SIERRA LEONE 87 
recovers. It grows rapidly, and reaches a tapable size in 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 ls. 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 (£leis 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 sufficient 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. : 
