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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 6

Bahamas.—

Bahamas.—

I learn with satisfaction the continued success which follows the energetic attempts of his Excellency Governor Robinson to develop the agricultural industries of these islands.

The exportation of Tomatos has grown with extraordinary rapidity, as shown by the following figures:—
1875 2 crates.
1876 200 crates.
1877 7,000 crates.
1878 20,000 crates. (estimated).

Governor Robinson thinks that there is no reason why the Bahamas should not, like the Bermudas, be able to send to the United States market 150,000 boxes of Tomatos annually of a value of from 10,000l. to 12,000l.

In July of last year Onions (of which I had sent out some of the best procurable European seed) were for the first time exported from the Bahamas. Governor Robinson states:—"Nearly 4,000 tons weight of Madeira onions are sent from Bermuda to the New York market annually, and I think it has been abundantly proved that it only requires in dustry and energy on the part of the farmers in these islands to enable them to enter into successful competition with those islands which have hitherto enjoyed something akin to a monopoly in the export of these products."

Governor Robinson also reports the exportation of Tobacco from the Bahamas for the first time in July 1878, when 2,000 lbs. of fine tobacco from Vuelta Abajo seed were sent to New York.

Bahama cigars have been also sold for export, to America at the rate of 40 dollars per 1,000.

"Thousands of cigars of native tobacco and manufacture are now smoked in this Colony, and though they fall far short of Havana cigars, I believe their radical defect is rather in the incomplete fermentation and cure of the leaf than in its inferiority to that of the plant grown in the island of Cuba."