Agriculture in 1829.—ll. 
By William Hilhouse. 
(Further extracts from the MS. referred to on page 28, ante.) 
GRICULTURE—Such has been the bounty of 
nature to these regions, that the science of 
f—S Agriculture, in comparison with its European 
improvement, is still in its infancy. Little more is re- 
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quired than to plant in the rainy, and to reap in the dry 
season, and the Earth gives her increase without manure, 
the plow or harrow. It is true that the whole labour of 
the field is performed by manuai exertion, but when it is 
understood that this labour, in the only instances where 
machinery could be substituted, is only required every 
10 or 15 years, no machine would pay its expenses. A 
sugar estate once drained and properly planted for 12 or 
15 years, requires absolutely no other field labour than 
that of weeding and clearing the drains, ig and re- 
planting the sugar. 
It is the general custom when lands have been so long 
in cultivation as no longer to answer the expe¢tations of 
the Planter, to abandon them altogether and leave them 
fallow for several years in the meantime clearing away 
virgin forest lands, the produce of which is so great and 
immediate as to pay the expense in one year, and does 
away entirely with the necessity of manuring the old 
lands. It is plain this system cannot last for ever, as 
notwithstanding the great abundance of land in most 
parts of the colony, the diffused and extended nature of 
