222 TlMEHRI. 



the coast and the interior. The soil of this distri6l, which 

 scarcely boasts of over 200 acres of flat valley land, 

 is chiefly of clay and river stone, upon which the 

 bananas seem to thrive as long as the almost incessant 

 rains continue, but two weeks of dry weather is sufficient 

 to parch and wither them ; added to which the furious 

 gusts of wind that frequently rush through these moun- 

 tain gorges carry wholesale destru6tion before them ; 

 these are some of the difficulties the industry has had 

 to contend with. In St Thomas,' where soil, roads and 

 seasons unite to give the desired requirements, the in- 

 cessant gales and strength of the daily sea-breeze to 

 which this locality is exposed, lashes and destroys the 

 banana leaves, thereby injuring the plant and often laying 

 whole fields of bearing trees flat on the ground. 



St. Mary's is more or less exempt from either 

 mountain gusts and sea-breeze and is perhaps the most 

 favourable locality, being of a hot humid climate, but here 

 also serious drawbacks have to be encountered ; a poor 

 marly soil which burns readily in dry weather, and in 

 heavy seasons makes every road an impassable quag- 

 mire. 



The other parishes produce only in a few favoured 

 spots an ever varying quantity hardly worthy of con- 

 sideration, with perhaps the exception of St. Thomas-in- 

 the-Vale. 



It may therefore be asked how in the face of these 

 natural disadvantages the industry from its infancy to 

 manhood has exhibited such extraordinary development, 

 and to what can the secret of such unprecedented success 

 be attributed? Well, perhaps many circumstances co- 

 incide to produce this end, but undoubtedly the talisman 



