chap, i.] WEST INDIES. 21 
great returns to the owner; considering the rela¬ 
tive proportion of the labour and expense attend¬ 
ing the different systems.—The common yielding 
of this land, on an average, is seven hogsheads of 
sixteen cwt. to ten acres, which are cut annually. 
In the cultivation of other lands (in Jamaica 
especially) the plough has been introduced of late 
years, and in some few cases to great advantage; 
but it is not every soil or situation that will admit 
the use of the plough, some lands being much too 
stony, and others too steep; and I am sorry I have 
occasion to remark, that a practice commonly pre¬ 
vails in Jamaica, on properties where this auxiliary 
is used, which would exhaust the finest lands in 
the world. It is that of ploughing, then cross- 
ploughing, round-ridging, and harrowing the same 
lands from year to year, or at least every other 
year, without affording manure: accordingly, it is 
found, that this method is utterly destructive of the 
ratoon or second growth, and altogether ruinous. 
It is indeed astonishing that any planter of com¬ 
mon reading or observation, should be passive un¬ 
der so pernicious a system. Some gentlemen how¬ 
ever of late manage better: their practice is to 
break up stiff and clayey land, by one or two 
ploughings, early in the spring, and give it a sum¬ 
mer’s fallow. In the autumn following, being 
then mellow and more easily worked, it is holed 
and planted by manual labour, after the old me¬ 
thod, which shall be presently described. But in 
truth, the only advantageous system of ploughing 
