The common native method of preparation is to rub the washed and partially dried rhizomes in sand, and then to dry them more or less completely in the sun. The effect of this treatment is to remove a small portion of the outer skin from those prominences which come into contact with the sandy surface more readily, the depressions being left untouched. The native has found that the weight of the prepared ginger is increased by the adhesion of sand, and therefore prefers to employ this method to that of using a knife. The result is a very inferior product. During the last few years attempts have been made among the ginger growers to deal directly with the European buyers, and a Farmers’ Association was formed with this object in view. Government assistance was obtained on the assurance that better methods of cultivation and preparation would be adopted, and this was done to a certain extent, but greater dependence seems to have been placed upon the supposed advantage to be obtained from shipping ginger of the usual inferior quality, without it passing through the local merchants’ hands. The result was, that a small quantity of selected ginger was sold at a good price, and a large quantity of common grade obtained a lower price than previously. Recent experiments have shown that good results can be obtained with ginger in Sierra Leone if care be taken to deep-hoe the ground and then plant out the selected eyes from clean rhizomes. The custom of attempting to grow a crop in hard laterite gravel without proper cultivation is the chief cause of the malformed and small rhizomes usually obtained in native cultivation. Under improved conditions a crop of five tons per acre of good quality ginger has been procured. =Export Trade.=—The following amounts of ginger have been shipped during the last decade: Tons Value Tons Value 1906 579 10,879 1913 2,048 35,468 1907 618 11,578 1914 1,213 15,639 1908 637 11,871 1915 567 8,091 1909 722 14,147 1916 971 25,814 1910 1,093 33,288 1917 1,136 25,863 1911 1,692 44,668 1918 1,576 39,306 1912 2,200 44,864 It is reported that, owing to the decline in price paid for Sierra Leone ginger in 1913, about one-third of the crop was left unharvested, and that the depreciation experienced was due to the competition from other sources of a better marketed product. It would be a pity if the promising opportunity of the country to become established as a large producer of ginger were altogether lost, owing to the want of a little care in cultivation and preparation of the product for the market.