April  i,  1893.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
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former  category  we  will  Lave  sugar,  bananas,  coffee, 
cacao,  oranges,  tobacco:  aDd  in  the  near  future  I 
hope  to  see  the  cultivation  of  the  ayave  rigida,  or 
sisal  hemp  p’aut  extend.  Small  growers  can  piofitably 
produce  ginger,  nutmegp,  maize,  tomatoes,  yams, 
onions,  potatoes  and  other  vegetables  suitable  for  the 
Canadian  or  American  markets. 
Grapes  grow  as  freely  as  in  California,  and  only 
require  careful  cultivation  to  yield  very  large  returns. 
All  these  crops  are  capeble  of  enormous  expansion, 
but  the  carelessness  of  our  people  prevents  them 
growing  them  with  as  much  protit  os  might  be  made. 
The  Jamaica  oranges  are  the  best  in  the  world ; 
there  is  no  systematic  care  taken  of  the  r growing, 
picking,  sizing  and  packing,  as  there  is  in  Florida. 
So  far  there  has  been  no  attempt  to  grow  separately 
tbe  different  kinds  of  bananas  although  the  trade 
has  expanded  in  10  years  from  the-  export  value  of 
£14,215  to  £531,726. 
There  are  large  coconut  walks  in  the  island.  The 
nuts  are  sold  for  about  three-fifths  of  the  price  given 
for  Baracon  nuts.  No  care  is  taxen,  as  in  Mauritius 
and  elsewhere,  to  thin  the  branches  as  grapes  are 
thinned  and  thus  give  room  for  the  nuts  to  grow. 
Everything  is  left  to  nature,  and  so  bounteous  is  she 
that  she  yields  with  lavish  hand,  paying  returns  in 
defiance  of  a system  that  violates  every  canon  of 
successful  agriculture. 
But,  it  may  well  be  asked,  if  there  are  all  these 
opportunities  for  the  investment  of  capita),  how 
comes  it  that  while  young  Englishmen  flock  to 
Manitoba  or  Nebraska,  tbe  Cape,  New  Zealand  or 
Australia,  undeterred  by  distance  or  climate,  and 
ready  to  begin  a hard  struggle  by  building  a log  hut, 
they  neglect  the  island  of  Jamaica,  in  which  they 
may  find  houses  ready  built,  fences  ready  made  and 
fields  that  only  require  tbe  ordinary  annual  operation 
for  putting  in  the  crop?  And,  further,  how  is  it 
that  the  owners  of  these  small  properties  are  so  ready 
to  part  with  them  for  a small  consideration  ? 
The  answer  is  simple.  When  the  work  of  a slave, 
with  interest  upon  his  value  could  be  had  for  about 
£l6  a year,  and  when  sugar  sold  at  £60  per  ton,  it 
paid  for  the  reokless  extravagance  of  the  vicious  and 
riotous  living  of  many  of  the  local  managtrs  and 
owners.  It  paid  for  the  appalling  waste  of  human 
life.  Cargoes  of  young  men  came  out  year  after  year 
and  were  plunged  into  a fiery  furnace  of  temptations 
that  only  a moral  hero  could  withstand.  By  scon  s 
and  hundreds  the  yellow  fever  claimed  them,  and  if 
men  lived  now  as  tiny  lived  then,  it  may  be  a sumed 
that  yellow  fever  would  beoome  a perennial  scourge. 
But  the  absentee  owner  in  England  drew  a princely 
income  and  asked  no  questions.  With  falling  markets 
incomes  fell,  and  the  manumission  of  the  slaves 
accelerated  the  downward  movement.  Some  managers 
refused  to  accept  the  dictum  that  emancipation  in. 
volved  the  right  to  abstain  from  labour.  They  could 
not  realize  that  to  a slave  whose  life  had  been  one 
long  weary  round  of  coerced  labour  relaxation  from 
work  must  have  been  the  greatest  happiness,  and 
they  drove  from  the  estates  the  people,  who,  from 
the  first  ecstasy  of  freedom,  refused  to  givo  for  a 
daily  wage  the  same  steady  labour  they  had  erstwhile 
yielded  to  tbe  persuasion  of  the  cow  hide.  Others 
claimed  exorbitant  rents  for  the  mud  hovels  in  which 
the  now  free  labourer  resided.  Six  shillings  and 
eight-pence  per  week  for  each  inmate  over  10  years 
of  age  was*  a not  uncommon  olaim  made  for  the  reDt 
of  hovels,  the  erection  of  which  had  not  originally  cost 
a pound.  The  consequence  might  have  been  easily 
foretold  by  people  less  stupidly  blind.  Already  great 
numbers  of  negioes  had  cleared  patches  in  the  un- 
claimed forests  that  clothed  the  hills.  The  people  thus 
driven  off  joined  their  friends  in  the  interior  and  there 
laid  the  foundation  for  the  peasant  proprietary  that  i3 
so  marked  a feature  in  the  social  economy  of  Jamaioa. 
