JAMAICA. 



BULLETIN 



of thb; 



BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 



Vol VI 



New Series,] JULY, 1899. p , VTT 



RICE IN JAMAICA. 



The following notes have been kindly furnished by Mr. 

 Walter Woolliscroft of George's Plain, Westmoreland. There is an 

 article on the cultivation of Rice in India in Bulletin No. 19 for Sep- 

 tember, 1890. 



" My idea in starting this industry was to persuade the people (prin- 

 cipally relying on coolies) to grow the rice and sell to me on the Cen- 

 tral Factory system at my mills, at a given price, that they might 

 participate in the profits. By interesting the people in this way I 

 thought a big business might in time be built up to the satisfaction of 

 all parties concerned, and as a help to the parish and country by a con- 

 siderable monev circulation. I make advances to the growers against 

 their cultivation, to enable those to plant that otherwise would not have 

 the meuns. For the season just passed the coolies, and some Creoles, 

 had a very fair cultivation here under a special scheme of arrangement 

 with myself. I did not mill as much of this year's rice as I had anti- 

 cipated, as I found the percentage of cleaned rice too poor, which no 

 doubt was the outcome of the long repeated pi mtings of old worn out 

 seed. The quantity I milled was about 1,200 bags, or 3,800 bushels in 

 the paddy. For this coming season I imported seed for the plants, and 

 I am hoping for a good crop of white rice at the end of the year. I am 

 also expecting several other varieties of seeds from India to make ex- 

 periments with, as to the most suitable for the lands and the market. I 

 am glad to say the start in the growth from the imported seed now 

 growing is favourable. A good deal of morass land here is suitable for 

 rice growing, but is not really first rate land for the purpose, as the 

 water cannot be put on and taken off the land, as it really should be, for 

 the cultivation, but all the same the planters are successful and can get 

 a return up to 75 bushels per acre. In a couple of years time I hope to 

 have land here under proper control as to water. The soil is good, deep 



