, 1882-11-01

believe is often not the case, the exact
produce of an acre can be aScertained.
This is an incalculable advantage when
experiments are tried with manureS or in
SPECIAL methods of cultivation but it is an
advantage which cannot be had on other
estates except by importing and erecting
weighing machines. AS a sufficiently
large machine can be bought and put up
for something under Il hundred dollars we
shall no doubt find the use of these valua-
bic aids gradually extended. When the
contract system of carriage is employed
such machines enable the proprietor to
regulate the payment for work on an abso-
lutely just scale, which can be applied not
only to the carriage of canes to the works,
but to the carting and spreading of mari,
manure &c; and they may also be used in
so many other profitable ways that it is
surprising they were not introduced long
ago.
We do not here intend to enter on the
complicated and much disputed question
OF task labour. 1t has been tried on seve-
raj estates during the year under two
forms one is the payment of a fixed sum
per day against q measured task as the
days work, and the other is the payment
by weight or measurement. To the writer
OF these notes it seems that the latter
method, where it can be applied, is best
suited to draw out the full power of the
labOurer, and therefore to make the most
Of what labour we may have ON the island.
The question may fairly be left to settle
itself in a practical way according to ordi-
nary commercial laws ; our new labour
conditions leave the field open to the
competition of all systems, and doubtless
the one which pays best will survive.
Among other Improvements during the
year W. may note the use of steel wire
rope on some northSide estates to bring
down the canes from the hill sides. The
saving of stock and labOur by this plan
must be considerable, sufficient, we believe
to pay for the outlay in a single year. The
rope has two great advantages over the
wooden spout it can be easily removed
from one hill side to another, and the
canes are not injured by friction i'll their
passage. We saw such a rope i'll use at
Orange Grove West during the crop. The
canes, in bundles, were suspended from
small grooved wheels which ran on the
wire, and as they g1ided down swiftly but
quite steadily, it was pleasant to reflect on
the saving to the poor beasts as well as to
the pocket Of the proprietor. 1t might be
worth study whether a double wire could
not be used in such a way that the weight
of the descending canes on one of them
should haul up manure along the other, to
be placed conveniently for distribution
later in the year.
On the whole it is not hard to perceive
that the numerous changes of ownership
which have taken place of late years have
been greatly to the advantage of the island.
The estates are now conducted with q
vigour which seemed to be mostly diSap-
pearing under the heavy burdens of debt
and disbursement which had accumulat-
ed Oh the shoulders of the former proprie-
tors. We now see in som places the re-
newal of buildings, III others the extension
of cultivation, and in many a more liberal
use of manUreS of various kinds both home
made and imported
To what extent the Factory has %increas-
ed the success of our agriculture it is i'm
possible now to say but We have no doubt
1t has in two ways had a very beneficial
effect. 1t has facilitated the removal of
the unusually heavy crop, and that by q
comparatively early date and it has fur
nished in the megass and flter-press
refuse very valuable manures, which the
planters who are near enough to the
sources of supply have used with excellent
results, and with the promise of continued
improvement in the land. If we remember
that of the 1858 hhds. which have been
shipped, about 5000, or nearly two ffths,
have been manufactured at the Factory, it
is clear that such an institution must affect
very considerably the progress of our
agricultural work, taking no note whatever
of its commercial benefits in the increased
VoIuo Of fho nrO1uptc aud the inapnoco of