the agricultural position of sierra leone: lecture delivered at the wesleyan high school, sierra...

The agricultural position of Sierra Leone: lecture delivered at the Wesleyan High School,Sierra leone, April 14th, 1881Author(s): Lewis, SamuelSource: Foreign and Commonwealth Office Collection, (1881)Published by: The University of Manchester, The John Rylands University LibraryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/60232280 .

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THE AGRICULTURAL POSITIO:

Sierra Leone

LECTURE

SAMUEL LEWIS.,

BARMbTER \T LAW

[Delivered at the Wvsleyan High School, Sierf§s[JIi(ft>f£!ey s April i<\th, tSSi, and published by request |

LIVERPOOL PRINTED FOR THE AUrilOU BY GEORGE PHILIP & i%

GVM'OX BUILDINGS, SOITII JOHN STRLL1 1S&1



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THE AGRICULTURAL POSITION

Sierra Leone.

L E C T U

SAMUEL LEWIS, /y BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

[Delivered at the Wesleyan High School, Sierra Leone, April i\th, 1881, and published by request^

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LIVERPOOL. PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY GEORGE PHILIP & SOF,

CAi.l'OX BUILDINGS, SOLTII JOHN STREEX' 1881.

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RESOLUTION AT CLOSE OF LECTURE.

"That the Lecturer be requested to permit the publication of k^k> his paper in pamphlet form; and that this meeting, or at least a

few gentlemen therein, undertake to provide, by subscription, the necessary funds for defraying the expense of such publication."

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NOTE.

The following pages were written as one of a series of Popular Lectures, proposed to be delivered at the Wesleyan High School, in Sierra Leone; and the only apology for their publication is the desire of the writer to comply with the request, expressed by the unanimous resolution of a large and respectable audience, presided over by His Excellency William Warren Streeten, the Adminis- trator-in-Chief of the West Africa Settlements, before whom it was delivered.

Notwithstanding the decision of the Meeting, the Lecturer has obtained the consent of its Committee to make the publication at his own expense, in order to reserve to himself the power of

appropriating the proceeds of the sale for the benefit of the School, to raise funds for the enlargement of which the delivery of the Lectures was proposed.

Freetown, Sierra Leone, April IQth, 1881.

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THE

AGRICULTURAL POSITION OF SIERRA LEONE.

Long prior to the time when British philanthropy marked out Sierra Leone as the centre of its humane enterprise, this penin¬ sula and its environs had had its attractions for traders ; but only for those, however, whose commerce, far from introducing and being the handmaid of civilization, had, while spreading desola¬ tion around, and brutalizing an already debased people, destroyed in them all motives for labour and honest industry. Agricultural occupations, by means of which savage nations chiefly make their

x first, if not also their successive steps, to civilization, wealth, and JjSf power, could not thrive where, every moment of his wretched

existence, the labourer expected the chase of the slave-hunter at his heels.

To a few men who will stand immortalized in the memory and affection of the negro race, occurred the shame and sin of the

• traffic in human blood; and into their plan of putting an end to the abomination, entered the project of bettering the condition of the negro, by the introduction into his home in Africa of lawful commerce, and of the better knowledge of cultivating the soil of his land, which is pronounced to have a natural productiveness unsurpassed by any other continent.

These few men, notable amongst whom were Granville Sharp and Wil berforce, raised the Sierra Leone Company, and established the Colony for carrying out their scheme; and, though after sixteen years the Crown had to assume the responsibilities of the government of the Colony, the objects of the original founders were kept in view, and their plans more or less followed.

It is the purpose of the present treatise to ascertain what has been done in respect of that branch of their plan, having reference



to the introduction of the higher and more extensive knowledge of cultivating the soil; and why up to this day there is compara¬ tively so little result accruing from, efforts which have been made in this department of industry.

