d therefore, for some time to come, capital
will naturally flow towards sugar-planting; and great sheets of the
forest will be, too probably, ruthlessly and wastefully swept away
to make room for canes. And yet one must ask, regretfully, are
there no other cultures save that of cane which will yield a fair,
even an ample, return, to men of small capital and energetic habits?
What of the culture of bamboo for paper-fibre, of which I have
spoken already? It has been, I understand, taken up successfully in
Jamaica, to supply the United States' paper market. Why should it
not be taken up in Trinidad? Why should not Plantain-meal {318a} be
hereafter largely exported for the use of the English working
classes? Why should not Trinidad, and other islands, export fruits-
-preserved fruits especially? Surely such a trade might be
profitable, if only a quarter as much care were taken in the West
Indies as is taken in England to improve the varieties by selection
and culture; and care taken also not to spoil the preserves, as now,
for the English market, by swamping them with sugar or sling. Can
nothing be done in growing the oil-producing seeds with which the
Tropics abound, and for which a demand is rising in England, if it
be only for use about machinery? Nothing, too, toward growing drugs
for the home market? Nothing toward using the treasures of gutta-
percha which are now wasting in the Balatas? Above all, can nothing
be done to increase the yield of the cacao-farms, and the quality of
Trinidad cacao?

For this latter industry, at least, I have hope. My friend--if he
will allow me to call him so--Mr. John Law has shown what
extraordinary returns may be obtained from improved cacao-growing;
at least, so far to his own satisfaction that he is himself trying
the experiment. He calculates {318b} that 200 acres, at a maximum
outlay of about 11,000 dollars spread over six years, and
diminishing from that time till the end of the tenth year, should
give, for fifty years after that, a net income of 6800 dollars; and
then 'the industrious planter may sit down,' as I heartily hope Mr.
Law will do, 'and enjoy the fruits of his labour.'

Mr. Law is of opinion that, to give such a return, the cacao must be
farmed in a very different way from the usual plan; that the trees
must not be left shaded, as now, by Bois Immortelles, sixty to
eighty feet high, during their whole life. The trees, he