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1“ Eep. No. 564. ] 
by the skill and capital of the white species, the colored species will not 
furnish;an adequate quantity of even n7zcultivated products for extra-trop^ 
iced consumption. Even logwood, mahogany, and other wild materials 
for the;arts, are diminishing every day. The Peruvian bark, sarsaparilla,, 
and other spontaneous medicines, are also vanishing, and noxious substir 
tutes are exported to kill, instead of cure, our fellow-citizens. If, there¬ 
fore, we do riot naturalize all useful tropical plants in tropical 
Florida, they will soon aisappear from the surface of the world. 
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, 
HENRY PERRINE. 
Consulate U. S. A., Campeachy, 
February 20, 1834. 
Sir : As an appendix to his communication of the 1st instant,.the sub¬ 
scriber avails himself of the only statistical data in his power to demon¬ 
strate the greatly superior productiveness of slave labor in the United 
States over slave labor in the West Indies. 
British West India colonies, 692,700 slaves, 427,392,000 pounds of sugar, 
and 19,769,500 pounds of coffee exported. 
Spanish island of Cuba, 286,942 slaves, 162,703,425 pounds of sugar, and 
42,971,625 pounds of coffee exported. 
Louisiana, 109,631 slaves, 70,000,000 pounds of sugar, and 72,000,000 
pounds of cotton exported. 
Now, admitting for a moment that the culture of cotton is merely equal 
to the cultm’e of sugar and coffee, as 109,631 slaves produce 142 millions 
of pounds of sugar and cotton in Louisiana, in the same proportion, 
692,700 slaves should produce 897 millions of pounds of sugar and coffee 
in the British West India islands: and in the same manner 286,942 slaves 
should produce 371 millions of pounds of sugar and coffee in Cuba. But 
the former do produce only 447 millions, and the latter only 205 millions; 
together 692 millions, instead of the 1,268 millions which they should pro¬ 
duce in proportion to Louisiana. But the truth is, that the relative value 
of labor of the production of cotton is at least fifty per cent, more than 
the value or labor of the production either of sugar or coffee; and hence, 
the combined 979,642 slaves of British West India islands and of Cuba, 
should yield 1,590 millions, instead of 672 millions of sugar and coffee, 
every year, for exportation; or, in other words, with an equal number of 
slaves Louisiana would supply the consumption of the world ! 
To obtain the details of the relative productiveness of a single negro, 
the following estimates are presented of a sugar plantation in Louisiana, 
and of a sugar plantation in Cuba, each assumed to yield annually 400,000 
pounds of sugar. 
The first are contained in the report of the agricultural committee of 
Baton Rouge to the Secretary of the Treasury against the reduction of 
duties on imported sugar, and must hence be presumed to present the 
most unfavorable aspect of the cultivation of sugar in Louisiana. The 
second is taken from pages 108-9 of the Statistical History of Cuba, by 
