The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1914-06-11

la bttA uOllt III lht tlOplNS. ntlt
is some talk of a banana -four and
banana vinegar. but if such things
exist they are in small quantities and
cut no figure as a commercial posi-.
bility.
Returning to Jamaica VI will briefly
review her varied products before
crossing the Blue Caribbean to Panama.
The diversity of production in this is
land is surprising. For instance, in
corn, Irish potatoes. sweet potatoes.
string beans and many other products
with which We are familiar. Side by
side with these we find grape fruit.
oranges, b|readfruit. vans, ginger.
Suoar cane tobacco. cocoa. %Cocoanut.
pine apple, asava mangoes, pawpaw,
and a hundred other fruits and vege-
tables which We never heard of. Cot.
ton. coffee. logwood and bee keeping
growing industry is the manufacture
of Jippa Jappa hats. which is another
name for the Panama hat, which is
made from a variety of palm.
All these things grow in Jamaica. an
island little in itself, but big in its
range of products and bigger in its
opportunities. They raise cattle. hogs,
goats, and sheep, and the growing in.
dustry is more or less profitable. Milk
steak sells for only 12c a pound. Eggs
were 81 cents a dozen on the market
on the 18th of March. | am told the
price ranges from % to 80 cents a
dozen.
But to the northern eyes there is
something ludicrous in the way they
30 at things in Jamaica, although they
themselves are serious enough. The
primitive weapons with which they at
husbandryman the heartache, They
would rather carry a w~heelbarrow on
their heads than to propel it. They
would prefer a five pound grub hoe
with a crooked helve to a pillow. They
would prefer a single acre and carry
all they raise 20 market on their heads,
than an estate of larger magnitude
which might require some effort to cul,
tivate. The land is either owned IN
inn ,,nca tro.t. nla ntntinnS or II, Iittlo
patches by natives. But in either case
they only work enough to settle their
meals.
Jamaica is a land of woman's rights.
That is, the oma is born to an in
heritance. She inherits all the work,
and the older she gets the more they
pile on her. once asked a native to
show me the hardest, toughest job on
the island.
What do you want to see it for?"
he said.
Il want to see the oldest woman on
the island" told him.
While waiting for a mar in a down
town Office | saw across the street a
new building going up. A woman was
mixing the mortar and another was
carrying the hod, IN her head of course
and on the walls a was laying
the brick.
One of the sights in Jamaica is the
p,nrnin1 yieit Of Tho u-np,an from, tho |
country districts bearing produce to
market. 1t all comes in on their heads,
sometimes from a distance of ten
miles. How these women overcome
the laws of gravitatiOn is a mystery.
They never spill anything and yet
they swing along with burdens that
seem to be dangerously near the fall
ing point. This meanest kind of drudg-
cry has m advantage. The women of
of carriage unsurpassed by any cOun-
try on earth. The free swinging, ath-
letic strides of these ebony creatures
is a delight to the eye. No curvature
of the spine here, and no fiat chests;
nc hobble skirts, nor tango steps need
ed. In the matter Of skirts, there is
little to be said and the same applies
to sleeves. Bare footed, bare armed
balancing a burden which would make
a man stagger, they swing into market
with the early morn. and at night they
The long, graceful strides with
which they cover territory seems easy
and tireless, but | don't want the task
of attempting to keep up under the
glazing rays Of their tropic sunshine.
Next week we will be in Colon. the
American entrance to the Panama
canal, and so we will have to leave
Jamaica, although somewhat reluctant
ly, for to me at least it is the most in
teresting island in the West Indies,
and the most desirable.
Lou d. MacWethy.