Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-09-06
Tropical Farming.

Mr.. Alfred Tumble, describes the
farming Of the tropics in the american
AgrjcultUr1St, from which we clip the
following:
There is but little dignity about farm
ing in the tropics. 1t is true, there are
great plantations of sugar and coffee,
but the owners of them are either COM
panies, formed abroad, and represented
by oVerseers and officers, or proprietors
who are far too aristOcratic to touch a
hOe-handle, or harness q team. Tie
white man does not work in the warm
ATTITUDES. The farmer proper of the
tropics is in the main little better than
q slave, whose place he occupies. In
thew est Indies he is invariably negro;
on the continent of South America a
half-breGd, or rather Il hybrid the re-
suit of a couple of centuries of Indian,
Spaniard and negro ss-breeding.
But wherever he is, he is ALWAYS wretch
edly ignorant and poor. He always
farms in a very small way, and by the
most primitive methods. An acre of
ground constitutes a large farm. He
never ploWs, the hoe and spade being
the only tools. He raises vans and
kindred indigenous vegetables, and very
good crops of them, too for he has a
fertile soil to aid him. He never plants
on poor ground. If he lives near run
ming stream, he generally has numerous
trees of the banana and plantain; and
though these grow wild in the tropics
they are improved by cultivation. The
wild bananas root close to the waters
edge, and a freshet may carry the
plants away. We have often seen a
rude canoe slip by on some South Amer
lean stream at early morning, carrying
an old squaw, in a scarlet cotton gown,
and q cart-Wheel hat, with a roll of to-
baccO-leaf between her teeth, and two
punches of bananas for cargo. These
punches are all she has to sell, and she
will travel twenty miles to dispose of
them. The old woman is never without
q naked boy and lean dog for compa-
ny, and when the tide is fair, the party
float along, carried by the current, and
propelled by the wind blowing on bio
pIantain leaf, which the boy holds up
right, for sail
No more picturesque or Wretched pic
ture can be conceived, than one of the
little farms of South or Central Amer
lea. 4 hut of palm boards, with rot
ten roof Of palm branches, swarming
with bats, scorpions, and other vermin,
constitutes the farmers home. The
floor is of earth, the beds are frame
works of boards, on which the inmates
stretch without the effete formalitv of
undressing. Hammocks are not as often
seen as one would fancy. All travellers,
however, carry them, and for 4 dime
obtain the privilege of singing them
from the beams. Many farm houses are
mere sheds, with the sides open to the
winds. The farms themselves present
none of the pleasing aspects of cultivat-
ed ground. The different crops grow in
patches, it is true, but rank, unweeded
and without care. Nature provides a
soil so rich, that man needs to give it
but little labor; when, after years, the
ground is worked out. the farmer opens
another patch, for all is free.
Such 4 land as this would be q para
disc for the intelligent and energetic
Northern farmer. but for the fact that
in this enervating and malarial climate
hard labor is deadly. The white man
who settles here and works as he is ac-
customed to labor in the cooler climate
at home, soon dies, and only he who
adapts himself to the listless climate
survives.