COTTON PROSPECTS IN THE WEST INDLES.
The Grove, Gravesend, 29th August, 1859.
Sra—It afforded me much satisfaction to see in your impression of Satur- day, a letter from a correspondent upon the subject of cotton growing in Jamaica.
The great and humane act or emancipation, for which England paid so much, will, in my opinion, be but a partial success, until we shall again grow in our islands and colonies the three great staples of the tropics— sugar, coffee, and cotton ; cultivated in the days of slavery. And why should we not do so ? We have land of the finest quality, with a suitable climate to rear these productions in quantities sufficient to supply the wants of the whole world, then surely we ought to grow enough for our own use, without being dependent, as 'now, upon slave states for a great portion of what we consume. Our sugar plantations are progressing very well, particularly in Bar- bsuloes, British Guiana, and in some of the smaller islands. The quality of the sugar, too, owing to the introduction of modern machinery, is infinitely superior to what it was twenty years ago, and nearly everywhere the pros duction is steadily upon the increase. What we ought to do now is to resume the cultivation of cotton and coffee. It is of vital national importance it should be done, and I am pre- pared-to show that there exists no real difficulty in the way of its accom- plishment.
To cultivate cotton and coffee, three essentials are wanted—viz., land, labour, capital ; the two first are in the West Indies in abundance. The only thing needed is capital from England ; and if English capitalists were but acquainted with facts, they would, I am sure, embark a portion of their wealth in a channel that must prove advantageous and profitable in a national and individual point of view.
From statements made in the newspapers and in Parliament upon the subject of immigration, you and many of your readers may suppose me to be in error in reference to the abundance of labour existing in the colonies ; believe me when I repeat, deliberately, there is an abundance.
The cultivation of sugar ie laborious, from the very first process in the field to the very last in the boiling-house, and the labourers, whether men or women, must be strong and athletic to endure it.
The cultivation of cotton and coffee, on the contrary, is light ; old men, old women and children being able to work at it. To pick cotton and coffee there is as easy as to gather currants and gooseberries here, and to prune the bushes there not more difficult than to trim the trees here. Moreover, I have seen pregnant women gather cotton and coffee with perfect comfort to themselves, when within a very short period of their confinement.
A dozen or twenty able-bodied men are all the necessities of a cotton or coffee plantation would demand at the present day. The pulping and stamping of coffee and cleaning of cotton are now done by machinery. There are at this moment in the British West Indies (and I make the statement without fear of contradiction) from four to five hundred thousand people who never assist in the smallest degree in the cultivation of sugar— many, because they think the work is too laborious, and they prefer any other, even precarious, mode of obtaining a livelihood ; but many, indeed the majority, because their physical capabilities are unequal. You may inquire, "But would these people turn out to labour in the cotton and coffee field ? " I answer by asking, " Do the women and children in Kent turn out to pick hope and apples in the proper season ?" The black people know and appreciate the value of money and the comforts it can bring them as well any people in the world, only afford them the oppor- tunity of earning it.
In a former part of this letter I said British capital is required to culti- vate cotton and coffee. By that I mean there is no colonial capital to be had for the purpose, as it is all preUngaged in the manufacture of sugar.
In conclusion, let me add, what a field of enterprise here presents itself to the consideration of the capitalist and the philanthropist !
Should England stop with the emancipation she bought so nobly and at such a sacrifice ? Should she not go further, and promote, if not provide, the means to cultivate cotton and coffee, and thus give opportunities to the people she set at liberty to earn their subsistence at a mode of labour suited to their strength ? I abstain from making any remarks upon the effect the success of this measure would ultimately have upon slavery in other parts of the world ; the inference is too plain to need elucidation, particularly as the fact of free labour being cheaper than slave labour, is patent to all who have studied the subject.
Personally, I am prepared to do anything and everything within my power to forward, however humbly or remotely, the object in view.
I am,-Sir, your obedient servant, C. H. Sraurr, Retired Stipendiary Magistrate, late of British Guiana, West Indies.
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