An absentee proprietor should have the information book written in duplicate and keep one copy with him, and in this he should write his opinion as to how it would be advisable to deal with the property in the event of his death.  The book, I need hardly add, would be of the greatest value to the proprietor’s heir, as with it he would be the master of the manager, while without it the manager would be the master of the new proprietor.

Another great advantage arising from the information book is that it does away with all possibility of misunderstanding.  There can be no “Oh, I understood this, or thought you wanted the other,” or, “Oh, I was not informed, and now that I know what you want.”  In short, there can be no room either for disputes or excuses with a well-kept, written up to date, information book.

The following hints may prove useful to young planters, or managers, but, as it will be more convenient, I shall use the word manager solely, and the reader will understand that in the term manager I include planters who are their own managers, or who, in other words, do not employ a manager.

When the Duke of Wellington was asked by Lord Mahon (afterwards the Earl Stanhope) to what he attributed the success of his campaigns, the Duke replied, “The real reason why I succeeded in my own campaigns is because I was always on the spot.  I saw everything and did everything for myself.”  Managers should remember this secret of success, and remember that, when they give orders they must always go and see that they are carried out, and if they do not do so, they may certainly rely on their orders being imperfectly, or inefficiently executed.  And here I am reminded of a case to the point which happened one morning.  My manager had ordered some top soil to be laid on one of the roads in the plantation, and on this bonedust was scattered, the intention being that each basketful of top soil should contain a certain proportion of the bonedust.  On passing the spot on the way to look at some other work my manager dismounted, and said, “if you will remain here for a moment I will rejoin you.”  Then he went down into the coffee to look at the application of the manure.  During his absence I overheard a woman say to the man who was filling her basket, “You have put no bones in my basket.”  This called my attention to the subject, and I then observed that the bonedust had not been scattered right up to the edges of the top soil, which overlapped the deposit of bonedust by about a foot, and hence her basket, which was being filled from the edge of the heap (which was a flattened one), contained no bonedust, or but a very little of it, and the result of this, of course, would be injurious to all those trees which had been deprived of the proper share of bones, or got none at all.  This may seem a trifling matter, but it will illustrate and enforce my suggestion as to the necessity of being always on the spot, and it is the attention to, or neglect