140 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1887. 
FRUITS OF SIERRA LEONE. 
The following is from a report by tb.9 honorary 
secretary of the Sierra Leone Botanical Society on 
the fruits of that settlement, printed in the Board, of 
Trade Journal : — 
". The chief fruits grown in Sierra Leone, together 
with prices locally obtained, are as follows : — The pine- 
apple, sold at lOd. per dozen; the banana, sold at 8d. 
a bunch ; the cashew ; coconuts, sold at 6d. per dozen ; 
the cucumber ; the red guava, sold at about 2s. per 
bushel ; the white guava ; the lime, sold at Cd. to 8d, 
per hundred; the locust;* the mango, sold at 3d. per 
dozen; the orange; the papaw ; the pear,f sold at 6J. 
to i)d. per dozen; the plantain, sold at 3d. to 8d. per 
bunch, and the black or velvet tamarind. 
The chief fruits exported in a green state are pine- 
apples, bananas, plantains, pears, mangoes, limes, and 
oranges, of which pine-apples constitute the bulk of the 
export to Great Britain and France. It would appear 
from the Custom-house returns that during the year 
1833 as many as 68,792 pines were exported to the 
United Kingdom and France. This quantity could be 
annually maintained and considerably exceeded if the 
trade were remunerative, and the large quantities 
which are produced in the Timneh country induced 
to flow abroad through the settlement. But the loss 
sustained by the fruits arriving at their destination 
in bad condition has checked the continuity of the 
supply and growth of exports. 
" Almost the whole of the bananas, plantains, pears, 
mangoes, limes, and oranges grown in Sierra Leone 
go to the Gambia, Goree, and Senegal, whilst some 
pines also are exported to those places. 
" There is no export of preserved fruits, and coco- 
nut is the only fruit of the settlement exported in a 
dry state, and in that state, in which it takes the 
name of coprah, it is not used as fruit. 
"But the waste of economic matter in the shape 
of shell, husk, and fibre thrown away after separation 
of the kernel for coprah, and perhaps the reduction 
in the price of coprah during the past four or five 
years, have stimulated the growth since last year of 
an export of coconuts in husk, chiefly to Europe, 
where the now neglected materials may be used in the 
manufacture of ropes and matting, and the kernel in 
its free state used as fruit. 
" Besides the suggestion just mnde relative to coco- 
nuts, it is not unworthy of record regarding mango, 
that its abundance and cheapness here, and the capacity 
which Sierra Leone has for its increased production, 
are conditions which point to the necessity for study- 
ing how and where it may be turned to account as 
an article of export, either green to be used in the 
manufacture of spirits, which it is said may be pro- 
fitably produced from it, or for composition as fruit, 
or in a dried or preserved state. When in a fresh 
state, and before it is fully ripe, it is employed locally 
as, and is found to be good substitute for English 
apple sauce. 
" Like pine-apples, the other exportable fruits above 
referred to may be produced in larger quantities than 
the present yield, but the drawbacks to their more 
extensive production, and to a greater investment in the 
fruit trade, are mainly for the Gambia, Goree, and 
Senegal countries almost destitute of fruits, the want 
of regular steam communication with them, and of 
precision in the dates of arrival and departure of the 
steam vessels now taking freight from Sierra Leone; 
and for Kurope, the absence of quick transit, as well 
as vessels specially adapted for receiving and convey- 
ing fruit. 
"The export trade in two of the fruits of the 
settlement is likely to gain a new impetus, viz., cahscvv 
and velvet tamarind, for the stone of the cashew is 
in great demand in Germany, where it is used in 
confectionery, and is sold there ac 9s. a cwt., though 
* Query — loqua t ? — Ei>. 
fl'ear» phntiful in the markets of Sierra Leone ? 
