93 
chap, iv.] WEST INDIES. 
ment of a plantation in this sort of husbandry, and 
the returns which may reasonably be expected 
from a small capital thus employed. I fix on a 
small capital; because I conceive that a cotton 
plantation may be established on a more moderate 
fund than any other; and it is for the interest of 
the community that men of small fortunes should 
be instructed how to employ their time and labours 
to the best advantage; since it is to such men, 
chiefly, that the West Indies are to look for safety 
in the hour of danger. 
It is presumed the land proper for the growth 
of cotton, situated near the sea, may be pur¬ 
chased, in many parts of the West Indies (Ja¬ 
maica especially), at £.5 Jamaica currency per 
acre; and as it is prudent, in most cases to change 
the soil after the third crop, by replanting fresh 
land,* I will allot fifty acres for the first purchase, 
* If the land is extraordinary good, four and even five annual crops 
are sometimes gathered fiom the same original plants; after which, 
instead of replanting, it is not uncommon to cut the cotton bushes 
down to within three or four inches of the ground, and mould the 
stems in the May rains, and treat them afterwards in the same man¬ 
ner as plants. Some labour is undoubtedly saved by this practice, 
but, in nine cases out of en, it will be found more profitable to re¬ 
sort to fresh land, every third or fourth year. I consider at the same 
time, land to he fiesh enough which has lain fallow, or been used in 
a different line of culture for three or four ye..rs together, the great 
intention of changing the land being to get rid of that peculiar sort of 
grub or worm which preys on the cotton plants. 