The Sierra Leone Company well understood that the early colonists, consisting of Nova Scotian settlers and disbanded sol¬ diers, were men who had no pecuniary means for embarking in agricultural enterprise to any large extent, even if, as was very doubtful, they had the knowledge requisite to ensure success. On the aboriginal race—who for centuries confined the labour on the ground to most narrow limits, measured only by their very meagre wants, and who had even less knowledge and dispositions than the early colonists—no hope or dependence whatever could be placed to commence a new departure in agricultural activity, merely upon the inculcation of precept unbacked by example. The Sierra Leone Company had, therefore, at the very outset of its operations, to establish plantations, and to adopt means for awakening interest in the botanical resources and the agricultural riches of the colony and its neighbourhood.

As early as 1791, when the Sierra Leone Company was incor¬ porated by Act of Parliament, and the increase of its capital to i>235,280 enabled it to prosecute its plans with a view to com¬ pleteness, three planters and several overseers acquainted with tropical agriculture were sent to the new Colony, and imme¬ diately thiee agricultural establishments were formed by and at the expense of the Company. The first of these appears to be a cotton plantation at Thompson's Bay, Freetown, the soil of which was supposed and found to be adapted to its ready culture. But the planter who had charge of it, soon returning to England, the cotton cultivation was suspended, and in 1794 the land, from the acknowledged superiority of its soil to that of adjacent lots parcelled out to the Nova Scotians, was taken up by these settlers, and appropriated to their indifferent mode of cultivation. Of the two remaining planters one died ; and from t'.ie ability and activity displayed by the third, Mr. James Watt, iv ho had been manager of an estate in Dominica, great results were expected. The only settlement which had been formed at this time in Sierra Leone comprised the land embraced within the aiea bounded on the west by a direct line due south from

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Kroo Bay to the Mountains, and on the east by another line drawn in the same direction from Gambia Island, on the Bunce River, with the Sierra Leone and Bunce rivers for its northern, and the Mountains for its southern boundaries. This was scarcely one half the size of the peninsula; and the portion of this half then capable of occupation was within the space in and between Freetown and Granville Bay, and as far back as the foot of the first range of hills on the south. Notwithstanding the favourable report which Lieutenant Matthews had given in 1785 of the capabilities of the soil in and about Sierra Leone, it required only the opportunity of an actual inspection on the spot to be convinced that his description was not warranted by the great proportion of the land near Freetown; where the certainly fertile spots could not satisfy, even in a moderate degree, the claims of the Nova Scotian Settlers, who insisted, naturally enough, to be located as near Freetown as prudence and subse¬ quent events in the political relations between the Colony and the adjacent Timneh States, justified.

As will be subsequently pointed out, there were lands in other parts of the peninsula sufficiently fertile for extensive experi¬ ments ; but the rapid rate of mortality amongst the European as well as negro colonists in Freetown—a site selected for a settle¬ ment, amongst other reasons, from the supposition of its being a healthy situation, with exposure to refreshing sea-breeze—pre¬ cluded any attempt being made in districts which did not combine in an eminent degree these sanitary advantages. Mr. Watt, in 1792, had therefore to establish, on Bullom Shore, a plantation called Clarkson Plantation, about a mile to the north-west of "Yongro. This plantation, which appeared to have been established in the first half of the year, was worked under the immediate superintendence of Mr. Watt by the natives of the Bullom Shore, thirty of whom were employed in this work. After building the house of the manager, they were employed in cutting down the wood which entirely covered the country; and they proceeded then to hoe the ground, and to plant it with sugar-cane, cotton, rice, and other vegetables. Though the plantation was a mile square, or about 600 acres, the first year's work embraced only 16

-^g~~ acres of ground, which, for the number of men employed, was indeed small, even after due allowance was made for the time

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occupied in building the plantation house. The wages of the labourers were ultimately fixed at three dollars a month, with rations, consisting of one and a half pint of rice, and two or three ounces of meat, per diem. The estimated quantum of labour per¬ formed by each person represented two-thirds of the work of an English labourer. Calculating the outlay on the plantation for the first year, exclusive of building and plants, it would include—

