AGRICULTURE IN BARBADOES.
Iesketh How, Ambleside, 14th September 1858.
Sm—In reading the excellent article, " The Migration of Labour," in the last number of your paper I was reminded of a conversation I lately had with a gentleman from Barbadoes, a planter, relative to the present state of agriculture in that island. He described it as eminently prosper- 005; as an example, he mentioned the' return of produce from his own Property, comparing it with what it had been when he came into possession, inheriting itfrom his father, shortly after slave emancipation. Then its yield was 90 hogsheads of sugar, now (this last season,) it had reached 330 hogsheads; and, what is note-worthy, without an increase of labouring Panda, mainly owing to better tillage, from the use of the plough and other implements, and to a greater outlay, chiefly in the purchase of foreign ma- Puna, guano, and nitrate of soda. Had you wished for a special example in support of your argument against the monstrous evil of forced immigra- tion and emigration, could you have found a better than Barbadoes, where there is no imported labour, where land is never allowed in lieu of wages, and where wages are repdarly and fairly paid ? The whole history of the bleat Indies, I may add, since the time of slavery, tells the same tale of disaster, so common, attending the false system you deprecate,—of success So pares, most remarkable in Barbadoea, the accompaniment of the better and sounder one which you advocate of home labour, duly paid, and the Payment a money one. I ain, Sir, your obedient servant, Joint DAVY.
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