sobriety and industry, and consequently tend more to the increase of the whites, than any other of the staple commodities of the island. Small capitals can also be employed in the cultivation of this commodity; while the average profits are more considerable in proportion to the capital employed; and the produce of it is more equal and certain, than that which arises from the cultivation of any plant in the new world.

SECTION III.

COTTON.

COTTON is also a staple commodity of Jamaica. This valuable vegetable wool grows spontaneously in all the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and America, and affords to man an agreeable and a healthful covering. The cotton-wool which is manufactured into cloth, consists of two distinct kinds, called by the planter, green-seed cotton, and shrub-cotton. The former, on account of the difficulty of separating the wool from the seed, which can only be done by the hand, is so troublesome and expensive, that it is seldom cultivated, and little attended to. The shrub-cotton is in appearance not unlike an European Corinthian bush, and may be divided into several varieties, all of which, however, nearly resemble each other. The flowers are composed of five large yellow leaves, each stained at the bottom with a purple spot. They are beautiful, but devoid of fragrance. The pistil is strong and large, surrounded at and near the top, with a yellow farinaceous dust, which, when ripe, falls into the matrix of the pistil. This is likewise surrounded, when the petals of the flower drop, with a capsular pod, supported by three triangular green leaves, deeply jagged at their ends. The inclosed opens, when ripe, into three or four partitions, discovering the cotton in as many white locks, as there are partitions in the pod. In the locks are interspersed the seeds, which are commonly small and black.

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The mode of culture is the same with all the species of this plant; and there is this advantage in all of them, that they will flourish in the driest and most rocky soils, provided such lands have not been exhausted by former cultivation. Dryness both of the soil and atmosphere is indeed essentially necessary in all its stages; for if the land be moist, the plant expends itself in branches and leaves; and if the rains are heavy, either when the plant is in blossom, or when the pods are beginning to unfold, the crop is lost.

The plant is raised from the seed, the land requiring no other preparation, than to be cleared of its native incumbrances. The season for putting the seed in the ground is from May to September, both months inclusive. This is usually done in ranks or rows, leaving a space between each of six or eight feet, the holes in each row being commonly four feet apart. Eight or ten seeds are put into each hole, as some of them are often devoured by a grub, or worm, and others rot in the ground. The young sprouts make their appearance in about a fortnight after planting; but they are of a slow growth for the first six weeks; at which period, it is necessary to clean the ground, and draw the supernumerary plants, leaving two or three of the strongest only in each hole. One plant would be sufficient to leave, if there were a certainty of its coming to maturity, but many of the tender sprouts are devoured by the grub. At the age of three or four months, the plants are cleaned a second time, and both the stem and branches pruned, or, as it is called topped; an inch, or more, if the plants are luxuriant, being broken off from the end of each shoot; which is done, in order to make the stems throw out a greater number of lateral branches. This operation, if the growth be overluxuriant, is sometimes performed a second, and even a third time.

At the end of five months, the plant begins to blossom, and put forth its beautiful yellow flowers, and, in two months more, the pod is formed. From the seventh to the tenth month, the pods ripen in succession; when they burst open in three partitions, displaying their white and glossy down. The wool is now gathered, the seeds being enveloped in it, from which, they are afterwards separated by a machine, somewhat resembling a turner's lathe. It is called a gin, and is composed of two small rollers, placed close and parallel to each other in a frame, and turned in opposite directions, by different wheels, which are moved by the feet. The cotton being put by the hand, close to these rollers, as they move round, readily passes between them, leaving behind the seeds, which are too large for the interspace. The wool is afterwards hand-picked, that it may be properly cleaned of decayed leaves, broken seeds, and wool that has been stained and damaged in the pod. It is then packed into bags, containing about two hundred pounds weight each, and in this state, is sent to market.

The profits arising from the culture of this plant are, upon an average, considerable; but they are precarious. The planter is frequently deceived in his expectations. In the first stage of its cultivation, it is attacked by the grub; it is devoured by caterpillars in the second; it is sometimes withered by the blast; and rains frequently destroy it, both in the blossom and the pod.

Plantations of cotton ought to be encouraged both by Jamaica and the mother country, not only on account of the great demand for this raw material in the British manufactures, but as they necessarily produce an increased proportion of white settlers, the only source (it cannot be too often repeated) of political security to the island; and as they increase the numbers of men, possessed of small independant fortunes, the most valuable class of individuals in every society.

SECTION IV.

INDIGO.

THE plant which yields the valuable commodity called indigo, springs spontaneously in all the West India islands. Although it grows in the most barren spots, yet a rich and warm season accelerates its growth, and renders it more luxuriant. The following is the mode of its cultivation. The land being properly cleared, is hoed into small trenches of two or three inches in depth, and twelve or fourteen inches asunder; in the bottom of which the seeds are strewed by the hand, and covered lightly with mould; but as the plants shoot, the field must be frequently weeded, and kept constantly clean, until they rise, and spread sufficiently to cover the ground. A bushel of seed is sufficient for four or five acres of land. The best season for planting indigo is the month of March. In Jamaica, the planters have frequently four cuttings in the year, from the same roots. But it is a curious fact, that the planter is obliged to change the soil every year, on account of a grub, which becomes a fly, and preys on the leaves, and never fails to blast the crop of the second year, upon the same lands. In new lands, the annual produce of this plant in Jamaica, will amount to three hundred pounds weight per acre of the second quality.

The process for obtaining the dye is generally conducted in two cisterns, which are placed like two steps, the one ascending to the other. The highest, which is also the longest, is called