168 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 
ground, and after they acquire their growth need no 
clearing beneath. 
A corps of boys and girls gather the limes as they 
fall to the earth —they are never picked — and carry 
them to the mill, where they are passed between two 
upright rollers, such as were in use when the sugar 
cane was raised there. The expressed juice is con- 
ducted to evaporating pans and boiled down to the 
consistency of molasses — to a density of one-tenth — 
and then run into fifty-gallon hogsheads for shipment 
to England. It was worth, in 1877, about twenty 
pounds sterling per hogshead, and has brought thirty 
pounds; and the plantation has yielded from seventy 
to eighty hogsheads in a season. 
The juice is used in making citric acid, and is 
shipped in its concentrated form to reduce freight. It 
would seem possible to further reduce this item of ex- 
pense by the complete crystallization of the juice. 
Such an experiment has been tried in Florida, though 
without complete success. There is not there a suffi- 
cient quantity of limes, though, from the experience 
of Dr. Imray, it would seem more profitable to 
raise limes than oranges. I do not, however, think 
the lime will flourish so luxuriantly, nor produce so 
much juice, in Florida, as in the rich soil of the 
West Indian islands. The trees are without fruit 
during two months only in the year — February and 
March — and at other seasons are fragrant with fruit 
in various stages of growth. 
One day, two or three weeks after my arrival, the 
priest of a neighboring village, Pére Michel, came 
over to the plantation for a little recreation, and 
gathered some of the people together for a partre 
