as far as possible, the statistics of each article to the close of
last year, thus rendering the work valuable by commercial references
which could not be found collectively elsewhere.

There are some articles of commerce which could not properly be
treated of in a work intended as a guide on agriculture and husbandry,
for the tropical planter and cultivator, who purposes devoting his
attention to the raising of useful crops and plants on his estate. The
forests and jungles of the tropics abound in products of an useful
character, the luxurious and spontaneous growth of nature, such as
ebony, sandal wood, &c.; but these must be sought for by a different
class of settlers; and the mahogany cutter of Honduras, the
teak-feller of India, the gatherer of elastic gums, can scarcely be
ranked with the cultivators of the soil.

I had originally intended to confine my remarks to staples of tropical
growth, but I have been induced to depart from my prescribed plan by
the importance of some of the commercial products of temperate
regions, such as maple and beet-root sugar, wheat, the grain crops,
and potatoes.

The system of agriculture, and modes of tillage, &c., of separate
countries in the Eastern and Western hemisphere, notwithstanding their
similarity of climate, are as opposite as if each country belonged to
a different zone; and yet much may be learned by one of the other.

The only essentially useful division of seasons in countries within
the tropics is into a wet and dry season, the former being the period
of germination, the latter that of fructification.