MANUFACTURING RESOURCES. 



151 



I have mentioned that there is not a saw-mill in J amaica, 

 and yet there is an extensive market here for sawed lumber 

 of every description, and a finer variety of timber in its 

 forests than can be found anywhere else within an area of 

 equal dimensions. Table provisions too, as I have also 

 stated, are generally higher than in New York, and yet 

 the choicest varieties could be produced here for less than 

 half their cost in the New York market. The rarest kinds 

 of fruits grow wild, and rot under the trees that produce 

 them, which might be delivered in a sound and healthy 

 condition along the whole seaboard of the United States, 

 within six days from the time they were plucked, without 

 a particle of difficulty. There is no good reason why the 

 New York fruit market, in the severest months of winter, 

 should not abound with every tropical fruit in absolute 

 perfection, instead of being limited, as it now is, during 

 the winter season, to flavorless fruits plucked green to pre- 

 vent decay.* 



Then there is an infinite variety of preserves, of oils and 

 essences, that might be manufactured to an indefinite ex- 

 tent from the productions of the country. The fields are 

 overrun with a species of wild pine-apple, from which I 



* It has been only since the establishment of J. Howard & Son's Chagres line of 

 Steamers, which touch at Jamaica, that this prompt and easy communication with 

 the United States has existed. They average a little less than six days from New 

 York to Jamaica, and although they have net been running quite two years, have 

 already begun to revive our almost extinguished commerce with that island 



