574 Two Days ina Sugar Plantation. 
liar geological stage, be found in any part of the crust of 
the earth whose structure has not been previously well 
ascertained, its presence may be taken as a certain indica- 
tion of the character and position of the stage in which it 
is deposited. 
TWO DAYS IN A SUGAR PLANTATION. 
BY JAMES SKIRVING. 
a some of the many works that have been published 
treating of the climate of the West Indies and South 
_ America, and the political economy, manners, and modes 
of life of the inhabitants, one might reasonably have ex- 
pected a detailed account of the cultivation of the sugar- 
cane and the manufacture of sugar, which is the principal 
product of these parts; but since very little information 
has been furnished on these important subjects, we propose 
to give a brief outline of this branch of industry; and 
having spent several years inthe West Indies where we had 
the supervision of a large estate, we feel justified in under- 
taking the task, in the exercise of which we trust practical 
knowledge will atone for literary defects. We do not 
intend to touch upon the vexed question of remuneration 
of the free black or the work required of the slave, because 
the present wretched state of the planters in our free 
colonies, and the still more wretched condition of free blacks, 
are subjects of far too great importance to be lightly 
handled; but we may observe, ez passaut, that any 
sensible, self-educated, and industrious negro, deplores 
emancipation, and speaks of the times of slavery as the 
good old times, when the island was prosperous, and estates, 
‘now entirely abandoned, were in full working order, and 
sorrowfully points out an old mill dam and a tall chimney 
now mouldering, and covered with rank weeds, as the wrecks 
of former greatness, and the fading evidences of a time of 
prosperity, when all were well cared for, happy, and con- 
tented, although hard worked, and, in exceptional cases, 
harshly treated. There, as everywhere, honest work was 
duly appreciated, good masters, as a rule, made good ser- 
vants, and wice versd, and the idle fellow who scamped his 
work paid the penalty, and retaliated by grumbling against 
his employers. 
