ACCUMULATIONS OF LAND. 



105 



designate a country residence, and would be appropriated 

 to kitchen and ornamental gardening, parks and orchards, 

 but would not be reckoned a productive part of the pro- 

 prietor's estate. 



Out of one hundred and forty sugar estates in Ja- 

 maica, selected indiscriminately, the average size of each 

 was over 1,202 acres. There is no reason to doubt 

 that the average size throughout the whole island is still 

 greater. For example, eight estates, which have been 

 abandoned in the parish of St. Ann, contained in the aggre- 

 gate 10,330 acres ; one in St. Dorothy, and the only one, 

 contained 1,406 ; two in St. John, contained 2,960 ; two 

 in Vere, contained 3,860 ; seventeen in Clarendon, con- 

 tained 23,73*7; in Port Royal, one contained 1,780; in 

 St Davids, two contained 3,662 ; in St. Elizabeth, six con- 

 tained 18,010 ; and in Westmoreland, two contained, 

 3,889. 



Of course, estates like these, can only be owned and cul- 

 tivated by men of large capital, who are generally unwil- 

 ling to sell fragments of their property for the reasons I 

 have already suggested. Beside considering it unprofita- 

 ble to own a small estate, which they have to commit to 

 the expensive management of agents, they have an idea 

 that no money is to be made here except from sugar, rum 

 and coffee, articles which the negroes know how to pro- 

 duce as well as, or better, than the whites. If they at- 