The salary of Mr. Watt, about £200 0 0 1 year's pay of 30 labourers 225 0 0 Their rations, 1 bushel rice each labourer per 90 0 0 month, {O) 5s. Meat 45 12 6

Amounting to £560 12 6 We are not aware of any published statistics of the yield and

price of the articles cultivated. Twelve of the fifteen acres were laid out in and yielded alternate rows of rice and cotton, and -would represent, at the ordinary yield of rice in other parts of the world :—

1116 bush, of husk rice, i.e., 93 bush, per acre, @ 2s. £55 16 0 6000 lbs. of cotton (at 400 lbs. per acre), @ 7{d. 187 10 0

.£242 6 0 For a financial speculation, the expenditure was far too great

for the result of fifteen acres cultivation. As an experiment, how¬ ever, it was said to answer the expectations of the projectors in so far proving the capability of the soil, and the readiness with which free negro labourers might be procured and depended on for carrying on agriculture, when once its advantages were assured to them.

With the light of subsequent experience, the Company would have probably avoided an error which, in respect of the wages of the prsedial labourers, operated prejudicially on labour. Not only did the actual result at Clarkson Plantation show that the standard fixed at so early a date was too high and unremunerative, it soon produced a fitful character in the labour the workman gave, by so far exceeding his wants as to render him soon inde¬ pendent of continuous exertion for a livelihood. Food, at least that kind on which he lived, was cheap; and were he to depend upon purchasing it from his neighbour, he could, with the earning of one month, afford to remain idle for the next three or four.

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Notwithstanding these disadvantages, the cultivation of Clark- Bon Plantation was conducted with zest for one or two years more. In January 1794, the practical experience and ability of Mr. Watt were withdrawn, by his appointment on a mission to Timbo; and he was succeeded in the management of the Plantation by a Mr. Graham, who, far from having any experience in the nature and cultivation of the soil, seemed to have been a son of Neptune, trained to a sea-faring life. The Governor and Council had no alternative in the appointment, as there appeared to be no regular planter or overseer now in the Colony; a Mr. Isherwood, an overseer, having been sent back to England for insobriety, and Mr. Dubois, who had come to Sierra Leone as a manager of plan¬ tations, but whose time had been previously wholly appropriated to public buildings, having, about the middle of 1793—-just when the Governor and Council had determined that he should confine himself solely to the business of the Plantation—applied for and obtained leave, and returned to England. To Mr. Graham was committed, in May 1795, the mission to St. Thomas and Prince's Island for collecting new plants, and seed for introduction to Sierra Leone; and he arrived thence in the following November,

_jfp" in the Company's ship " Ocean," with a large collection of coffee- plants, cinnamon, Brazil tobacco, Guinea grass, and some other plants and seeds, in a growing and healthy condition. According to the decision of the Governor and Council, the coffee-plants were taken to Clarkson Plantation, with the exception of a few which were to be planted in the Garden of Experiment (to be hereafter noticed), or which were presented to Bance Island and to the headmen of factories, and several native towns. A further supply of coffee-plants arrived in March 1796, and they were sent to Mr. Graham at the Plantation.

Even prior to Mr. Graham's departure for St. Thomas and other places for the collection of plants, he had exhibited great remiss¬ ness in the management of the Plantation. Not only had his financial accounts been involved, but he had exhibited a want of method of work and of knowledge of details. From him could be gathered no information of the value or quantum of work per- ' formed by his labourers, or of the weather, or condition of crops,

^j ft^ and of such points which, as an experimental establishment, Clarkson Plantation should be the source of reference and a



10

public advertisement; nor could any account of the proceeds of the Plantation for the year 1794 be obtained from him, so far down as April following.

This state of inefficient management was not promoted by the appointment, during the five or six months of Mr. Graham's absence, of an ad interim successor, in the person of Matthias Jonkars, a stone blaster, who had been a few months before appointed under-overseer in the Plantation.

