PRESENT SYSTEM 01 CULTIVATION. 21 



w The plantations of Barbadoes, oppressed by taxes, im- 

 poverished by mismanagement, and loaded by the great 

 and necessary expenses of their management, yield not 

 now the profits they formerly afforded, notwithstanding the 

 high estimation Europeans may set upon West India 

 estates, yet it is an indisputable fact, that the landed 

 interest of Barbadoes, (that is, throughout the whole island. | 

 does not clear, communibus annis, four per cent., estimating 

 the principal at what land usually sells for. The destruc- 

 tion of the woods of that island, though it renders the 

 country more healthful, hath decreased the quantity of 

 rain, and hath been thereby detrimental to the Planters. 

 * * * To bear up against so many discouragements, 

 the utmost skill ought to be exerted in adjusting the 

 business of an estate, and though it is true that the want 

 of seasonable weather is sufficient to baffle the greatest 

 abilities of the Planter, yet it is equally true, that the 

 failure of these estates proceeds very frequently from 

 unskilful management, so that when some estates that are 

 well attended to yield a very profitable income, others 

 again, afford no profit. Indeed it may be said, with 

 justice and propriety, that an estate as often fails from 

 the unskilfulness of the proprietor, in not maintaining a 

 full quantity of stock upon it, as from the unskilfulness of 

 the steward, or manager. For the former, however, some 

 reasonable excuses may be made, as the want of credit, (a 

 circumstance always destructive to the good condition of a 

 T\ est India Estate.) or the want of opportunity to purchase 



