, 1908-01-25

ecu u 1lOtu CuO HIS, IL lS GTu6, u GuCI0 was
still a good deal of it in the valleys, and the
district w q populous. At the Country
School at La Vallee over fifty children were
in attendance. But already the drawbacks
to the cultivation there were too great,and it
was evidently pining. The riots i'll 1878 struck
Il last heavy blow, and it died out the pO-
p~ulation wandered away and the school was
closed. No other cultivation took the place
of the cane; a few cattle wandered around
and picked up q rather poor living, but
otherwise the land was useless and became
a wilderness.
Visiting La Vallee a few years later, in a
rather dry time, the writer was so saddened
by the ruin aud desolation all around that
he determined TO make no more excursions
to the spot.
A couple of years ago q West End cores
pondent described a visit which he made to
La Vallee, when he found a complete trans
formation there, and last year the present
writer also visited the place and saw that
the said correspondents enthusiasm was
justified. That visit, however; only extend
ed to La Vallee, but the last visit, a few days
ago, was extended to Cane Bay and Prospe-
rity, the estates lying in the farther valley.
Everywhere there were signs of extensive
and careful cultivation. Ample means,
well used, have turned these proper
ties, so recently lying waste, iuto a
fCurishing garden. Great stretches of
cotton, full of tall and healthy plants,
occupied the larger part of the plain
and the lower slopes, while parts Of
the latter and the higher slopes, were filled
with fine guinea grass, wired off into large
fields, iii which horses and cattle were NOV
ing about among the rich fodder, or taking
shelter from the sun under the natural OF
artificial shade. Bananas occupied the
moister places and especially the old pond
patches near the sea- shore, which had been
cleared and drained for the purpose Along
the shore o broad belt of the natural vege-
tation, manchineel, sea side grape &c.
has been judioiously left as a wind-break.and
lines of yJung trees by the road side, and
elsewhere, including native and Honduras
mahogany, West Indian cedars, galba, lines &c.
have been planted for the same purpose.
The whole appearance Of LaVullee, as ap-
preached from the east, is greatly improved.
The roads have been Strengthened, drained
aud gravelled, tire old ruins of the works
have been built up as a c~otton-sorting and
storing house, and the labourers' cottages
on the hill side have been rebuilt, and look
smart and n6at.
The result of the rebuilding of the Iabour-
= L . COlOhSCC uAV VII ooO O"hOA O'o"OO0J
is that hands enough for the work are Sc
cured. We saw a fairly large gang in one
field of cotton engaged In wedding, and a
similar gang in another picking the cotton.
Many of the labourers remain during the
working days and so to town late in the
week to return early the following week.
Such is the good effect Of these building
operations.
In the way of building, it is, however, the
managers house at Cane Bay that makes the
most striking impression. It is beautifully
situated, on a rise q short distance from the
road, and commando a fine view of the sea
and of the open country on all sides, The
house of itself is q pleasant and convenient
one, and is made remarkably beautiful by the
taste of the present manager, who has plant
ed ornamental shrubs and many kinds of
towering plants all around it, Che small
gardens affording many q pleasant botani-
cal lesson. In the valley Immediately to the
east Of the house is a good stretch of ground
used rs a nursery for trees aud other plants,
a near view of which would doubtless be as
interesting as that with which we were sa-
tisfed from the house.
Not far off is a lime kiln in which the
lime needed for the buildings in progress IS
being burned, and on the road to PrOsperi-