The agricultural and forest products of British West AfricaDudgeon, Gerald C. (Gerald Cecil)
History
The agricultural and forest products of British West Africa
Dudgeon, Gerald C. (Gerald Cecil)
Agriculture -- Africa, West; Forest products -- Africa, West
The Agricultural Department conducted several comparative trials
with Indian and local varieties of rice. The Indian rices were
much smaller in size of grain and were generally not considered so
suitable as the local kinds, with respect to which it was found that,
with a sufficiency of seed used in sowing and deep cultivation,
excellent crops could be secured. The native method of using less
than half a bushel of seed to sow an acre is accountable for much
of the resultant crop becoming full of weeds. Excellent results
were obtained in sowing 1½ to 3 bushels per acre, when the weeds
were choked out.
=CAMWOOD.=—This material, from which red dye is got, is obtained
from the leguminous tree _Baphia nitida_. The use of it in European
countries has somewhat diminished during recent years, owing to the
substitution for it of artificial red colouring-matter, but a small
quantity is still exported, and is made use of for colouring sausage
skins. The amount of camwood exported in 1915 is given as 635 tons,
valued at £8,761.
=COPAL.=—The tree identified as _Copaifera Guibourtiana_ is tapped,
in the Mendi country especially, for copal. The method in general
practice is to cut small square patches of bark from the main trunk
and branches in the month of January, and to permit these to exude
resin until April, at which time the flow has ceased, and the resin
hardened sufficiently to be collected.
The tree has been recorded from a few localities in Sierra Leone, but
recently plantations have been made near Moyamba and elsewhere. In
the Kwalu district, where clusters of large trees occur, much damage
has been done by overtapping, and many dead trees are to be seen.
The value of Sierra Leone copal is high, sometimes attaining over
two shillings a pound in the European markets. The quality is,
however, somewhat irregular, and the local grading is frequently
inefficient. Information as to the quality and value of Sierra Leone
copal in comparison with other varieties is given in _Selected
Reports from the Imperial Institute_, Part II., Gums and Resins
[Cd. 4971], pp. 170-82.
About thirty tons were annually shipped to Europe for making varnish,
but owing to the destructive methods of collection, the Government
has prohibited trade for five years.
=GROUNDNUTS.=—Practically no trade at present exists in this
crop, but efforts are being made to reintroduce the cultivation
into Bullom, where at one time a large quantity was grown for export.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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