The chief productions of the garden are cassada, sweet-potatoes and pineapples. The cassada is a root of milk-white color, and is the leading article of food. It is usually boiled, but sometimes baked, or eaten raw. The sweet-potato flourishes well and is very palatable. The pineapple grows on bushes or shrubs two or three feet high, the fruit standing up in the midst of long, narrow, serrated leaves. The yard has cocoanut, banana, orange and cinnamon trees. In reading lists and descriptions of the African productions, one might conclude that this is the land for an epicure; but the fact is that none of these things take the place of the beef, wheat, vegetables and fruit of the United States, and a person who has lived in the tropics for a little while, longs for a Fulton or Quincy market. The coffee farm consists of 1,500 trees from two to six feet high, set in rows eight feet apart and just beginning to bear. The coffee grows in pods about the size of a robin’s egg, in each of which are two kernels enveloped in a skin or husk. To keep down the rapid and rank growth of grass with the hoe alone, requires a vast amount of labor. I find that these industries are highly appreciated by travelers and traders, and have made the name of Mr. Burton well known on the coast. The natives have felt their influence already, and will be more and more inspired by them to habits of industry and enterprise. The remaining element of the station is the fakir, or native village. Most of the houses have mud walls, with bamboo or thatched roofs. They are built without much system, and are huddled together, because, probably, where wars prevail, it is necessary to wall in the towns and villages for defence, and so the houses must not occupy too much ground. Such is Avery, with its material, mental, and religious machinery, all tending to produce an intelligent and stable Christianity. And now those who have become interested in the experiment of manning the Mendi mission with graduates of A. M. A. schools, are asking whether the plan is successful, and I am supposed to have some information upon this point. It is not quite three years since the first party of these colored missionaries sailed for Africa, two of whom have returned, and the others have had a shorter term of service. So it is too soon to say whether the experiment has been a success or a failure. If the work had been carried on by them in the most approved manner, it would be premature to say that the problem of African evangelization had been successfully solved. And, on the other hand, if the experiment thus far had been an utter failure, it would be unjust to the colored race to conclude, from this one brief trial, that they are incapable of carrying on mission work by themselves in Africa. Those who are most ready to embark in an enterprise of this kind are not always the best qualified. Zeal is needed, and in no leas degree, sound judgment also.