In February 1796, Mr. Graham's account of disbursements on the Plantation from May to 81st December 1795, amounted to £326 4s. 5|d. ; but notwithstanding strong intimation there¬ tofore made to him as to the insufficiency of his prior accounts, he fell again into the same irregularity, and was rebuked by the Governor and Council for his fault.

It _may well be conceived that the incompetency of the manager was now causing serious apprehensions respecting the success of the Plantation, and that Mr. Graham felt no less the humiliation of his position. For, endeavouring as it would seem to get rid of it, he, in May 1796, asked for leave—-which appeared however not to have been granted to him—to return to England till the ensuing January. In December the Governor and Council, in the absence of prospect of the Plantation being productive, and in view of the heavy expense which it would continue to cost annually to maintain it without adequate returns, decided to discharge the whole of the labourers employed thereon, with the exception of three or four, whose work was to be confined to keeping in order the coffee and other plants on the farm. The state of the Company's funds was a motive for economy and for expectation of returns; hence the estimated expenditure on the Plantation for the ensuing year was reduced to four hundred dollars. Indeed, the farm would probably have then been aban¬ doned, but for the necessity which the war in Europe, and the expedience inflicted by the French squadron in September 1794 on the colony, created for utilising Clarkson Plantation for the safety of the Company's goods. On Mr. Graham obtaining his desired leave of absence, on the 2lst of January 1796, the schoolmaster at Ballom was appointed overseer of the Plantation and of the Company's property, at a salary of 300 dollars, which was afterwards reduced to 200 dollars, per annum. In a report

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made by Mr. Ludlam on the 7th of April 1801, on the Planta¬ tion, he stated that he found the garden, coffee-field, and planta¬ tion-walk in tolerable order, so far as respected their being kept clear of weeds, " Which, indeed, was all he expected the overseer to do, or, indeed, that he was capable of doing," Great havoc had been made by goats among the coffee-plants, which, though bearing a little, had been on the whole unproductive, " chiefly or wholly from want of good management." There were plantains in abundance, but they were stolen by the natives as fast as they bore fruit. The cinnamons had blossomed, and they were bearing fruit. Mr. Ludlam recommended that permission might be given to owners of lands to remove the coffee-plants to their own,, grounds, and that the plantains should be taken away by Maroons, so that the expense of keeping up the Plantation nffljirt be reduced to the care of the house and garden attached Aurit, both of which were left in the charge of one person, at a yearly salary of 80 dollars. From this time the Plantation may be ~~~~K

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regarded as wholly abandoned, though the occupation, as wel'I^aS' the annual payment of rent to the Bullom Chiefs, continued ti^inA_2^ 1809, when, upon the chiefs refusing to transfer the land abso¬ lutely to the British Crown, it was surrendered to them, together with the buildings and plants thereon.

Before quitting this already lengthy allusion to Clarkson Planta¬ tion, it will not be without profit to draw attention to a point in its career serving to illustrate the state of the labour question as one of the causes of failure in this and many similar enterprises. In 1800, when the continued cultivation of the farm had proved hopeless and been neglected, Major Peregrine Thorne applied for and obtained from the local government a grant of 225 acres of the land included in Clarkson Plantation, to enable him to j'rose- cute extensive agricultural experiments, and, amongst other things, to grow indigo. He took possession of his new acquisition, and had not worked it for ten days when he applied to surrender his grant, having discovered that, though the land was good and suit¬ able to his purposes, these and other advantages were, in his words, " over-balanced by the prospect of a perpetual contention with the craving and insatiable desires of the native chiefs, by the inconvenience as well as the costliness of their intrusive visits, and the pernicious expedient to which, as he had been given to



12

understand, they often resorted, of calling off the grumettas at the most critical season of the year, from the service in which they were engaged, whenever they were influenced by caprice, ill-will, or views of extortion."

