| Abstract: | The wealth of Jamaica in the late 1700s was based upon a sugar planting system. Although contemporaries carefully and fully described this system, they neglected to comment upon its evolution. This paper discusses the evolution of the system's soil management practices during its formative period and compares these techniques to those of related agricultural systems of other places. The interpretation of this information assumes that the evolution of agricultural practices on early Jamaica was consistent with models developed within general evolutionary theory. Several key practices, which originated in Britain, were selectively transferred to Jamaica both directly and indirectly through Barbados, the first British sugar colony in the Caribbean. Those practices which survived in Jamaican agriculture were often modified to adapt them to the island's distinctive physical, social and economic environment. |
