New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-04-21

a. ybe lard recedes from the sea it becomes
covered in many places, sometimes to the depth u
several feet, with light, peaty matter, composed Of
decsyed vegetation, tending TO take on carbon
acsous form, aud known in tho colony as "pegass."
The natural growth Of the auviol plain appears 70
bare consisted of variety of soft wood, not gen.
orally Of large growth, except now aud then
gigantic silk cotton tree. Back of the existing
plantations there often occur grassy tracts inun-
dated in the wet season, and known as savsnnahS,
but whether natural meadows or formed by the
burning off of the wood IN dry seasons, does not
appear. Such CONGREGATIONS have occasionally
occurred during protracted drOuthS, sweeping for
great distances, threatening plantations with de-
strucion, and burning up not only the wood but the
pegass covering Of the soil.
II is not easy from any explorations or examins-
tops which have yet been made to ascertain tho
precise extent and still less the precise agricultural
capabilities Of the alluval treat above described.
From the facts however already mentioned, an
approximate estimate may be formed "a to it's ex-
tent With a sea line of two hundred miles it
widens gradually from west to east till from
depth inland Of two or three miles, il is alleged to
reach on its eastern border width of near forty
| mes. But how far it is possible to bring the more
| inland portion into cultivation or how far those
lands would answer for the production of sugar Is
more than is yet known That il would tske vast
amount Of capital and labor to put them nts cult
walton, will be sufficiently obvious when we come to
describe the process by which the existng planta-
| tons have been wrested from the waters, and by
which they are kept in productive condition.
| These plantations, Notwithstanding the apparent
psmeness of the surface present great diversities
amOpg themselves, and The same thing may be
noticed even in flerent parts of the same pants-
ton owing to natural diversity of soil and different
facilities for drainage which as we shall see here
AFTER constitutes capital point in the cultivation of
Guiana plantation.
| OF the lands already rescued from the water,
only limited portion is fitted for the production of
sugar. The front lands, Immediately bordering on
the sea, have strong impregnaton OF salt, whi'h
is very dsleeriOus to the growth and productyeness
of the sugar cane. These front lands, which were
formerly cultivated in cotton, for which their salt
| ness as recommendation rather than otherwise,
are now abandoned, OF used for the pasturage of
| cattle, while the sugar cultivation has been carried
back defiance OF two, three, or four miles. In
some cases the sugar works and other buildings
have been moved along with the cultivation, it be.
ing found necessary, from the breaking in of the
ralt water or the exhaustion Of the fields, to subsh
tute new lands for those formerly cultivated.
In many other cases this process OF removal
has carried the cultivation TO very iDconveRleDs
distance from the sugar works. On the ether hand,
according to the opinion of many experienced per-
sons the lands fitted for the cultivation Of sugar do
not run back to any great distance from the sea
and the banks Of the water courses. AT the dis.
lance of few miles in the western part of the
colony the barren ssnd bills are reached. Where
the alluyial tract is DEEPER, the pegass soils
| predominaie inland of which the subsoil is often
sand or yellow clay, fit enough for the production
of coffee, 10 which portions of it were formerly
applied, but not well adapted TO sugar.
Still, the cOlonifts insist that, with an ample
supply of labor, they might easily produce half a
million of hCgsbeads of sugar, instead Of tho ffty
thousand TO which the present crop is lmitsd and,
when we consider that the land cultivated in sugar
does not DOW, and with all that has at times been
said about abandoned plantations, never did exceed
fifty thousand acres. the boast IT, perhaps, not too
extrayagant.
Having said thus much about The alluvial and
cultivated portion of British Guiana, we must add
few words about the interior region, and the riV-
ers by which the colony is penetrated, and those
regions ade accessible. These rivera are foar in
unber-ihe COreDtyn, already mentioned as the
boundary between British and Dutch Guiana the
Berbce, the Demarars, aud the Essequibo. OF
these rivers, the Demarara is the smallest, but
much the mOit important, both by reason Of the
better harbor at its mouth, and of the extent of
cultivation, ard the number of inhabitants upon it's
banks and in its immediate vicinity. Like all the
rivers on this coast, it has bar which extends sea-
ward some four miles, with only nine feet of water
at half flood, but at high tide the channel along the
eastern shore has some nineteen or twenty feet.
Tie river at its mouth is two miles wide, bat il
soon contracts 10 mile, which width il preserves
as high up as the ridge Of sand hills above men.
tones, which it about twenty niles from itsa
mouth. Just within the entrance Of the river, and
on the cart bank, lies Georgetown the capital of
the cOlOny-a city Of some thirty thousand inhab-
tants. On the east and west sea coast, aud up the
banks of the river extend lines Of plantations, the
east coast, up which a railroad runs for fifteen
miles, being considered the most nourishing part OF
the colony. The plantations do not extend up the |
river for greater distance than twelve miles.
Passing above the sand hills primitive district is
reached but still comparatively level the onlyrange
of hills encountered not exceeding two hundred
Cat; - !. a. Il ,,I