All of these raw products of natural production are valuable, but that they shall form an element in trade depends upon the natives. These things all come from the forests of the interior; if they are to be traded to the outside world, they must be collected and transported by the people within whose territory they are found; this dependence is an uncertain thing. The natives have few needs; in their little towns they take life easily; they have no sentimental interest in the development of trade as such nor in the upbuilding of the country; they care comparatively little for the returns of trade; they will work when necessary, but only as they please; when they need some money for buying wives, they will prepare some piassava fiber or dig a pit, ferment some nuts, and squeeze some oil. When they have enough for the immediate and pressing necessity, work stops, and with it the supply of oil or fiber or whatever they may have seen fit to produce. More than this, the native is little concerned about the quality of his production. So long as he can sell it and raise the resources that he needs, he does not care whether the oil is clean, whether the piassava fiber is of good quality, or whether the rubber contains dirt and stones. Impurity, however, of products is a very serious matter to the outside world; a district which neglects quality loses trade. Liberian oil, fiber, rubber, all are at a disadvantage at present through the carelessness of the producers. It must, then, be the policy of the Liberian Government to encourage, by every legitimate means within its power, the increase of the production of the natural resources. Nor is the simple question of production the whole difficulty. Transportation is quite as important. The product, no matter how good or how precious, has no value as long as it remains in the bush. There are different methods of dealing with this matter of getting the natural products down to the coast settlements. The simplest and most natural is to let the native bring it out--but the natives are as little inclined to travel and carry as they are to produce; they will fetch down their product when they feel inclined--but the demand from without is constant. Liberians may go into the bush to bring out the products; there are always little traders who divide their time between the settlements and the interior; they travel in, sit down for several days at native towns, trade with the natives for whatever stuff they have on hand, then have it carried out; such traders are usually independent men of small means who are trading on their own account. It is not uncommon for the large trading-houses to hire agents,--Liberians or natives,--and send them into the interior to buy up and bring down products. Another method--which, in the long run, will prove no doubt the most satisfactory,--is to establish here and there in the interior permanent trading stations, supplied with a fair stock of