i 4 o HISTORY OF THE [book. v. 
year, unless for the purpose of preserving it in sy¬ 
rup. In that case, it must be taken up at the end 
of three or four months, while its fibres are tender 
and full of sap. Ginger thus prepared makes an 
admirable sweetmeat j but it is too well known to 
require description. 
It seems to me that this commodity is growing 
greatly out of use in Europe, and its cultivation 
in the West Indies decreases in consequence. The 
average quantity exported annually from the Bri¬ 
tish islands may be stated at ten thousand bags of 
one cwt, of which 6000 are the produce of Bar- 
badoes, and the remainder (except a very small 
part from Dominica) is raised in Jamaica. Its me¬ 
dium price at the London market, is forty shillings 
the hundred weight.* 
* Jamaica alone, in 1738, exported 20,933 bags, of one cwt. 
each, and 8,864 lbs. in casks.—An acre of fresh land, with favoura¬ 
ble seasons, will yield about 140 lbs. annually. 
