antity of land
planted in cane, in 1834, was considerably less than the usual amount:
on some estates it was less by twenty, and on others by forty acres. Now
if such were the fact in the Parish of St. Thomas in the East, where
greater confidence was felt probably than in any other parish, we have a
clue by which we may conjecture (if indeed we were left to conjecture)
to what extent the cultivation was diminished in the island generally.
This of itself would satisfactorily account for the falling off in the
crops--which at most is not above one third. Nor would this explain the
decrease in '34 _only_, for it is well known among sugar planters that a
neglect of planting, either total or partial, for one year, will affect
the crops for two or three successive years.

The other cause of short crops has been the _diminished amount of time
for labor_. One fourth of the time now belongs to the laborers, and they
often prefer to employ it in cultivating their provision grounds and
carrying their produce to market. Thus the estate cultivation is
necessarily impeded. This cause operates very extensively, particularly
on two classes of estates: those which lie convenient to market places,
where the apprentices have strong inducements to cultivate their
grounds, and those (more numerous still) which _have harsh overseers_,
to whom the apprentices are averse to hire their time--in which cases
they will choose to work for neighboring planters, who are better men.
We should not omit to add here, that owing to a singular fact, the
falling off of the crops _appears_ greater than it really has been. We
learned from the most credible sources that _the size of the hogsheads_
had been considerably enlarged since abolition. Formerly they contained,
on an average, eighteen hundred weight, now they vary from a ton to
twenty-two hundred! As the crops are estimated by the number of
hogsheads, this will make a material difference. There were two reasons
for enlarging in the hogsheads,--one was, to lessen the amount of
certain port charges in exportation, which were made _by the hogshead_;
the other, and perhaps the principal, was to create some foundation in
appearance for the complaint that the crops had failed because of
abolition.

While we feel fully warranted in stating these as the chief causes of
the diminished crops, we are at the same time disposed to admit that the
apprenticeship is in itself exceedingly ill calculated either to
enc