and 1,435 puncheons of
rum. Of the whole area of the estates, 3,555 acres are in pasturage, and
28,552 acres inaccessible or ruinate. There are, besides, 151 small
properties of 20 acres and upward. In six districts, comprising about
one fourth of the parish, there were found 143 small cane mills, valued
at L10 apiece, which turned out, in 1859, 455 barrels of sugar, worth
about L900, to say nothing of the pork fattened on the refuse molasses.
One district of the six, constituting the quarter of the parish
examined, produced, in 1857, 146 barrels; in 1858, 227 barrels; in 1859,
261 barrels.

This is a pretty fair picture of what may be expected in parishes where
the whites show some regard for the blacks; not very magnificent
results, it is true, but showing the disposition of the people to
procure land of their own, and their increasing disposition to add to
the raising of provisions the cultivation of the great staple of the
soil. The report of the Society of Industry bears the following
testimony to their character: 'The peasantry are, generally speaking,
industrious and well behaved, and are gradually becoming more
comfortable in their worldly circumstances. In the town of Lucea there
has been a decided increase in the amount of business within the last
three years as compared with a number of years previously.' In Hanover,
in 1845, there were 70 estates in operation. In 1860 there were only 29.
The planters of this parish, however, do not lay the blame on the
negroes, but attribute the decline to the mountainous character of the
parish, which made it unprofitable to continue the estates after the
great fall in the price of sugar.

Now the blacks of Hanover are just the same race as the rest of the
negro population of the island. The only difference is that the whites
of that parish, instead of treating them with contempt and neglect, have
shown something of courtesy and care toward them. The numerous
conversations which Mr. Underhill reports with the owners and managers
of successful estates show how simple are the rules by which they secure
success. To manifest a decent respect for the blacks, to be firm, but
temperate and fair in dealing with them, to use the best improvements in
machinery, and to exercise a strict economy of management--this appears
to be the sum of the difference between prosperous and unprosperous
plantations, provided of course that both are equally well situated for
success.

Metcalfe, t