Page:Remarks upon the Situation of Negroes in Jamaica.pdf/27

 the negro to the utmoſt, and I have never known theſe plantations proſper, the matters of which have been bent upon immediate gain. Even ſtrength may be wrought down to weakneſs, the ſlouteſt cattle become diſabled, and the beſt land be ſo much cultured as to make it poor: it is therefore better to forego a preſent, or accidental profit, (for if hurricanes continue, the additional ſtrength of an hundred negroes would not encreaſe the crop in any proportion to the expence) than to puſh forward to an uncertainty, and a blind dependance upon thoſe ſeaſons which have for ſome years paſt ſo woefully deceived. It muſt be confeſſed that more manual exertion is neceſſary upon ſome properties than upon others; for, wherever an eſtate requires a large portion of land, with a ſmall proportion of ſtrength, to be annually planted, the labour muſt be greatly more than on that which with the ſame number of hands, does not require ſo many acres to be ſteadily put in. An eſtate making two hundred hogſheads of ſugar, and preſerving its capital, will be worth more at the end of thirty years than one making three, that is obliged to depend upon frequent.