The Crown Lands of British Guiana. 341 



<f : . > . . . — 



at Christianburgh, the latter seleflion ot dupes is found 

 to work easier and gives less trouble with better results. 

 The term usually applied to this method of busi- 

 ness is " Flooring" and it is looked upon as praiseworthy 

 and indicative of genuine aptitude for the healthy con- 

 du6l of the wood-cutting profession ; it is more or less 

 neatly done according to the mental development of the 

 operator. AH wood-cutters who have any pretentions 

 to doing good business are married ; the wife being 

 found extremely useful for transacting some of the more 

 delicate parts of the business in which it might not be 

 prudent for the husband to engage. I have written 

 on the foregoing points as I have solidly experienced 

 them and also with the grim satisfa6lion of seeing a 

 well merited end fast approaching to such a deplorable 

 state of affairs. 



The labour system on wood-cutting grants is rotten in 

 toto. On a grant of say 300 acres in the Demerara river, 

 there is not more than an average of 10 men employed, and 

 they work in such a desultory way that it is only for a few 

 days when hauling is going on that anything like an ap- 

 proach to the complement of men necessary for profitable 

 work is employed. The accompanying estimate of days 

 labour on a 300 acre grant yielding 20,000 cubic ft. will 

 show you that a clean sweep of the grant could be made 

 in about 212 working days with 40 men — the number I 

 would deem absolutely necessary for profitably working 

 such a grant. I have carefully prepared this table tor you 

 from pra6lical data which I have colle6led from time to 

 time, as opportunity offered it. 



Three years it will then be admitted is ample time for 

 any man who is really working, to clear a 300 acre 



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