Looking  at  the  two  latter  provisions,  it  will  be  seen  at  once
that  they  were  calculated  to  encourage  what  has  been  so
energetically  deprecated,  viz.,  the  possession  of  more  land  by
one  man  than  his  means  enable  him  to  cultivate.  To  take  a
not  very  extreme  instance,  there  might  be  four  children  of  one
couple  between  ten  and  fifteen  years  of  age,  and  between  one
and  ten  there  might  be  five.  The  four  children  between  ten
afad  fifteen  would  have  a  collective  claim  on  eight  acres,  and
the  five  between  one  and  ten  on  two  and  a  half  acres — or  ten
and  a  half  acres  in  all,  and  aggregating  fifteen  and  a  half  when
added  to  the  allotments  of  the  parents.  Any  one  who  is  at
all  acquainted  with  the  amount  of  labour  necessary  to  cultivate
the  soil  in  Demerara  will  at  once  recognize  that  with  such
rules  in  existence  the  Settlement  would  contain  the  elements
of  its  own  destruction.  Although  yielding  its  fruits  in  rich
profusion  when  efficiently  tilled,  local  agriculture  requires
more  vigour  than  the  tickle  with  a  hoe,  spoken  of  by  Sydney
Smith,  as  the  sole  preliminary  to  a  bountiful  harvest  Mr.
