IV. I HAVE now finished all that I proposed CHAP. to offer on West Indian productions and agriculture. The subject is naturally dry and forbidding, and having wearied myself, I have no doubt that I have exhausted the patience of others. Let it not be forgotten, however, that I have had to conduct my readers through a path not strewed with roses, but-perplexed with briars, and hitherto almost untrodden. In such a pursuit, I may perhaps be content to give up all pretensions to the happy talent of blending pleasure with instruction, satisfied with the homely praise of being useful to the most useful part of the community*. *To the productions of the British West Indies, imported into Great Britain, might be added tumerick, cinnamon, and cloves. Plantations of each are established; but they are yet in their infancy. Enough however has been produced of each of those commodities, and the quality such, as to demonstrate that they can be raised in our sugar islands, in as great plenty and perfection as in any part of the world. APPENDIX ΤΟ BOOK V. CONTAINING Some Account of the Cultivation of the Clove Tree, in the ABOUT the month of July 1789, a friend of mine in Cayenne sent me, as a present, a clove tree about six inches high, having six or eight leaves, and accompanied with a printed paper respecting the cultivation of it. It was required by my friend's paper, that the tree should be planted in a rich soil, and in a moist and cool situation, and in the shade of some trees round it. It was also observed by my friend, that the tree would thrive best if it were planted between four plantain trees. The continent of Cayenne being free from hurricanes, and the island of Dominica being, on the contrary, exposed to them, I thought that the plantain trees were of too tender a nature to afford a sufficient shade; because with the least gust of wind they might fall on the clove tree and destroy it in consequence, I selected one of the richest spots on my estate, being a rich black soil, where I had sixteen thousand coffee trees growing most luxuriantly; between four of those coffee trees I planted my clove tree with great care; I surrounded it with sticks to prevent it from being trod upon; the coffee trees served as a shade, it was DIX. a shade, and my intention was, when the clove tree should APPENextend itself, to lop or cut down the coffee tree nearest to it. Every possible care was taken of this plant; kept clean, and every time I went on my estate I visited it; knowing of what consequence it would be to the publick in general, and to me in particular, if I could bring this experiment to succeed. It may be easily supposed with what anxiety I viewed the growth of the plant; but, alas! what was my grief, when I found the clove tree hardly vegetating, losing its old leaves, as new ones sprung at the top; and, in the long space of near six months, not gaining an inch in height: disappointed in my hopes, I informed my friend of the little success I had had, and intreated his assistance in procuring other trees, if possible. In the month of December 1789, two more trees were sent to me. From my first disappointment, I wished to plant these new trees nearer to my house, and in a place that would be convenient for watching and promoting their growth. My dwelling-house is situated on a hill, to the eastward, which hill is composed of a stiff red clay soil; at the foot of this hill, and on the east side, is situated my garden; to obtain a flat of about one hundred and twenty feet square, one part of that hill has been dug and levelled, which in some parts has made a bank of nearly eleven feet high; the ground was spread over, in order to fill up the inequalities of the surface: it will readily be observed how poor some part of that surface must be, particularly on that side, where eleven feet were cut from the hill. Here I planted the above-mentioned two trees, but, at the same time, took care to place them as far as I could from that side of the hill, which had been pared down, as I had observed its soil was a stiff red clay; I therefore dug two holes at about twelve feet from each other, of about eighteen inches diameter, and two feet deep; finding the substratum to be of a yellow, strong, gravelly nature, I filled up these two holes with some good mould, BOOK V. mould, and in each of them I planted a clove tree; they grew fast and with luxuriance; which induced me to transplant the first clove tree I had received into the same garden, observing the same treatment; but whilst that tree was growing to my satisfaction, an insect destroyed the top of it, and occasioned its death. In the month of November 1791, being at Martinico, I visited the different gardens in and about the town of Saint Pierre as I was walking in the garden belonging to the Dominican friars, I remarked several young clove trees, each in a separate basket; they were the property of a gardener from Cayenne, and were to be disposed of. I purchased the whole of them, consisting of fourteen trees after collecting, from the generosity of my friends, different other plants, I returned to Dominica, rich with my new acquisition of clove trees, and determined to try different soils, Holes were dug in several parts of my garden, from twelve to fourteen feet distance, and of about the same dimensions as those mentioned before: on examining the soil, I found some of a stiff gravelly nature; in other parts, the substratum was of a yellow sandy kind; in some holes, after taking out about six inches of the surface, I found a stiff red clay; mixing some black mould with the different earths taken out of these holes, I filled them up, and planted in them ten out of the fourteen trees, reserving four trees for that part of the garden nearer the foot of the hill, where ten or eleven feet had been cut from the surface; there I dug no more than was necessary to plant my trees: the ground was a close, compact, stiff, red clay. In order to make an experiment, I mixed no mould, dung, sand, or other soil, with design to open the pores of the clay, but planted these last four trees in that clay, without the assistance of any thing whatever; abandoning their fate to nature, being resolved to run the risk of losing them, for the purpose of ascertaining, whether the clove tree required a rich soil or not. At the moment [ now DIX. now write, (October 1793,) twenty-three months have APPENelapsed, since the planting of these last fourteen trees; and it is with satisfaction I can assert, that the four trees, which were planted in the clay, have grown, with at least as much, if not more luxuriance, than the other ten: they are from five to six feet high, growing with vigour, fully furnished with branches at the bottom, and terminating in a point at the top, like a pyramid out of those fourteen trees, six of them were planted in a row, in the flattest part of the garden; the ground, with which the holes had been filled up having sunk a little below the surface, a hollow round three of these trees was formed, and the water, not having a sufficient current, collected round them: one tree died; the other two appearing to be in a declining state, I raised them above six inches, that they might be rather above the surface of the ground. Although these trees were planted with the others in November 1791, one of the two declining trees is not above six inches high, and the other twelve inches, whilst the other trees are three feet in height; this is a sufficient proof, that the clove tree requires a dry situation, and dreads a springy damp soil; though a certain degree of moisture will promote its growth. In the month of January 1793, with much trouble and expence, (say trouble, because the exportation from the French islands is prohibited), I procured two boxes of mother of cloves*: the berries were packed, some in sand, others in loose earth: upon receiving them, I ordered beds to be prepared in my garden, and in different parts of my estate, for the conveniency of transplanting, and of saving distance, when the nurseries should be fit for that purpose. I planted these seeds at about six inches distance, covering them with about one inch of earth. I had been previously told, that the clove tree, when young, requires to be sheltered from the sun; but reflecting on the latitudes of * Berries of the clove tree ripe and fit for vegetation, Cayenne |