It  was  not  long  before  the  income  of  the  absentee 
owner  approached  the  vanishing  point,  and  at  length 
oalls  for  remittances  from  him  to  enable  his  agents 
* “ Letter  to  the  Marquis  of  Normandy  relative  to  the 
State  of  Jamaica  by  the  Marquis  of  Sligo,”  1839. 
to  square  aocounts  were  not  uncommon.  Then  in  some 
oases  properties  were  abandoned  ; in  others  they  wore 
sold  for  nominal  sums  to  the  local  manager  or  over- 
seer ; and  many  have  been  kept  on,  just  managing  to 
pay  a very  small  sum  to  the  owner,  the  returns  being 
absorbed  in  the  payment  of  local  supervisitn  and 
charges.  All  this  took  place  during  the  past  genera- 
tion. It  is  only  50  years  since  steam  communication 
between  England  and  Jamaioa  was  established,  and 
not  one  proprietor  in  a hundred  thought  it  worth 
bis  while  to  make  the  voyage.  The  belief  was  ac- 
cepted that  property  in  Jamaica  was  valueless,  and 
the  memory  of  youDg  men  who  had  died  out  sugar 
estates  in  endless  succession,  and  the  recurring  epide- 
mics of  yellow  fever  amoDg  the  white  troops,  wbu  were 
fed  and  clothed  and  overcrowded  with  all  the  ignorant 
brutality  of  our  military  system  of  50  years  ago,  stamped 
the  Island  in  the  opinion  of  the  English  people  as  a 
white  man's  grave,  to  be  carefully  avoided,  Hitherto 
no  special  means  have  been  taken  to  dispel  these 
illusions.  Now,  that  soldiers  aro  treated  on  more 
rational  principles,  the  reports  of  the  army  medical 
officers  show  tnat  Jamaica  is  almost  the  hoalthiest 
station  for  the  British  troeps  out  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  while  the  general  health  of  the  com- 
munity is  shown  by  the  vital  statistics,  which  give 
the  average  death  rate  per  thousand  for  the  past 
seven  years  as  23'9,  a very  low  rate  when  it  is  re- 
membered that  the  death  of  black  obildren  under 
five  is  abnormally  high.  But  old  beliefs  are  hard, 
aLd  years  after  the  extraordinary  beauties  of  Jamaica 
had  been  described  and  its  capabilities  demonstrated 
by  visitors  who  had  braved  the  climate  superstition 
and  found  here  renewed  health  and  strength,  pro- 
perties were  being  sold  for  less  tban  the  value  of 
the  stock  that  was  on  them,  or  in  some  oases  for  a 
tenth  of  the  value  of  the  logwood  that  grew  upon  them. 
A pen  is  usually  divided  into guineograss,  common 
pasture  and  “ wood  and  ruinate.”  The  average  value 
would  be  £4  for  guineagrass  per  acre,  £2  tor  common 
patsure  and  £1  for  “ wood  and  ruinate.”  It  is  not 
possible  to  give  an  average  value  for  estates  for  crop 
cultivation,  as  everything  depends  upon  position  soil 
and  water  capabilities.  At  present  mules  are  the 
best  paying  stock  A three-year-old  mule  can  be  bred 
tor  L/  and  £8.  lhe  average  sellingjprice  is  about  £17. 
As  to  estates  for  tlie  cultivation  of  crops,  granting 
the  proper  condition  of  climate  and  soil,  the  yield 
will  depend  upon  the  industry  and  ability  of  the 
manager.  In  the  cultivation  of  crops  there  are  so  many 
possible  leakges  that  the  fool  and  his  money  soon  part 
But,  besides  the  cultivation  of  the  land,  there  are 
other  ways  of  making  money.  The  exhibition  has 
Jlamaic,a  haa  a large  quantity  of  ochres 
that  if  treated  on  the  spot  would  pay  a fair  dividend. 
Tne  island  also  possesses  pottery  clay  -as  good  as  any 
m England.  The  difficulty  is  that  of  obtaining  skilled 
labour.  A local  company  started  a pottery  and 
trained  workmen  were  imported  from  England  But 
English  tradesmen  seem  unable  to  resist  the  seductions 
oi  cheap  rum  in  the  tropics.  The  two  leading  hands 
spend  their  time  between  the  lock-up  and  the  gutters  ; 
the  terra  cotta  works  are  suspended  and  the  problem 
of  reliable  skilled  labor  that  will  last  long  enough  to 
teach  our  own  more  sober  people  is  still  to  be  solved. 
1 nnd  that  I have  not  said  anything  upon  an 
important  factor-labour.  To  the  question  as  to  the 
abundance  o±  labour,  there  will  be  as  many  answers 
as  there  are  ditferences  of  disposition  of  employers. 
To  secure  a fair  day’s  work  the  eye  of  the  master 
is  necessary,  but  I am  satisfied  that  there  is  no 
necessity  for  apprehension  on  the  score  of  labour. 
1 have  put  aside  all  temptations  to  embark  in 
description  of  the  beauties  of  Jamaica,  and  con- 
hiyself  to  a slight  sketch  of  some  of  its  capa- 
bilities ; so  that  young  men  may  realize  that  here, 
within  a three  days;  sea  journey  from  the  United 
states,  there  is  a British  Island,  where  money  can  be 
made  and  where  life  and  property  are  as  secure  as 
on  any  portion  of  the  American  Continent. 
It  is  necessary  to  emphasise  the  fact  that  the 
people  are  singularly  law-abiding,  and  that  there  is 
an  entire  absence  of  the  reported  crimes,  that,  if 
true,  disgrace  the  Southern  States  of  America  for 
