chap, i.] ' WEST INDIES. 17 
It may be supposed that a plant thus rank and 
succulent, requires a strong and deep soil to bring 
it to perfection, and* as far as my own observation 
has extended, I am of opinion, that no land can be 
too rich for that purpose.—-When bad sugar is 
made from fat and fertile'soils, properly situated, I 
am inclined to impute the blame, rather to misma¬ 
nagement in the manufacturer than to the land. 
The very best soil, however, that I have seen or 
heard of, for the production of sugar of the finest 
quality, and in the largest proportion, is the ashy 
loam of St. Christopher’s, of which an account has 
been given in the history of that island. Next to 
that, is the soil which in Jamaica is called brick * 
mould; not as resembling a brick in colour, but as 
containing such a due mixture of clay and sand, as 
is supposed to render it well adapted for the use of 
the kiln. It is a deep, warm and mellow, hazel 
earth, easily worked; and though its surface soon 
or rather seed ; yet these being sowed, never vegetate, as I have heard, 
in the West Indian islands 5 a circumstance which perhaps maybe ad¬ 
duced as a proof that the cane is not the spontaneous production of 
this part of the world. In Abyssinia and other parts of the East it 
is easily raised from the seed; <vid. Bruce's Travels. Since the first 
edition of this work was published Sir Joseph Banks has satisfied 
me, that there are several varieties existing in the cane with which we 
are wholly unacquainted in the West Indies. I have seen, in his pos¬ 
session, a dried specimen that was b: ought originally from the South 
Seas, by which, as far as can be judged by its present appear¬ 
ance, is of a far superior sort to the species cultivated in our islands. 
It is not only of greater length in the whole, bur the distance between 
the joints is nearly twice as great as in the finest canes I ever beheld. 
Vol, lit. 
c 
