ROOT CROPS AND TIMBER 13 



produced in the country. These imports often amount 

 to six or seven thousand tons. 



ROOT AND OTHER CROPS. Sweet cassava (Manihot 

 palmata) is frequently planted as a terminal crop in the 

 crude rotation employed. This variety can be eaten 

 without previously washing or cooking. An illustration 

 of a cassava field is given (Fig. 7). Two or three 

 kinds of beans are planted, though not extensively in 

 spite of a good local demand for them. Okra (Hibiscus 

 esculentus), cultivated for the edible fruit pods, indigo 

 (Indigofera sp.) employed for making the local blue 

 dye, and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), are planted near 

 houses. A photograph is given exhibiting the different 

 utensils required for the preparation of indigo, and 

 cakes of the dried and fermented indigo stalks, in the 

 form in which they are preserved, are shown suspended 

 in the illustration (Fig. 8). The tobacco prepared 

 is usually ground into snuff, in which form it is used 

 for chewing as well as for smoking. 



TANNING. Goat-skins are tanned in the manner 

 similar to that employed by the Haussas ; Acacia arabica 

 pods being used in the process. The people who perform 

 the work of preparing and working leather are termed 

 " Korankos." Red and black inks, purchased from 

 the European merchants, are used for staining the 

 leather, which is inferior to that produced in Northern 

 Nigeria (see p. 142). 



FIBRES. The country seems to be plentifully supplied 

 with fibre plants in a wild state, chiefly belonging to 

 different species of Hibiscus. These are of the jute class, 

 and are used throughout the country for making native 

 ropes. Indian jute (Cor chorus capsularis) has been tried 

 experimentally at Kotoo, and excellent samples were 

 obtained, but the quantity of fibre per acre turned out 

 to be small, and the working proved to be too expensive. 



The preparation of piassava, which had been abandoned 

 for many years, is said to have been taken up again by a 

 British firm in 1915. The fibre is obtained from the leaf 

 sheath of a palm (Raphia vinifera) which grows plentifully 

 along the banks of the Gambia in places. For further 

 information see Selected Reports from the Imperial Insti- 

 tute, Pt. I., Fibres, and Bull. Imp. Inst., 1915. 



TIMBER. There are no trees of commercial import- 



