The estates have no regular hospital for the sick negroes; but one of the houses of the row is oftentimes set apart for this purpose. The stocks in which disorderly slaves are placed, stand in the claying-house. STOCK. OF those estates which I have seen, I think that the average number of negroes sent to daily labour in the field does not reach forty for each; for although there may be upon a plantation this number of males and females of a proper age for working, still some of them will always be sick or employed upon errands, not directly conducive to the advancement of the regular work. An estate which possesses forty able negroes, males and females, an equal number of oxen[165], and the same of horses, can be very well worked; and if the lands are good, that is, if there is a fair proportion of low and high lands fit for the culture of the sugar-cane, such an estate ought to produce a number of chests of sugar of fifteen hundred weight each, equal to that of the able slaves. I speak of forty slaves being sufficient, because some descriptions of work are oftentimes performed by freemen; thus, for instance, the sugar boilers, the person who clays the sugar, the distiller, the cartmen, and even some others are very frequently free. Only a very small proportion of the sugar will be muscavado, if the business is conducted with any degree of management. I have heard it said by many planters that the melasses will pay almost every expence; and that if rum is made, the proceeds of the melasses are rendered fully equal to the usual yearly expenditure. The negroes may be valued at 32_l._ each; oxen at 3_l._ each; and horses at the same; but by management the two last may be obtained at lower prices. A sugar plantation of the first class, with suitable buildings, may be reckoned as being worth from 7000_l._ to 8000_l._ and some few are valued as high as 10,000_l._; but an advance of one-sixth of the price would probably be accepted, the remainder to be paid by yearly instalments. The inland plantations may be reckoned at from 3000_l._ to 5000_l._ and a few are rather higher; but a smaller advance would be required than upon the purchase of prime plantations, and the instalments would be more moderate. Plantations of the first class ought to have eighty negroes at least, and an increased number of animals, owing to their capability of employing more hands.[166]