 taste a cup of it in Jamaica. Sugar, cocoa, tobacco, 

 are all grown in the larger pens, if only in small 

 quantities for home consumption, for there are few 

 plants in the tropical catalogue that the sun and 

 soil of Jamaica will not conspire to produce. The 

 life of the pen-keeper is the ideal one for young 

 men who care nothing for the artificial luxury of 

 great cities and revolt from the office-desk. It is 



