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[[note]] Dear D. This was left out of my letter to you & I am now closing it with this last one to my mother DHB.6 June. [[/note]]

Los Amates, 28/5/19

Dear old girl:
I left my letter behind when I came up this morning, so I am starting a fresh one. We came up on the morning train, Yates & I, and I changed driers on my plants and took a few pictures from just outside the house, & then we had lunch -- deer; frijoles, rice, cheese (lively), bread, jam, & coffee. They called it venison, but it may have been horse.

After lunch I went down to the riverbed with my bottle to look for insects, but got none. I have my third tobacco tin half full now with those I have taken chiefly beetles & bugs, with a few flies & wasps & ants. I havent picked any trees to pieces, and there are very few to pick. A tree decays here in a very short space of time. Coming down from Playitas to Quebradas I saw

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land being cleared for banana plantations. First the shrubby growth in the forest is cleared out, leaving the tall trees & perhaps some of the palms. Then the banana shoots are stuck into the ground in lines at the proper distance apart, and then the big trees remaining are felled over them & left to rot & enrich the soil, which they do very quickly in this climate. Usually the underbrush which has been cut is burned after it has dried in the sun before the sprouts are planted. This partly destroys the rich surface soil, but this is supposed to be compensated by the destruction of insects & noxious animals. The suckers which have been planted do not themselves bear, but send up half a dozen or so "water" and "sword" sprouts. These are thinned out so that only some of the vigorous sword [[strikethrough]] spr [[/strikethrough]] suckers remain,