AGRICULTURE OF LEW CHEW. 31 



of a small worm, either in the culm, or, where that was eaten through, in the sheath of the 

 leaf. There was no indication of the joint-worm, which at present is so formidable in some 

 parts of the United States. 



The land for wheat is manured, as far as the manure will go. It is the coarse manure pro- 

 duced about houses and stables, and is worked into the ground in the p reparation. Small heaps 

 of it are deposited over the surface; which would be bad management, if not speedily incorporated 

 with the soil, which, probably, is done. In some places, a yellow substance is sown or scat- 

 tered over the ground, not unlike guano in color, and supposed at first to be marl, but, upon 

 examination, it appeared to be sand from the sea-shore. Marl is said to exist on the island, 

 and probably does. The yield is only moderate — upon an average, being about eight or nine 

 bushels per acre, judging by the eye while growing. Some lots were very inferior, not beyond 

 three or five bushels ; the better portions might extend to ten or twelve, and a very few to six- 

 teen or eighteen. This product is not such as the earlier growth would promise, for the heads 

 (spikes) are short, and the grain small. That examined was red wheat. 



Harvesting and the after management did not come under notice until it reached the mill. 

 This worked by hand. The stones are of good quality, about a foot in diameter, some five or 

 six inches thick, and the grinding surfaces regularly cut. An upright handle is inserted into 

 a hole near the outer margin of the upper stone by which it is turned, and tolerably fair un- 

 bolted flour is made. Being unbolted, it is brown-colored, but is very glutinous, and makes 

 light, sweet bread. Besides other uses to which wheat and rice straw may be applied, all the 

 shoes or sandals used upon the island are made of one or both of them. 



Barley (liordeum distichum), in small quantities, is cultivated in the same manner as wheat. 



Millet, of two or three kinds, is found here. One (holcus vel andropogon sorghum) is like 

 broom-corn, and is planted in rows, or grows in detached stalks ; the other two (setaria German- 

 tea? and 8. Italicaf) are either drilled or sown broadcast. The last named has a very large 

 compound head or spike, composed of numerous smaller ones, and ought to be very prolific. 

 None of them, however, appears to yield so much as the first named, when grown near Havana, 

 in Cuba. The stalks of this sort are used by the islanders for making torches or flambeaux. 

 They are bound together into a bundle of six or seven feet long and half a foot in diameter, 

 which will burn for an hour, and give good light to travel by, or for other purposes — for ex- 

 ample, fishing ; and lights are often seen along the shores at night. 



Sweet-potatoes, {battatus edulis,) of two kinds, the red and white, is the universal crop of the 

 island, both as to season and breadth of land. It answers to our Indian corn (maize) in the 

 southern and western States as the common food, and is always in season. The yield is by no 

 means what might be expected from the importance of its production, and from its being assid- 

 uously manured while young with liquid manure and compost from the before-mentioned holes 

 or reservoirs. This arises probably from the manner of planting, or rather of setting out the 

 vines, for the roots themselves are never planted. The land being ready, and a number of vine 

 slips at hand, a man with a small hoe reversed in his hand — that is, the hoe part next to his 

 body instead of outwards — passes quickly along, carrying two rows with him, by inserting or 

 pushing the hoe into the soft earth at intervals of nine or ten inches, raising the soil on its 

 point by drawing the hand backward, with the hoe-eye as a pivot, thrusting the slip under the 

 point with the left hand, allowing the earth to settle again as the implement is withdrawn, 

 and, finally, pressing it close at the next step with the foot. This is a speedy process of pro- 

 curing a growing potato-patch ; and it is kept alive and flourishing by the liquid manure, 



