MOUNTAIN GARDENS. 
151 
MOUNTAIN GARDENS. 
The provision-grounds of the negroes present an 
interesting object to a stranger. As I have said, 
many of the black peasantry inhabiting the lowlands, 
have their gardens on the summits of the mountain 
(where the soil is more productive), as well as around 
their dwellings. The mode of proceeding is as fol- 
lows. The negro having chosen his spot, in the un- 
touched forest, hires it from the owner of the land, 
at a certain yearly rent per acre. He then cuts 
down the timber, piles the logs, and in a dry time 
sets fire to the piles, much in the same manner as in 
the United States and Canada : this is called “ burn- 
ing-over ” the piece. It now presents a very unpre- 
possessing aspect ; the large charred and blackened 
stumps stand as thick as tombstones in a churchyard ; 
the bare ground is strewn with half calcined stones, 
unrelieved by a green leaf ; and great heaps of ashes 
lie here and there with fragments of burned wood, 
the only remains of the giant trunks that once reared 
their verdant crowns to the skies. 
If we visit it in a few months, however, how 
different is the scene ! A large portion of the ground 
is seen to be occupied by that indispensable West 
Indian root, the Coco ( Colocasia esculenta) whose 
* The term “ Coco ” is applied in the West Indies to three very 
distinct kinds of vegetable productions cultivated for the food of man. 
The first is the Cocoa, which is prepared from the seeds of the 
Chocolate tree, and forms a well-known beverage. The second is 
the equally familiar Cocoa-nut, the fruit of a Palm ; the third is the 
thick farinaceous root of an Arum, mentioned in the text. 
H 4 
