744 Mr. A. Henry Savage Landor [May 31, 



being of excellent quality for oxen and sheep. Perhaps the agricul- 

 tural capacity of production of the high Senegal and Xiger is some- 

 what handicapped by the scantiness of the population. 



. It was pleasing to find at Kulikoro an agricultural station, started 

 by the French Government in 1902, under the able direction of 

 Monsieur Jean Yuillet, a practical, enthusiastic and hardworking 

 gentleman, whose careful study of the agricultural resources of the 

 country should certainly bring about valuable results in the future 

 development of that interesting French colony. There is in the 

 station a farming school, some model villages, and a botanical garden 

 where innumerable experiments are made with indigenous and 

 imported plants. The efforts of the agricultural station have been 

 directed towards the imjDrovement of the local cotton-growing in- 

 dustry — in which I personally believe the country may have a future 

 — and to the study of parasitic diseases, the creation of hybrids, and 

 experimenting on the effects produced by climatic conditions upon 

 local and foreign plants and their hybrids. Experiments on locally 

 grown American cotton, for instance, from Upland and Louisana, have 

 shown that it is possible to produce on the Niger cottons answering 

 the exacting requirements of French weaving looms. But the 

 American cottons have drawbacks in those countries, as they are very 

 sensitive to parasitic and climatic influences, and they need soil of 

 unusual fertility. The fibre obtained is somewhat short, and lacking 

 in regularity. Experiments made in crossing American with local 

 cotton have not been successful from an economical point of view, 

 but a careful selection of indigenous cotton with improved methods 

 of cultivation have given most satisfactory and hopeful results. 

 Monsieur Yuillet told me that some two thousand tons of cotton were 

 grown upon the Xiger in 1905, out of which one hundred tons only 

 were of American cotton. 



Arachide (pea-nuts), sesame, rice and tobacco, will also some day 

 be crops of importance in those regions. Then we have the karite, 

 or butter plant, and the rubber plant, locally known as " gohine " (tech- 

 nically Landolphia Heudelotli). The commercial possibilities of the 

 karite are not yet fully known, but I think will be considerable, as 

 the karite tree is exceedingly common in the high Senegal and Xiger. 

 karite butter is in many ways superior to margarine. French 

 chemists are, I understand, busy experimenting on the most suitable 

 methods of extracting butter from the karite. Butter extracted from 

 the karite nut has been on the market for some time in France, and 

 has a good sale. The Landolphia rubber-vine is chiefly abundant up 

 to the eleventh degree of latitude north, fairly common as far as the 

 twelfth degree, and scarce further north. Beyond 13" 4' or 5' lat. N., 

 the vine is not found at all. The principal markets for the rubber 

 are Sikasso, Bamako, Bouguni, and Bobo-Dioulasso. The exporta- 

 tion of tlie rubber, which practically only began in 1899, is now cue 

 of the most important of local trades. Over 750,000 kilos, or about 



