It Is
No Uncommon Thing To See Men, Women, And Children Hard At Work, With
The Baby Lying Close By Beneath A Shady Bush.
When a new piece of
woodland is to be cleared, they proceed exactly as farmers do in
America.
The trees are cut down with their little axes of soft
native iron; trunks and branches are piled up and burnt, and the
ashes spread on the soil. The corn is planted among the standing
stumps which are left to rot. If grass land is to be brought under
cultivation, as much tall grass as the labourer can conveniently lay
hold of is collected together and tied into a knot. He then strikes
his hoe round the tufts to sever the roots, and leaving all standing,
proceeds until the whole ground assumes the appearance of a field
covered with little shocks of corn in harvest. A short time before
the rains begin, these grass shocks are collected in small heaps,
covered with earth, and burnt, the ashes and burnt soil being used to
fertilize the ground. Large crops of the mapira, or Egyptian dura
(Holcus sorghum), are raised, with millet, beans, and ground-nuts;
also patches of yams, rice, pumpkins, cucumbers, cassava, sweet
potatoes, tobacco, and hemp, or bang (Cannabis setiva). Maize is
grown all the year round. Cotton is cultivated at almost every
village. Three varieties of cotton have been found in the country,
namely, two foreign and one native. The "tonje manga," or foreign
cotton, the name showing that it has been introduced, is of excellent
quality, and considered at Manchester to be nearly equal to the best
New Orleans.
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