SIERRA LEONE 37 



recovers. It grows rapidly, and reaches a tapable size m ten years, 

 approximately. It does not seem very exacting with regard to soil. 

 In the peninsula it grows on rocky soil, and in Moyamba on an 

 alluvial soil. 



Recently the exports have decreased, as the following figures show, 

 chiefly owing to the destruction of the trees by overtapping. How- 

 ever, when the forests have recovered, the younger trees have matured, 

 and the trees since planted are in bearing, and an increase may be 

 expected. It is the most valuable. Gum Copal usually being worth 

 8d. to Is. 6d. a pound, but if quite clean and white it fetches as much 

 as 2s. 6d. a pound. Its chief use is for varnish-making, though the 

 best grades are used for pharmaceutical preparations. It is far easier 

 to tap than rubber, and the cost of preparation is therefore very 

 low, so that it should prove worth cultivating on a large scale. The 

 market for Gum Copal is a comparatively large one, and other sources 

 of supply, such as those of Kauri Gum from New Zealand, are 

 decreasing, or not entirely meeting the demand. It is only a question 

 of time before the whole supply will have to be obtained from 

 cultivated trees. 



It stands a certain amount of shade during the first four years, 

 but from the fifth year onwards it is distinctly a light-loving species. 

 On the whole it is almost a gregarious tree, as usually groups of trees 

 are found up to fifty or more, and in a whole forest the prevalent tree 

 will be Gum Copal ; for instance, in the Gum Copal belt near Susuwuru, 

 A planting distance of 6 feet will probably prove advantageous, as 

 the tree has a distinct tendency to branch low down on the stem if 

 not forced to grow up straight by the presence of other trees. Then 

 in the tenth year a judicious thinning out of the weakest trees by 

 tapping to death would give additional space to the others and allow 

 for greater girth increment for the other clean-stemmed trees. An 

 early financial yield would also thus be obtained. 



In the economy of the country, more important even than the 

 Gum Copal is the Oil Palm {Elceis Guineensis), which is found in 

 the Forest, scattered in groups and belts amongst farms inland, as 

 at Blama, and near the sea coast, as at Sherbro, and also as isolated 

 individual trees in the drier parts of the Protectorate. Towards the 

 northernmost part of the country it is not seen at all, though climatic- 

 ally there is nothing to stop it growing if planted in suitable localities. 

 It tends to spread with increasing cultivation of the ground, so long 

 as the rainfall is sufiicient and the soil moist enough for it. In the 

 forest itself it is very sparsely distributed. Owing to the large 

 population and the comparatively small area on which the Oil Palm 

 is really plentiful, more palm oil is eaten than exported. This is 

 most clearly seen in the quantity of exports of both products, which 

 show a much larger proportion of kernels than oil. 



