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Show 106 JAMAICA. company of good-looking negroes, diligently engaged in pruning them. There was certainly no lack of production here, and none of effectual labor. We held a friendly parley with the laborers, whom we encou· rao-ed to continued industry, and then went forward to bthe great house (as they call the planter's residence on each estate)-in this instance, a neat dwelling embosomed in mountains, and commanding an extensive view of the sea. A more lovely spot I have seldom seen. There, on delivering our letter of introduction, we were kindly received and entertained by the proprietor, to whom we were entire strangers. One hundred and seventy slaves, or apprentices, used to be supported on this estate. Now, our friend employs fifty-four free laborers, who work for him four days in the week, taking one day for their pro· vision grounds, and another for market. This is all the labor that he requires, in order to keep up bil former extent of cultivation ; and willingly did he acknowledge the superior advantage which attends the present system. The saving of expense is obvious. I understood onr friend to allow that the average. cost of supporting a slave was £5 sterling per annum. 170 slaves at £5 per annum, is . £850 Now he pays 54 free laborers 4s. 6d. per week, one day's labor being set off against rent, for 50 weeks, two weeks being allowed for holydays . 607 10 Saving under freedom . £242 10 Here I would just remark that the settm· g of f of a day's labor, against rent, cannot be regarded as a de· JAMAICA. 107 sirable plan; for, in the first place, it involves the wife in the payment of rent, as well as the husband-both being required to give their day's labor; and secondly, it is quite unreasonable to expect that work, already (as it were) paid for, should be executed as well as that for which payment is expected. It was no matter of surprise to us, to hear that the work performed by the laborers of Halberstadt, on the day assigned to rent, was by no means equal to the usual average. J. C. Weiss shewed us his works, and kindly explained to us the whole process of coffee cultivation. First come~ the planting of the sucker-a slip with a root to it-five years being allowed for its growth, in a space from five to eight feet square, according to the nature of the soil. The plant looks like a handsome laurel, powdered in the blossoming season with fragrant white flowers; the berries red, sweet, and pulpy, each containing two coffee seeds or stones. The ,average annual produce of a coffee plant on these mountains is one pound of coffee-the height of the plant varying from three to ten feet. After about fifty years it ceases to bear; and the land becomes ruinate, that is incapable of producing any more coffee. But the truth of this prevailing notion may be questioned. The principal field operations, after the plant begins to bear, are pruning and picking-no severe work for the laborer. Then comes the "pulping"-in a mill formed for the purpose-by which the stones are deprived of the surrounding pnlp and outer skin. In a second mill, they are peeled of their inner skin, and separated from it by winnowing, as wheat from chaff·. The coflc' e t·s then spread in the sun, on large, open, clay |