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AGRICULTURE WITH CHEMISTRY. 23

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tion tax on tea, he cannot on this head, enter into further detail; and will only add, that were the tax to fall heavier on that species of property than he is aware of, it might be proportionably diminished, and the deficiency of the tax be made up by an additional one on ardent spirits, or on some other proper object of tax-

ation.

Having concluded the suggestions towards the repeal of the three taxes which are the most repressive of in~ dividual and national exertion, reference will now be had to Mr. Epwarps’s description of the soils best adapt- ed for the culture of the sugar-cane, in his History of the West Indies, wherein. he confirms the opinion of the Author, that soils may receive considerable injury by too frequent ploughings, stirrings, or exposure of renewed surfaces to the action of air and sun, especially where the sun’s rays are so very powerful as they are in the West Indies. By these Extras it will appears that(with few exceptions) the soil in the West Indies, best adapted for the culture of the sugar-cane, is a rich, deep, black mould. There is no soil of that colour that does not contain carbonaceous or vegetable matter. Such

Gg soils

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