, 1890-10-01

lacGure ana value as an artlcle OF vraQei as
also the perseverance you evince in pursuing
this subject during several months has Gull
minated in your deeply considered paper in
Saturdays avis" on the question Of its in
PRODUCTION into this island.
The pleasing picture you have drawn OF the
possible resuscltation of turned-out East
End estates by its aid wears an inviting ap.
pearance, aud one would fam hope that you
have overstated the drawbacks to its .realiza-
ton. After having we'll weighed these, no
doubt you have wisely and sensibly coaclud-
ed that d branch Sugar Factory would be
more suitable for raising the condition OF
East End, and that an extension of fruit
gar ening would better help Northside.
That such an estate as Petronella should
at any one crop have made the enormous
amount of 400 ~hogsheads is startling to one
who has no former statistics Of sugar returns
to refer to. In the presence Of this fact I
find a difficulty in conceiving why that es-
tate should have been turned out, inasmuch
as | have hitherto supposed, enormously I
presume, that the East End estates produc-
ed title crops, and could only pay in the
days when sugar fetched q high price. Plain
ly such land as Petronella must be too good
8r the Agare rjgida.
You lay great stress, and with good cause,
on obtaining the right variety of the plant
from Sisal to gain the maximum of fibre,
with the minimum of pulp. But in a for
mer paper you stated that the Furcroya or
Furcrma grows on Recovery Hill, and that
a species OF this has gwen the best results IN
Mauritius. I was looking lately at this
plant, plentifully studding the hill at Fredens-
borg " here IN the drynoss OF this year it -four
ishes amazingly; also | have observed it in
st. Peters land at a low elevation, spring up
its pole to a height of 80 feet, the dropping
bell shaped blossoms being superseded by
any quantity Of leaf buds each of which can
develop into a young plant. | tancied that on
such an estate as Altoona or Shoys it might
sbe profitably grown. These and similar pro-
perties could have yielded but poorly this
dry year in the stock-raisirg line. Excess.
siyeiy dry years are exceptional in st. Croix,
but rather long drought and consequent loss.
es of cattle are not unfrequent. Moreover
the cultivation OF hemp is no bar whatever to
the stock-hence an outlay to establish hemp
manufacture, even if not readily remunera-
tive, could never injure the land, in the way
that cotton culture dhring the American war
injured those sugar estates which specuIated
in 1t.
Another Indigenous plant here, SaHSerlerd
gujnieRSis Gguana tail) attracts attention in
this connection. At Spring Gut l once saw
a man trying to up root and burn it as a
nuisance. It's thick leshy underground
stems showed such a pretty red and white to
the eye. and indicated so much storage of
vitality that naturally asked the man if he
knew any use for it. He replied that the
roots were useless but the leaves were some
times made into whip-lash by the pasturemen.
| am aware that this plant is one of those
which tho great botanlst Baron Eggels at
tempted to utilize in st. Thomas, and that he
failed, but this could not have been owing to
the plant lacking fibre, for it is the producer
of African bow-strlng hemp. In -Froude's
book there is mention of an American who
endpavoured to found an enterprise of this
nature in Jamaica, and had to expend much
more than he expected before be attained his
object. It does strike one as curious that
the West India Islands about here, belong
ing to the most progressive races, should
have for years let estates lapse into bush,
while the Mexicans of Yucatan have now for
30 years been ordering machinery from Eng
land and have made fortunes out of their
barren soil. At any rate the man at Spring
Gut set ne inquiring whether this Sansevie-
ra might not be treated with the same ma
chinery as the other plant. Both plants are
very prolific in this island, whatever the
Geather. I could not help thinking that if
onesof the successful sugar planters who died
some years ago, leaving a large sum Of money
to his heirs, had had this subject brought to