CHAPTER XV. 



Manufacturing Resources. 



While I am fully convinced that by the subdivision of 

 estates, and the division of labor, the aggregate product of 

 sugar, or coffee, or cotton, or anything else, might be 

 greatly increased, I am far from saying that they would 

 be, for I greatly doubt whether other produce might not 

 be made more profitable. Whether they would or would 

 not, depends upon facts, about which I am not fully 

 informed. The state of the market, the character of the 

 soil and climate in different localities, the facilities of trans- 

 portation, and many other influences, would determine the 

 uses to which the farmer would put his land, and sugar, 

 and coffee, and cotton would only be planted, where they 

 could be grown more profitably than anything else. 



My impression is, that capital and labor would be 

 diverted into an infinite variety of new channels, which have 

 hitherto been comparatively unexplored. The -island has 

 never manufactured anything but the produce of the sugar 

 cane, and its mechanical resources are entirely undeveloped. 



