ON THE CULTIVATION OF COTTON IN BRITISH GUIANA. 245 



before giving it over to be " baled." Very much of the market value of 

 the cotton depends on this hand-cleaning. It is light, easy work, and may 

 be done in a drawing-room, and I daresay would give employment to 

 hundreds of women and children, who are now unaccustomed to out-door 

 work. 



The cotton was now packed by means of a press and a powerful screw 

 into bales about thirty inches square, each containing 330 lbs., so tight that 

 they might be floated out to boats in the offing without being penetrated by 

 the water. Having got our cotton ready for market, I must now go back 

 to the field, where we kept all hands busy picking the first crop which 

 lasted till Christmas, and sometimes later. In January, showers generally 

 fell and produced a new bloom on the trees ; in February and March the 

 second crop was gathered. This second picking, indeed, might have been 

 in some degree continued all the year round ; but it was necessary to prune 

 the trees down early in April, so as to prepare them for the crop in the' 

 September following. This was veiy rapidly done, a couple of men to one 

 acre, armed with sharp billhooks or cutlasses, trimmed down everything to 

 about breast height, and left the field as level as a billiard-table. This 

 process of pruning might be continued annually for as many years as you 

 liked, for the trees never died ; but after five or six years they got " woody ;" 

 and it was then always well to plant anew. 



It is not easy to give a very exact information on an important point in- 

 cotton-growing — viz., the yield per acre. One year we got 600 lbs. of- 

 cleaned merchantable cotton from every acre in cultivation, on an estate of 

 500 acres ; but this was considered something good. I do not think in the 

 worst years the yield ever fell below 200 lbs. an acre ; and, perhaps, it 

 would be safe to estimate the average yield of an acre of cotton in Demerara 

 at 900 lbs. of seed cotton, or 300 lbs. of clean cotton. This was the way 

 things were done five-and-twenty years ago ; but shotdd cotton cultivation 

 be re-introduced, of course it would be accompanied by steam and hand- 

 gear, and all the other appliances which modern science has devised to save 

 human labour. With the aid of the hand-gin, the fibre might be brought 

 to market without the labour of a single able-bodied man. No crop could 

 be so easily raised and prepared by our eottage farmers, for every member of 

 a household, down to children of eight or nine years of age, might perform 

 some part of the process. 



The cultivation of cotton in British Guiana is no novel experiment j 

 for, at the commencement of the present century, the whole cultivated 

 surface of the colony from end to end was a large cotton field. In 1803, 

 the export of Demerara and Essequibo alone (Berbice being then a separate 

 colony) amounted to 46,000 bales, weighing about 350 lbs. each. The 

 quality was celebrated above all others. Considering the advantages of 

 the salt alluvium which composes the soil, the perpetual source of fertility 

 in "warping" which the cotton-planters enjoyed, and that the plant is 

 indigenous and perennial in Guiana ; it only requires some care and. 

 attention in collecting seed, in order to produce a fibre having the colour,' 

 length, evenness, and strength of Sea Island samples. 



