GINGER AND FIBRES 31 



Export Trade. The following amounts of ginger have 

 been shipped during the last decade : 



Tons Value Tons Value 



1906 . 579 10,879 1913 . 2,048 35,468 



1907 . 618 11,578 1914 .,. 1,213 15,639 



1908 . 637 11,871 1915 . 567 8,091 



1909 . 722 14,147 1916 . 971 25,814 



1910 . 1,093 33,288 1917 . 1,136 25,863 



1911 . 1,692 44,668 1918 . 1,576 39,306 



1912 . 2,200 44,864 



It is reported that, owing to the decline in price paid for 

 Sierra Leone ginger in 1913, about one-third of the crop 

 was left unharvested, and that the depreciation experi- 

 enced was due to the competition from other sources of 

 a better marketed product. It would be a pity if the 

 promising opportunity of the country to become estab- 

 lished as a large producer of ginger were altogether 

 lost, owing to the want of a little care in cultivation and 

 preparation of the product for the market. 



The plant is essentially suited to certain parts of the 

 Colony and Protectorate and is not subject to any 

 serious diseases, the only recorded one being a fungus 

 which attacks the rhizomes and causes yellowing of the 

 leaves. This can be prevented from spreading if the 

 plants be removed and burned as soon as the signs of 

 attack are apparent on them. 



FIBRES. Jute Class. In the last few years several 

 fibre plants indigenous to the country have been experi- 

 mented with at the Imperial Institute, in order to 

 ascertain whether any were capable of being exported 

 for use as substitutes for Indian jute. 



Honckenya ficifolia, known by the Timani name of 

 " Napunti," a plant which occurs in great profusion in 

 the swamps and low lands, yields a fibre of excellent 

 quality, but owing to the difficulties experienced in the 

 extraction of it, further experiments are necessary to 

 devise a means by which it can be economically prepared. 

 The analyses of the fibre from this plant which have 

 been made at the Imperial Institute (see Selected Reports 

 from the Imperial Institute, Part I. [Cd. 4588], Fibres, 

 p. 40) are very satisfactory, and this, combined with the 

 fact that the natural supply of the plant is very large 



