The West Indies, Before and Since Slave Emancipation; Comprising the Windward and Leeward Islands' Military Command Founded on Notes and Observations

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1854. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IV. BARBADOS. West India Colonies essentially agricultural.--Sketch of the agriculture of Barbados.--Plantations and dwellings of the planters.--System of agriculture and manufacture followed in cane-cultivation and making of sugar. Minor culture.-- Ground provisions.--Forage.--Apportioning of each kind of culture before and since slave emancipation.--Estate-expenses.--Labourers and labour.--Cattle, condition and treatment.--Risks attending cultivation.--Cost of production.--Question of profit.--Changes from necessity, the consequence of distress.--Instances in illustration marking improvement.--Small farms.-- Opinions respecting them, --Miscellaneous notices of places and objects deserving the attention of the passing traveller. Our West India Colonies are without exception essentially agricultural, not a single manufacture existing in them unconnected with agriculture, nor any important branch of commerce, the export trade, being in a great measure limited to agricultural produce, and the import trade limited to the supplying the ordinary and daily wants of the inhabitants deriving their subsistence chiefly from that produce. Compared with the others, Barbados stands high, both as regards the proportional extent of land under culture, and the skill and energy of its planters. The superficial area of the island has been estimated at 106,470 acres; of which about 100,000 acres are said to be under some kind of cultivation; about 40,000 acres in sugar canes, the remainder in pasture and provision grounds. This estimate must be considered, I believe, only an approximate one, especially as regards the acres in canes, and the land lying waste or unproductive; the former varying from year to year, (it has been gradually increasing;) the latter from ...