a 
147 
irregular lots among thick bush, and in the six months he has he 
the land Mr. Hance has made no effort to clear or arrange his planta- 
tion, but has confined himself to gathering the mature leaves. He 
assures me, however, that he intends at once to clear and plant out 
regularly, and has also promised to dispose of his surplus suckers to the 
lessees of Breezy Point. 
6. Mr. Hance has erected a stone store and dwelling combined, and 
has put up a 10 horse-power vertical engine, capable of working 5 or 
6 “ Raspadores.” At present he is only working one “Kennedy” 
machine, and the result is not satisfactory, though I have little doubt 
that this is greatly owing to the entirely unskilled labour at his 
command. During my visit, which extended over two d he was 
h 
machines at present in use must be equally extravagant, or else the 
l he 
to some extent at all events, as, at the next place visited, I ound 
numbers of plants of the Manila or “Silk Grass” (Furcraea cubensis) 
. The labour for Mr. Hance’s lands is, like that for Breezy Point, 
m 
h e 
. I had intended visiting the extensive though thinly populated 
settlement of Bottle Creek on North Caicos, where I am told there are 
numbers of Pita plants on private lands not yet worked, but the state 
of the weather made it dangerous to risk the passages of the reef, so, 
G 
brought us, I took my own open boat and, starting at 9 a.m. on the 
morning of the 9th instant, and sailing across the Caicos Bank, reached 
Kew Settlement on North Caicos at 11 p.m. the same day, a very hot 
day’s work under an August sun, across such shallow water, 
. ew there are no Pita plantations, nor is it desirable that there 
Should be, as the land is richer than in any other part of the Caicos, 
and is required for, and should be, the market garden of the other 
Settlements. This year has been one of such intense drought that the 
to lay out some fresh lots during this visit, as well as to survey sume of 
the roads to “ tie ” the previous surveys. o. 
10. I found at Kew about a couple of hundred Pita plants growing in- 
places choked up by bush, so I had a suitable spot cleared, and the 
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