In apologizing for this detailed statement of the case of Clarkson Plantation, we have to observe that, besides being the first attempt, it fairly indicates the chief causes of failure of many similar enter¬

prises which had been undertaken in this colony. In addition to the two other establishments above more parti¬

cularly alluded to, the Sierra Leone Company, as has been already indicated, promoted a Garden of Experiment, upon the principle on which in many colonies are now established Botanical Gardens, for raising with precision and scientific care specimens of plants, in¬ digenous as well as exotic, which, nevertheless, will thrive in the colony, and are capable of forming staples of export. Under an able botanist—Mr. Afzelius—this department was established about April 1794, by the enclosure of an acre of ground in the neighbourhood of Freetown. A variety of native plants was cultivated there ̂ and several valuable articles of tropical cultiva¬ tion—amongst which was the Bread-fruit tree—were, by the Court of Directors of the Sierra Leone Company, obtained, through his Majesty's permission, from ELew, to be planted in the garden in Freetown. It is unfortunate, however, that in September the French attack of the colony fell heavily on Mr. Afzelius's depart¬ ment ; so that not only " were his plants, seeds, dried birds and insects, drawings, books and papers, scattered in heaps on his floor," but on the French frigate capturing, off Sierra Leone, the company's ship Sarpy—which, having just then come from Eng¬ land, contained many valuable tropical plants from the Kew Gardens, particularly the bread-fruit tree—they were destroyed, in spite of earnest entreaty to the French commodore for their delivery. The under-gardener of His Majesty, in whose charge the plants were sent out to Sierra Leone, died soon afterwards of an illness contracted at this period. Probably, at that juncture, all the plants in the Garden were destroyed by the French invasion ; for not until the followir ~ May are there any accounts extant of the continuance of the operations there—when Tarleton Fleming, a Nova Scotian settler, was appointed gardener under Mr. Afzelius, at 2s. 3d. per diem, and two labourers employed for one week to

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get the land in readiness for the seed and plants, which were now sent for from St. Thomas and other Portuguese islands in the south-west coast of Africa, and which were received there in November 1795.

The financial necessity of the Company obliged it to give up this Garden in December 1798, when it was decided that Fleming the gardener should have it free of rent, on the condition that he would put the house in repair, and not remove any of the coffee- trees or other plants growing, and would keep the garden and fence in order.

It was not only by experimental cultivation that the local government of the Sierra Leone Company attempted to stimulate agricultural industry amongst the population. The system of conferring bonuses was adopted and regulated so as to induce the culture of every available produce which the soil could bear, and for the raising of live stock, which is so intimately connected with farming in other parts of the world. In 1793, the bonuses offered were two prizes of £5 and £3 in each of the following

k classes, viz.: plantain-suckers, yams, rice, Guinea corn, Barbary corn, or any other like grain, cocoa, cotton-plants, timber, and cabbage, all of which were to be raised in August or November ensuing, according to the nature of the produce—and pigs and cattle, the competition for the prizes on which was fixed for the 1st of January 1796. A similar bonus had been offered in 1791.

This offer seems to have produced great farming activity amongst the Nova Scotian settlers, who, however, were retarded in their enterprise by ignorance of the proper mode of tillage. To lessen this evil, one of their number, John Cuthbert, was, perhaps on account of his superior knowledge, appointed Inspector of Farms, at a salary of £50 per annum; among whose duties it was to examine into the state of the farms, and give in from time to time reports of their progress—to pay particular attention to such as were candidates for prizes, so that no unfairness might be

practised—to convey and explain such directions with respect to the cultivation of produce as might be issued by the Government, and as far as he could, where necessary, to back his explanation by example.

In these earlier years it will be perceived that what was mostly required was the raising chiefly of food plants; but in subsequent

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years the encouragement was directed and confined almost ex¬ clusively to the growth of exportable procftice, such as cotton, coffee, and sugar-cane, and to the breeding of cattle.

