This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1819 edition. Excerpt: ... and distilling-houses, in addition to the cane-trash, and for burning lime and bricks.--As therefore a plantation yielding, on an average, two hundred hogsheads of sugar annually, requires, as I conceive, not less than three hundred acres to be planted in canes, the whole extent of such a property ...
Read More
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1819 edition. Excerpt: ... and distilling-houses, in addition to the cane-trash, and for burning lime and bricks.--As therefore a plantation yielding, on an average, two hundred hogsheads of sugar annually, requires, as I conceive, not less than three hundred acres to be planted in canes, the whole extent of such a property must be reckoned at nine hundred acres. I am persuaded that the sugar plantations in Jamaica making those returns, commonly exceed, rather than fall short of, this estimate; not, as hath been ignorantly asserted, from a fond and avaricious propensity in the proprietors to engross more land than is necessary; but because, from the nature of the soil, and rugged surface of the country, the lands vary greatly in quality, and it is seldom that even three hundred acres of soil in contiguity, fit for the production of sugar, can be Chap. procured. A purchaser therefore must take vv./ the bad with the good. Nevertheless, as it is my intention to give as precise an idea as I can of the profits to be made in the sugar-planting business, under the most favourable circum stances, I will allow nothing for a dead capital vested in unproductive woodland, but fix on six hundred acres, as sufficient for all the purposes that have been mentioned; appropriating one-half of the whole, instead of one-third, to the culture of the cane. The price of woodland in Jamaica depends chiefly on its situation. In seasonable parts of the country, and in the vicinity of the sea, I conceive it would be difficult to purchase a quantity of sugar land sufficient for a good estate, unless at a very high price. On the north side, in a fertile and seasonable parish, I have lately known a tract of eight hundred acres, with a fine river running through it, sell for ten pounds currency...
Read Less