20 



CULTIVATION OE THE SUGAR CANE. 



gree, on the period of the crop being finished, on the time 

 occupied in preparing land for planting provisions for the 

 support of the slaves, or for sale, and, since the abolition 

 of slavery, in a very great measure on the number of 

 labourers who could be procured. 



From the completion of the operation of " holing/ 5 till 

 the canes completely covered the surface, constant weeding 

 was required, and large gangs were continually employed . 

 No other method of weeding than hand-hoeing was pos- 

 sible, from the peculiar formation of the angular holes 

 and banks. In fact, the whole system, from the breaking 

 up of the first clod of earth, to the rolling of the hogshead 

 of sugar into the waggon, appeared to have been expressly 

 contrived for employing the greatest possible amount of 

 human labour. The large amount of capital, therefore, 

 required for the purchase and support of slaves, or the 

 hiring of free labourers, rendered sugar planting, except 

 under peculiarly favourable circumstances, very far from 

 being so remunerative as is generally supposed. In evi- 

 dence of this, it will suffice to give the following extract 

 from a work published in 1768, a period generally supposed 

 to be the most flourishing in the page of the Planters 5 

 history, and which is always referred to as the " palmy 

 days 55 of the West Indies, &c. &c. 



The work to which I have alluded is entitled: — "A 

 Short History of Barbadoes, from its settlement to the 

 year 1767/ 5 and I quote a portion of it copied into the 

 "Barbadoes Agricultural Reporter" of June, 1847. — 



