2i WESTERN AFKIOA. 
they do with the axe and cutlass. An 
African axe is some longer, but not much 
more than half as broad as ours. It is 
a poor affair to chop with. But they only 
chop off the trees and bush, and then let 
them lie until they become so dry that they 
burn up without further trouble, when fire 
is put to them. 
Their superficial method of agriculture, 
as a matter of course, soon exhausts the soil. 
Seldom is the same spot cultivated more 
than two or three years until it is left, and 
before it becomes sufficiently replenished to 
be productive again, it is overgrown with 
bush and saplings of considerable size. 
There being no winter, shrubbery grows 
rapidly. It is astonishing to one who has 
lived in a cold latitude, to see the hight to 
which it attains in a single year. From 
three to five acres is as much as a family 
cultivates at the same time, but from two 
to three crops may be grown the same year. 
They also manufacture the palm oil, 
which is made from the shuck or hull of 
the nut 3 and a very superior oil is made of 
the kernel of the palm-nut, which is called 