Ii the true pear is meant and not the avocada, it 
would be interesting to know what variety ? — Ed. 
it is only thrown into the dust heap here.* Velvet 
tamarind is being somewhat extensively used in phar- 
macy in France. The knowledge of the demand for 
these fruits in Europe is all that is necessary to infuse 
activity in their cultivation, and in their export hence." 
— Journal of the Society of Apts- 
-♦ 
OF GRASS-CUTTERS. 
Excepting down iu Lower Bengal, Assam and Bombay, 
where grass grows luxuriantly and where the sickle 
is required to cut it, the fcporpa is the implement used 
by the grass-cutter throughout India generally. For 
the luxuriant growth of preserved grasslands iu canton- 
ments and rukh lauds and on railway embankments, 
the sickle is also requisitioned, but for cutting grass 
of which the roots torm the bulk, the koorpa is essen- 
tial. We arc all familiar with the sickle, but the koorpa 
may require a little description here, not because it is 
an unfamiliar object — nothing of the sort — but its asso- 
ciations with so humble an individual as the grass- 
cutter may have left it overlooked. It can be bdefly 
described as a piece of iron about 8 inches long, 4i 
broad aud about j; to ^ an inch thick; one and of which 
is broadened and made sharp for cutting up the grass 
roots; the other end being spiked and fitted into a 
wooden handle. Koorpas are made out of old wheel- 
tyres axles or indeed any piece of iron capable of 
being wrought and are of various sizes ; the dimensions 
given being the average. The young grass-cutter has 
a diminutive weapon made for him which as he advances 
in years, is replaced by a heavier one, until he is able 
with increasing strength, to handle the "regulation" 
koorpa. Economic reasons often weigh with the grass- 
cutter in selecting his koorpa. For instance, I asked 
Shaddan one day why he used such an unwieldy 
koorpa — his particular koorpa weighing at least seven 
pounds. His auswer given readily enough was that it 
would last all the longer, and as he happened to have 
secured a good piece of iron, he got Boor Singh the 
Sudder lohar, to make him the koorpa in question, and 
as it was getting less in size every day with constant 
use and sharpening, it would in a few years, be of 
comfortable dimensions. Shaddan showed me a koorpa 
once his grandfather's, now a small £tump a few inches 
long. This Shaddan, had rehandled for his son Thiria, 
who, he said, was learning to use it pretty well, and 
for whom some fine day he would have to get another 
one, when it would be handed over to a still younger 
son. Thus, you see that the koorpa is made in the first 
instance, by the grass cutter, of serviceable but un- 
wieldy size. After a few years it gets gradually smaller 
when he hands over the now short stump to his son 
to practise grass-cutting on. When the koorpa is no 
longer serviceable for cutting up grass-roots, the handle 
is taken out and the spiked end driven into the wall 
of the grass-cutter's hut, where it serves as a peg 
for hanging the grass net on. There is some ingenuity 
displayed in the making of koorpa handles. The main 
object seems to be to have a slight bend in the middle, 
this bend gives the needful fulcrum, enabling the 
grass-cutter to root up his grass more i'eadily. The 
grass-cutter's koorpa is as essential to him as the 
curry stone is to a botvarchi, or a stick to a choivked.ar; 
and it is always carried ready to chop up any tuft that 
may offer. Koorpas seem to vary little in appearance 
throughout India. Another article comprised in the 
stock-in-trade of the grass-cutter is the kauta, a forked 
branch of the babul or peepul tree — an article about 
one yard long, fork and all. This is used by him lor 
beating out the soil from the roots of the grass. 
The jhola or net completes the three articles required 
by the grass-cutter, and is an ordinary twine-made 
net, capable of holding a maund or so of grass. 
To the grass-cutter, the monsoons are a godsend 
indeed ; for then the grass sprouts up and he can with 
little difficulty cut from two to three maunds a day. 
It is after a long drought that the grass-cutter finds 
* Beyond measure strange, for in Ceylon the kernel 
of the cashew constitutes not merely a confection but 
a fond. — Eo. 
