blished field 0 .; these were allowed to run ini©, 
waste, to give place to the large returns which 
were anticipated from a new and rich soil. In¬ 
deed I may safely say on this point, that the 
usual indication of Jamaica characteristics was 
palpably evident, viz., to live for one’s self, 
and not to thinlj of posterity. Acting under 
this spirit, plantations were run over, and con¬ 
sidered worn out in the course of a few years, 
whilst, with a proper degree of care and pre¬ 
caution, they might have retained their names, 
and kept up their crops for a series of years. 
The pruning system then adopted, tended much 
to accelerate the ruin of properties. As labor 
was abundant, it was customary to commence 
pruning at. an early season, before the crop was 
taken off, and the destruction of a few tierces 
of produce, at the fag end of the crop, was 
considered of no consequence. By dint of hea- 
y and severe cuttings, the trees were forced 
to the utmost of which nature was susceptible, 
into copious vegetation. This exuberance of 
young wood, the tree could not sustain to per<= 
feetion, and the major portion was therefore con¬ 
signed, in turn, to the fate of being torn away 
by the openers, to perish to secure some venti¬ 
lation for the tree. Thus was that undone, 
which nature bad been forced to perform. These 
heartless bleedings were repeated year after year 
till nature was exhausted, and the tree would 
yield up the ghost. This system of management 
came under my own observation, which has in¬ 
duced me to allude so pointedly to it—more so 
as it was set up as the neplus ultra of planter- 
ship by those who had numbered their eighteen and 
twenty years experience in plantation management 
