Letter to the Lord Glenelg Author:John Innes Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: impoverishment; he has thus given them an interest in what was formerly only a labour, and he has no apprehension that his apprentices will desert him on the ter... more »mination of the apprenticeship. Should any leave him, he doubts not but that there will be competition for the vacant cottages and grounds, instead of his having to seek for occupants. GRENADA. From St. Vincent I proceeded to this island. I find the apprenticeship system workingso much more satisfactorily than the planters had anticipated, that some of them begin to look forward to freedom with diminished apprehension. I almost fear that the improved spirits of the planters may prevent their bestowing timely attention to the best means of supplying that deficiency of labour which I fear will be found inseparable from the change to freedom. Although, on the whole, this must be considered a healthy island, of moderate temperature, there are many sugar-estates in situations so far uncongenial to European constitutions as to preclude the hope that field-labour can be performed by whites. I find a strong predilection for Germans, from the German soldiers who had been disbanded and settled here having been distinguished for sobriety. I believe some planters intend to visit Germany, for the express purpose of selecting a few respectable families to bring here. In this island there is muchmore spare land than in St. Vincent, and therefore more encouragement can be held out to European labourers. This comparative abundance of land has led to a difference in the systems of cultivation. Here, to produce the same quantity of sugar as in St. Vincent, a much more extensive cultivation is kept up, less from inferiority of soil, than of manuring. This extension of cultivation beyond what can be kept in proper condition occasions ...« less