pale red color. The average height of full-grown trees is about eight feet. They continue to bear from ten to twenty years. I have seen some fine flourishing trees which were upward of twenty years old. As the coffeetree is easily cultivated, and as the fruit is easily cured, the cultivation of this profitable and useful article should occupy a portion of the time of every family in Liberia.

3. Next to coffee, perhaps ginger may be made the most profitable article of culture for exportation. The superior quality of this article, and the peculiar adaptation of almost every kind of soil in Liberia to its abundant growth, justifies the opinion that it may be rendered a profitable article of commerce. It will certainly grow as well in Liberia as in any other part of the world, and in quality it is scarcely inferior to the best that is produced in any other country.

4. I have no certain data from which I can determine the average quantity of ginger that may be raised on a given quantity of land; but from what I have seen, I am quite satisfied that it may be raised in great abundance with very little labor. The average increase is at least twenty-fold when properly cultivated. From six to eight months is the time usually required for its growth and maturation.

5. Bird pepper, which is known in the United States as "African Cayenne pepper," is an indigenous article that may befound almost every where throughout Liberia. I have frequently seen great quantities of it growing wild in the woods; and if a little attention were given to the cultivation of it, thousands of pounds might be annually exported. It grows on bushes about four feet high. The pods are generally about half an inch long and one third of an inch in circumference. One species, however, is four or five times this size. The smaller kind is generally preferred. In quality, it is perhaps not equaled by that raised in any other country.

6. The cultivation of it requires scarcely any attention,

and the only preparation of it for the market consists in picking the pods and spreading them out to dry. The shrub grows very rapidly, and the fruit arrives at maturity in six or eight months from the time of planting. It yields more abundantly about the beginning of the year; but as the fruit continues to be reproduced throughout the year, it may be collected at any time.

7. The natives use it very freely. It is not uncommon to see them with a bunch of pepper in one hand and a roasted cassada in the other, taking with each bite of the latter one of the pods of the former, one of which pods would serve to pepper a full meal for a person not so accustomed to its use. Perhaps the reader of this may wonder why pepper is not more freely gathered and exported, as it grows so abundantly in the wild state, and as it be so very easily cultivated. To this I can only respond, echo answers, Why?

may

8. Sugar-cane will, perhaps, thrive as well in Liberia as in any other country. I have seen stalks more than fifteen feet high and two or three inches in diameter.

The average size of the stalks is considerably larger than those raised in the island of Barbadoes, and the juice is equally sweet and proportionably more abundant. This I have tested by personal observations. Sugar, however, probably will not soon become a profitable article of exportation, in consequence of the inability of the Liberians to compete with the West India planters.

9. Liberia, however, may be, and ought to be, independent of all the rest of the world for this luxury. Every farmer ought to raise not only enough of this article for the use of his own family, but some to dispose of to his mercantile, mechanical, and professional neighbors; and even if he can not conveniently manufacture the sugar, in any considerable quantity, he can certainly express enough of the juice in a few hours, with his own hands, in a mill of his own construction, to make several gallons of sirup (not molasses, but a much better article),

which answers very well for every practical or necessary purpose.

10. Ground-nuts, or pea-nuts, may be raised in great abundance in Liberia. And as these nuts generally find a ready market in the United States and in Europe, they certainly will richly repay the Liberian farmer for the little trouble and labor which their cultivation requires. I do not know what quantity may be raised on a given portion of land, but I do know that they yield very abundantly.

CHAPTER XIV.

PRODUCTIONS.-Continued.

1. ALTHOUGH the cultivation of indigo has not met with much attention in Liberia-comparatively few persons having given any attention at all to it—yet as the indigo plant grows so luxuriantly, and may be raised so easily, the manufacture of Indigo is certainly worthy of particular notice. The plant grows so abundantly in Liberia that it constitutes one of the most troublesome weeds in the gardens, and even in the streets of the settlements. And with a little skill and industry in preparing the indigo, it may be rendered one of the most profitable crops that can be produced in tropical climates.

2. The plant arrives at maturity in three or four months from the time of planting the seed, and as it springs up again in a few weeks after having been cut, one crop will yield five or six cuttings in the course of the year. Several varieties of the indigo plant may be found growing wild in Liberia, all of which yield very fine Indigo, some of which is perhaps equal to that produced in any other part of the world. The preparation of indigo requires a little more patience and industry than the Liberians gen

erally are in the habit of bestowing on any one article of agriculture, which is the principal cause why it has not been more extensively manufactured.

3. Cotton has not yet been cultivated to a sufficient extent to enable me to determine from observation whether it may be made a very profitable article of agriculture. Several old cotton planters, who had grown gray in raising cotton in Georgia, Mississippi, and other Southern States before they went to Liberia, have repeatedly told me that the cotton-tree or shrub will grow as well and yield as abundantly in Liberia as in any part of the United States. The natives in the interior manufacture cotton goods pretty extensively from the indigenous growth, of which there are several varieties. The best grows on trees or shrubs eight or ten feet high-similar to those raised in the United States, but larger in the average size. And as the trees are not injured by frosts, of course they continue to bear for several years. I doubt not that Liberia might become one of the most important cotton-growing countries in the world.

4. Arrow-root probably thrives as well in Liberia as in any other part of the world. This is a tender plant, which usually grows to the height of two or three feet. The stems, of which several rise from the same root, are round, branched, jointed, and leafy. The leaves resemble the common sword-grass. They are alternate, and are from three to six inches in length. The root, which is the only part used, is beautifully cylindrical, straight, and tapering (hence the name of the plant), fleshy, scaly, and furnished with numerous long, white fibers, and is usually from three to eight inches in length.

5. This plant is one of the most luxuriant growths in Liberia. It is easily propagated, and it arrives at maturity in about five months. In preparing it for use, the roots are washed and then beat into a pulp, which is thrown into a tub of water, and agitated so as to separate the fibers from the amylaceous part; the latter of which re

mains suspended in the water, while the former is removed. The milky fluid thus formed is strained and allowed to stand several hours, until the fecula, or starch, shall have settled at the bottom of the vessel. It is then washed with a fresh portion of water, strained again, and allowed to subside again; this process sometimes being performed three or four times, after which it is spread out and dried in the sun. About eight pounds of the pure powder or flour may be produced from a bushel of the roots.

6. As arrow-root may be produced so abundantly in Liberia, and as it is one of the most important exportable articles, as well as one of the most valuable articles of food, it deserves particular notice. The cultivation of the plant requires so little labor or attention, and the process of manufacturing the fecula from the roots is so very simple and so easily performed, that I am quite certain this article may be rendered a source of wealth by exportation. From having frequently seen it growing, and having seen the quantity which a very small piece of ground produced, I think the average quantity that may be raised on almost every kind of soil in Liberia may be safely and truly set down at one hundred bushels to the acre-that is, eight hundred pounds of pure manufactured arrow-root, or fecula.

7. An old gentleman at Monrovia, who has raised a considerable quantity of it, stated to me, that from the quantity he has made from a certain portion of land he was quite satisfied that one acre, properly cultivated, will yield two thousand pounds. And a farmer at Caldwell assured me that he made one hundred and thirty pounds from the produce of one sixteenth of an acre of ground. But, as it will be perceived, I have placed the average quantity at less than one half of the proportionate quantity that has actually been raised; and this, I think, is not beyond a fair estimate. Assuming, therefore, that one half an acre will produce four hundred pounds (a quantity which almost any family may easily raise and manufacture), and allowing the average net price to be only fifteen cents a pound,