SUGAR CULTURE. 



275 



average, are needed; consequently 440,000 boxes 

 would require only 66,000 slaves. If to these were 

 added 36,000, which are required in Cuba, in the 

 cultivation of coffee and tobacco, we find that of 

 the 260,000 slaves now there, barely 100,000 suffice 

 for the three great staples of colonial industry, upon 

 which is based its active commerce. On the other 

 hand, the tobacco is cultivated almost entirely by 

 whites and free blacks. I have said elsewhere, and 

 I base my statement on the very respectable 

 authority of the Consulado of Havana, that one- 

 third part (32 per cent.) of the slaves live in the 

 cities and large towns, and, therefore, take no part 

 in the rural labors. If therefore, we take into con- 

 sideration : 1st, the large number of children not 

 yet able to work, scattered over the plantations; 

 and, 2d, the necessity of employing a much larger 

 number of negroes on the small and distant planta- 

 tions, in order to produce an equal amount of sugar 

 to that produced on the great plantations, we shall 

 find that of 187,000 slaves in the rural districts, at 

 least one-fourth part, or 46,000, produce neither 

 sugar, coffee, nor tobacco. 



I have stated that before the year 1762, Cuba 

 contributed no more to commerce than is now done 

 by the provinces of Veragua, Panama, and Darien, 

 which, of the Spanish- American provinces, are the 



