IIP 



164 



SUGAR-PLANTATIONS. 



and the same of horses, can be very well worked ; 

 and if the lands are good, that is, if there is a fair 

 proportion of low and high lands fit for the cul- 

 ture of the sugar-cane, such an estate ought to 

 produce a number of chests of sugar, of fifteen 

 hundred weight each, equal to that of the able 

 slaves. I speak of forty slaves being sufficient, 

 because some descriptions of work are oftentimes 

 performed by freemen ; thus, for instance, the 

 sugar-boilers, the person who clays the sugar, 

 the distiller, the cartmen, and even some others, 

 are very frequently free. Only a very small 

 proportion of the sugar will be muscavado, if 

 the business is conducted with any degree of 

 management. I have heard it said by many 

 planters, that the melasses will pay almost every 

 expense ; and that if rum is made, the proceeds 

 of the melasses are rendered fully equal to the 

 usual yearly expenditure. 



cenccs de chair, qui leur viennent sous la langue, qui les em- 

 p&hent dc pattre. Car les bceufs ne coupent pas Vhcrbe avec 

 les dents comme les chevaux, ils nejbnt que Venlortiller avec la 

 langue et I'arracher ; mats quand ils ont ces excrescences, qui 

 leur consent de la douleur, ils ne peuvent appliquer leur langue 

 autour dc Vherbe et deviennent maigres et sans force." — 

 Nouveau Voyage, &c. torn. iv. p. 179. 



Of this disorder I never heard, but there is one to which 

 horses as well as horned cattle are subject ; it is produced 

 by the animals feeding upon fields of which the grass is very 

 short. The flesh grows from the roots of the teeth towards 

 their edges, and at last renders it impossible for the beasts 

 to eat. 



