The East India Vade-Mecum, Volume 1 (of 2): or, complete guide to gentlemen intended for the civil, military, or naval service of the East India Company.Williamson, Thomas
History
The East India Vade-Mecum, Volume 1 (of 2): or, complete guide to gentlemen intended for the civil, military, or naval service of the East India Company.
Williamson, Thomas
India -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
The teak, and poon trees, both of which are of important service in
naval architecture, might certainly be raised to great size in St.
Helena. The burghut, or banian tree, might also thrive; but I should
except against it as requiring too much nourishment, and exhausting the
soil, without being any wise useful as timber. The tamarind tree, though
it supplies a large proportion of fruit, has this objection against it,
that it is peculiarly unfriendly to all others in its vicinity: no grass
will grow under it; and persons who sleep beneath its shelter, or within
its influence, are subjected to fevers: its timber is substantial, being
hard and heavy, but by no means strong, on account of its tendency to
rive, and to start into fissures; especially at those knots whence
boughs have been thrown out. The bamboo may be cultivated to very great
advantage: it grows, throughout India, on the most elevated situations,
and on spots where scarcely a handful of soil is to be found in the
vicinity of its roots. The value of this reed, (for it is nothing more,
though it reaches to the height of seventy feet, and frequently measures
from five to six inches in diameter,) would be incalculable, were it
applied merely to making fences; which, in such a climate, would be very
durable. An invaluable acquisition would be obtained from its more
general culture, especially as it is of very quick growth. But the most
important advantages would certainly attend the formation of vine-yards,
in such parts as might, by their aspect and soil, be best suited to the
purpose. The temperature of the climate is highly favorable, the
thermometer averaging, during the summer season, from 76° to 79° and
80°, and rarely falling below 54°. That great enemy to grapes, rain, is
not much to be dreaded; though it cannot be doubted, that in proportion
as vegetation should be increased by assiduous planting, and by
preserving due supplies of water for the upper levels, more dew and more
rain would fall: however, not to such excess as to ruin the vine-yards.
Coffee has been found to thrive here; but I much doubt whether it would
be an object to cultivate that which is so abundant throughout the West
Indies, and which can be so amply supplied from countries, whence it
comes as a return for our own manufactures.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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