This was especially true in dry seasons, when home provisions failed, and the island was mainly dependent upon foreign supplies.
But the chief source of the diminution lies in the reduced number of people to be supported by the planter.

During slavery, the planter was required by law to maintain _all_ the slaves belonging to the estate; the superannuated, the infirm, the pregnant, the nurses, the young children, and the infants, as well as the working slaves.

Now it is only the latter class, the effective laborers, (with the addition of such as were superannuated or infirm at the period of emancipation,) who are dependent upon the planter.

These are generally not more than one half, frequently less than a third, of the whole number of negroes resident on the estate; consequently a very considerable burthen has been removed from the planter.
The reader may form some estimate of the reduced expense to the planter, resulting from these causes combined, by considering the statement made to us by Hon.

N.Nugent, and repeatedly by proprietors and managers, that had slavery been in existence during the present drought, many of the smaller estates _must have been inevitably ruined_; on account of the high price of imported provisions, (home provisions having fallen short) and the number of slaves to be fed.
EIGHTH PROPOSITION .-- The negroes work _more cheerfully_, and _do their work better_ than they did during slavery.