348 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



selected and distributed through the agency of the Societes de 

 Prevoyance^ on the principle that for 100 distributed 125 will be 

 returned from the resulting crop. With regard to improved 

 methods of cultivation, farmyard manure has been tried, but has 

 produced very little improvement. Good results, however, have 

 been obtained from the application of lime at the rate of three tons 

 per acre. In 1934 this produced a 35 per cent increase of the crop, 

 but such an application would be quite impossible with the type 

 of extensive cultivation prevalent in Senegal. The same is true of 

 the application of phosphate which the soil also requires. A. 

 Chevalier (1933-4) has written a monograph on groundnuts and 

 Trochain (1932) has published a general account of botanical and 

 agricultural studies in Senegal concerned with the potentialities 

 of the country for this and other crops. 



Most of the groundnuts from Senegal are exported unshelled, 

 so that the nuts are not damaged. Freight costs make this impos- 

 sible, however, where the crop is produced at a distance from the 

 coast, and in the interior regions both of French West Africa and 

 Nigeria the nuts are decorticated before transport. Consequently 

 the quality of the oil suffers from fatty acids which are evolved 

 when the nuts are damaged in shelling or bruised in transport. In 

 the north of Dahomey groundnuts are grown for local consumption 

 and a small export trade has been started recently. There is also 

 an export trade from French Equatorial Africa. 



Simsim or sesame {Sesamum orientale) is an important adjunct to 

 native diet and is commonly used as a flavouring. It is particularly 

 rich in phosphorus and calcium (McCulloch 1929-30). Hence its 

 cultivation is widely scattered throughout tropical and subtropical 

 Africa, though it is usually grown only on small areas for domestic 

 use. It is exported in considerable quantities from Nigeria, Tan- 

 ganyika, and Uganda. In Nigeria, where it is usually known as 

 benniseed, it is important in a few localities. In the Benue province 

 it is grown extensively by the Munshi tribe, who developed the 

 industry entirely independently, as pointed out by Faulkner 

 (1933). Formerly the local product contained seed of a dark 

 colour owing to a mixture of seed of other nearly related species, 

 but this has been largely replaced now by a white benniseed free 



» See page 397. 



