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INTRODUCTION. 



be reduced to the utterly ruinous condition in which they 

 are placed at present. 



The efforts of Lord Elgin, and others of the Colonial 

 governors, in promoting the formation of Agricultural 

 Societies, and otherwise encouraging the extension of 

 knowledge and improvement among the Planters, are 

 deserving of great praise; and in some of the Colonies 

 much progress has been made in effecting improvements, 

 and bringing to aid such implements of husbandry as tend 

 to reduce the necessity for manual labour, and such improved 

 methods of manufacture, as to ensure a more valuable 

 product. 



It is doubtless a subject of much wonder, that where it 

 has been shown by examples of this nature, how much can 

 be done to cheapen production, the general practice should 

 be so little altered, and, with the exception of a limited 

 number of spirited and intelligent individuals, the pro- 

 portion of whom have varied much in the different Colo- 

 nies, so little real progress should have been made. 



There is a consideration, however, which, I confess, has 

 tended very materially to diminish my own astonishment 

 at the fact. My experience has convinced me, that sufficient 

 regard has not always been paid to the qualifications of the 

 parties to whom the care of estates has been intrusted. I 

 am far from insinuating any thing against the probity, or 

 even the industry, of this class, but the fact is, something 

 more than these qualities, valuable and important as they 

 are, is needed to make a good Planter. The character of 



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