PRINCIPAL CROPS 95 



and this in some measure compensates for the non- 

 employment of manure, etc. 



The people of the Central Province are generally less 

 careful in their farming methods ; the Benis often 

 planting their grain crops in only partially cleared land. 

 Farther to the north in the same province a better 

 system is noticeable among the Ishans, Ifons, and 

 the people of Agbede. During recent years, owing to 

 the energetic efforts of the Forestry Department, the 

 cultivation and better treatment of the indigenous rubber 

 tree (Funtumia elastica) have been extensively adopted, 

 especially by the people in the neighbourhood of Benin 

 City, where the climate is well suited to the species. In 

 addition to rubber, cocoa and kola plantations might 

 prove successful in the same localities, but as yet no 

 large plantations of either exist. 



In the Eastern Province farming is generally of poor 

 quality until the region of heavy rainfall is left, when 

 extremely large areas are met with, highly cultivated, 

 with the earth thrown up into loose mounds, often five 

 or six feet in height, for the purpose of growing yams, 

 maize, pepper, okra. Guinea corn, pumpkins, etc., all of 

 which are found planted upon each mound ; the yams 

 being carefully trained to climb along fibre strings towards 

 central poles. 



Principal Crops. The chief crops grown in the Western 

 Province are maize, cotton, cassava, yams, sweet potatoes, 

 groundnuts, and to a small extent Guinea corn, sugar- 

 cane, tobacco, Colocasia yams, peppers, okra, rice, egg- 

 plant, and native beans. 



Indigo is extracted from Lonchocarpus cyanescens, which 

 occurs in a wild state, and is preserved when making 

 clearances for farms. The Indigo f era spp. are used to a 

 smaller degree for the same purpose. (See Sierra Leone 

 Section, p. 39 ; also Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, 1909, 

 p. 319; 1918, p. 11 ; and 1919, p. 31.) 



Fruits are not grown plentifully, and are generally left 

 in an uncultivated condition. The chief kinds are pine- 

 apples, bananas, pawpaws, akee apple (Blighia sapida), 

 oranges, and guavas. There are several fruits and spices 

 which are collected from the forest strips, but, taken 

 generally, the Western Province people are not great 

 fruit eaters. On the sea coast and for a considerable 



