Agricultural and Commercial Society. 57 
of excessive and prolonged rainfall, the land gets flood- 
ed, the drains being unable to cope promptly with the 
unexpected accumulation of water. This spells ruin to 
a large portion of the crops, the cassava roots suffering 
the soonest and most completely. In fact whenever 
there is any unusual humidity in the earth, arising from 
whatever cause, the cassava is apt to perish and reward 
with rottenness the labour expended upon it. Sweet 
potatoes being somewhat stronger and more hardy, 
resist the influence of damp surroundinsjs, unless these 
are very considerable and very protracted. 
The farm in question, like almost every other belong- 
ing to the same class, contains mixed cultivation, 
comprising yams, sweet potatoes, cassavas, tannias, 
Chinese eddoes, and, of course, the inevitable plantains, 
with a few cocoanut trees scattered here and there like 
sentinels to guard the plants of lower growth. The 
land thus occupied, with regular tillage, adequate pro- 
vision for drainage, and other field work kept well in 
hand, will continue to yield the same crop without any 
symptoms of diminution of the produce reaped, for 
about 3 years. The experience of the farmer goes to 
show that after this period, if good results are to be 
obtained, a season of fallowing must ensue. This area, 
like all which engages the care of the Creole farmer, is 
never by any chance nourished by the application of 
manures. From year to year successive crops are 
extorted from it with no stimulus save that received 
from the atmosphere and decayed weeds of its own 
production. In spite of the absence of all outside assist- 
ance, the farm, as at present constituted, has been in 
existence for upwards of eighteen months and there are 
H 
