“I don’t have any trouble with them,” he replied. “I pay ’em well because I find it suits me best, but as to ever imagining they will make decent citizens, why, it’s out of the question! The fools might have bought us all out by this time, if they had any sense.”
“And made the island a second Hayti?” I suggested.
“Well, possibly! but when they do buy a bit of land they ruin it by bad cultivation,” said he.
“I wish they would not live crowded up together in those filthy one-roomed huts! I cannot get over my feeling of disgust at them in this respect!”
“They might take a bath sometimes!” he interrupted. “They have not any decent pride.” He went on to speak of their very sketchy covering at coffee harvesting time, and said he never let his women-folk go near them on those occasions.
This gentleman had been in Jamaica since 1876. Sugar, he said, had ruined his family. Coffee was the only crop he considered worth cultivating. There was no money in oranges—this conclusion I had arrived at myself.
It was about this time I paid my first visit to Hope Gardens. I went with a friend who knew one of the officials, and we were taken all over that interesting government establishment for the promotion of agriculture. Here plants are introduced, and, if suitable to the climate and soil, are propagated. The products of Jamaica being purely agricultural, the well-organised and scientifically-treated garden and plantations are of great help to students. Early last century yams, cocoas, maize, and plantains, etc., were first cultivated, so as to make the island less dependent upon American supplies; they are spoken of as valuable exotics. Indeed it is interesting to learn where Jamaica obtained her inexhaustible products. In Bryan Edward’s “History of the British West Indies,” vol. 1, p. 475, we are told that in 1782 the mango, akee, cinnamon, camphor, jack-tree, kola, date-palm, rose-apple, turmeric, and other valuable plants to the number of six hundred had been not only introduced, but acclimatised in Jamaica.
Spain furnished oranges, lemons, limes, and citrons. The prickly pear came from Mexico. The shaddock from China. Guinea-grass, which is most useful for cattle, was accidentally brought from the west coast of Africa. Sugar-cane was grown here by the Spaniards, but first cultivated by the English in 1660. Logwood came from Honduras; this is a famous dye-wood and has a beautiful blossom. The graceful bamboo was brought from Hispaniola. The scarlet flowering akee, eaten as a vegetable, came from West Africa in a slaver. Pimento is indigenous to the island; from this tree we get allspice. The fustic tree, from which khaki dye is produced, is common along the hedgerows; so is also aniseed, which is known medicinally in most of our English homes. The nutmeg tree is quite common in the West Indies. In Hope Gardens they have specimens of every plant grown in the island, and for those fond of botany, I can imagine nothing more enjoyable than to wander for hours amongst its trees and plants. Connected with this government institution the Jamaican Agricultural Society make special grants for lectures.
Practical demonstrations on bee-keeping have been made throughout the island, and Jamaica honey is considered one of the best which reaches the London market.
Personally, I consider the bread-fruit tree, the Jamaican cedar, the beautiful clumps of feathery bamboos, about the most beautiful of the trees generally met with in country drives. As one walks along the grass bordering the road, one may inadvertently step upon the sensitive plant, which curls up when touched; but one’s attention is incessantly aroused at the wonderful growth of cacti and orchids, and what the natives call “wild pines,” lining the boughs of the trees, and fixing themselves in great clumps in the forks of the branches. The Palma Christi, or castor-oil plant, grows wild.