50 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [July 2, 1888. 
" ov ernment is not likely to adopt the language 
01 Napoleon's Police Dictator by responding : 
" We do not see the necessity." In a large pro- 
portion of cases, however, we believe, that chena- 
ing is not only adverse to the public interests, 
but to those of the improvident and lazy culti- 
vator, who is thus enabled to neglect the duty, 
while he, his family and the community lose the 
benefits of systematic cultivation of rice, edible 
roots and fruit-bearing trees. — Before closing this 
article, we feel bound to say, that, while adhering 
to our position that the clearance of the hill and 
mountain forests, so far as it has gone, has im- 
proved instead of injuring the climate, many of 
the planters acted in antagonism to their own 
future interests and those of their successors, when 
they made a clean sweep of the forest on their 
estates and did not plant trees in compensation 
along roads and paths and on t.undus (patches) 
of their land not suited for ordinary cultivation. 
This a mistake which, we trust, the tea planters 
who " open " in forest will not repeat. We also 
hope that tree planting will receive due attention 
on estates already opened, and on which timber 
and firewood have been or are fast being ex- 
hausted. While we do not believe in the benefit 
of large expanses of unbroken natural forest, we 
have a vivid sense of the value of trees properly 
cultivated and scattered in lines and groups over 
the land. We hope to recur to the interesting 
subject. 
+ — . : 
LETTEKS FEOM JAMAICA : — No. 23. 
(Written for the "Ceylon Observer,") 
THE WEATHER — STOCK AND CROPS — LEGISLATIVE COUN- 
CIL — RAILWAY EXTENSIONS — LAW COURTS — JURORS — 
HOTELS — KINGSTON HARBOUR — JAMAICA PROVERBS. 
Blue Mountain District, Jamaica, 
For packet of 25th April 1888. 
In my last letter I observed that Decem- 
ber had been an unusually dry month. This 
fine weather has continued to the present time, 
insomuch that there has been an actual drought, 
especially in the southern parishes, where, I learn, 
on some of the " pens " cattle are dying for 
want of water. It is strange that, while England 
and other northern countries have experienced such 
a severe and prolonged winter, we in the tropics 
should have had such a long spell of splendid 
weather, and it is to be hoped it may not be 
followed by excessive rains and floods when the 
rain does come. 
The dry weather has so far been most beneficial 
for the highest coffee fields in the Blue Mountain 
district, which often suffer from wind, cold, and 
damp, and if all the good that has been done is 
not undone by untoward weather, it should bear 
a fine crop next year. As to present crops, the 
lower and medium elevations have done remark- 
ably well, and the coffee berries are large and of 
fine quality. But our friend "Quashie" is not 
likely to* do as well this coming crop as he did 
last, for not only did he get excellent prices for 
his coffee — (when he was wise enough to sell in 
the cherry, for those who pulped and kept it were, 
of course, losers by the sudden fall in the market 
early in the year), — but had plenty of wet weather, 
which is now so much needed at the lower 
elevations. It is doubtful now, if the blossoms 
can come to much good unless we soon have 
sufficient rain : I heard of one lowlying pro- 
perty which had not got a leaf left upon the trees, 
yet the owner said, so enduring is coffee, and as 
the drought acts as a species of wintering, that 
if rain came in time the trees would blossom and 
he would get a fair crop ; let us hope for his sake 
AS well au lor the eettlerB, raja may not be far of. 
Our Legislative Council has assembled for its 
short spring session : the Governor was able to 
announce the revenue had " so far " done better 
than was expected by some £2G,000. Several useful 
measures are to be brought forward, and the question 
of the extension of the railway to the north side 
will no doubt be discussed ; the preliminary surveys 
are completed, the two extensions, one to Port 
Antonio, the other to Montego Bay, are calculated 
to cost over one million pounds. It is therefore im- 
probable that our timorous Legislative Council will 
embark in such an expensive enterprise, and bor- 
row such a large sum ; but until the country is 
better opened up, and transport shortened and 
cheapened, I oannot see how the colony can go 
farther ahead. Additional taxes would, of course, have 
to be imposed, to pay interest on the guaranteed 
loan, but on the other hand the money would, in 
large measure, be spent locally, and much benefit 
the labouring classes in the districts through which 
the iron horse was about to pass, and in some 
of those parishes the peasantry are very badly off, 
and have to be content with very low wages. 
Another item that is coming before the Council is 
the payment of Supreme Court jurors' board, 
lodging and mileage as is done in Ceylon. I re- 
presented the matter to the Governor, who evi- 
dently saw the justice of the plea, and sent a mes- 
sage to the Council on the subject. Lately, by a 
new law, the Supreme or Circuit Courts, as they are 
called here, are now held in the principal town of 
each parish, so the distances to be travelled wil 
not be so great, nor will the sessions last as many 
days as when held at Kingston. Still the business 
man, the planter, the artizan, the cultivator, the 
shopkeeper, who have nolens volens to serve, are 
entitled not to be losers by the transaction ; they 
lose enough as it is by the loss of time and proper 
supervision of their work, and I trust the Council 
will see it in that light, and grant a fair allowance. 
I was hauled off to Morant Bay 23 miles distant 
for the first session of the new Court ; there is now 
no hotel or lodging-house in that town ; so, had it 
not been for the kindness of friends who live near, 
I might have been in a fix as to quarters. Besides 
there were only three cases which were got through 
in one day ; but fancy 32 men having been sum- 
monsed to accomplish this mighty work, and being 
put to the inconvenience and loss of leaving 
their homes at their own expense. It cannot be 
said I have been selfish in endeavouring to get 
these allowances, for my age from next year will ex- 
empt me from again serving my country as a 
juror. Our new Kesident Magistrates law came 
into operation on the 2nd inst., so that the same 
Magistrate now holds both Petty Sessions and 
District Court at the same place one after the 
other, as there are generally so few cases. The 
right of a suitor or person sued to have the case 
tried in which court he preferred is now done 
away with, so that the chance of being dragged 
away miles to Easington by the spite of a vin- 
dictive person is now at an end ; the powers of 
Petty Sessions are likewise enlarged. 
I have heard nothing lately of the Jamaica 
Hotels Company's doings, and hope the scheme 
is not about to collapse ; nothing is more need- 
ed in Jamaica than a few good hotels, and be- 
lieve they could be easily worked with assistance 
from America. 
The Kingston Municipality continue to disagree, 
and waste valuable time ; nothing has yet been 
decided upon for the proper drainage of the town, 
both surface and underground, neither has anything 
been done towards making Kingston harbour what it 
should be, viz., building a stone quay along the fore- 
shore of the business portion of the town, with 