The activity which these premiums at first created amongst the Nova Scotian settlers, probably had a tendency of fomenting the agrarian disputes which immediately followed between them and the Company, against whom they raised unceasing complaints of their breaking the promise made to them in Halifax, by Mr. Clarkson, of a grant of extensive plots of ground, more than the limits of the space then at the disposal of the government would warrant them in giving away—especially, too, as these settlers insisted on having their allotments La or very near Freetown, and claimed an exemption from the payment of quit-rent on their tenements. Nor is it unlikely that the reaction of their disputes tended first to damp their agricultural ardour; though this result, which was very marked, has been attributed to the exposures of their farms to Timneh invasions from 1801, as well as to the incidents of insurrections of some of their own number in 1800.

To whatever was due their abandonment of the cultivation of the soil, it had no connection with any well-founded complaint affecting the character of the soil of their allotments generally. Though much hope for the spread of this industry had been placed in them, because many of them had had some acquaintance with agriculture in America, it was doubtful if the adoption of other modes of livelihood which the demand for labour on the public works in Freetown facilitated, with quicker opportunities of earning a competence than by farming, single-handed, without capital, would not have proved more acceptable to the Nova Scotian settlers. But to all these concomitant circumstances, sup¬ plying a motive for the relinquishment of agricultural industry, must be added the disgust with which, on the importation of liberated Africans into the colony, the Nova Scotians began to regard field labour as being the province of slaves, to whom these liberated Africans were compared by them. They would not bring up their own children as farmers ; and though a few of the Nova Scotian settlers who had acquired some money by trade or other calling, had in 1825 a few acres with coffee, these farms were not worked by themselves, nor, indeed, were they properly tended; as no dependence for subsistence was placed by the owners on their produce.

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In that year, of 146 Nova Scotian families which were then surviving, only one individual, George CarroL was a farmer, and even he did not reside on his farm, to which he was unable to induce his son, who had applied himself to trade, to give any portion of his time or attention. He had planted his coffee in 1808, adding from time to time new plants from seeds; and he sold in some years upwards of 3 cwt. at Is. 3d. to 2s. 6d. the lb. He had only one person to look after the farm, which was two miles from Freetown, where he himself resided. There was another coffee farm belonging to another Nova Scotian settler, called Lazarus Jones, who was in similar circumstances Carrol.

The arrival of the Maroons in 1801 did not bring element of life into farming operations. Their previon and modes of life in Jamaica deprived them of the kno the enlightened pursuit of this industry, and precluded an tation of immediate aid from them. They themselves instruction, and, what was more, inclination for engagin. Though their lands were promised and granted to them on the express condition of the cultivation of at least three-fourths, they never troubled themselves to comply with the condition. Indeed, in 1825, out of 105 males—heads of families—then residing in the colony, only 11 were returned as farmers, who even were only induced to give up their trades and to turn attention to growing a few provisions for their own consumption out of their allotments, owing to a reduction in wages in their ordinary employment. The Maroons, as a rule, succeeded better even than the Nova Scotian settlers in trade, and there was therefore little likelihood of their quitting vocations which promised, and early secured them, com¬ parative wealth.

Agricultural enterprise could find no adequate encouragement in the two first of the great classes of settlers forming the colony.

A new source of power and strength was providentially sup¬ plied. The abolition of the slave trade by Great Britain, in 1807, soon led to the accession of large numbers of liberated slaves into the colony, upon the condemnation of vessels which were engaged in the traffic contrary to the Act of the English Parliament, or to treaty engagements between England and foreign powers. In 1809, the first batch of liberated Africans was landed here. In



16

respect of their maintenance on their arrival in the colony, " the children of both sexes were distributed amongst the schools of the different villages, where they remained for the purpose of educa¬ tion—the girls till they were married, and the boys till they were considered able to provide for themselves, either by agricultural or some other pursuits." At first the men, after having been employed on the public works for some time—generally till fresh drafts of liberated Africans arrived to replace them—were dis¬ missed ; but they were afterwards maintained for the space of one year, in order that they might in that time make provision for their own support afterwards. The general practice among them was, after having been located in some village, to repair into the neighbouring wood and clear a plot of ground for a farm, without any " previous instruction of the best mode of commenc¬ ing their agricultural labours." Their operations consisted in felling down all trees and cutting away all underwood from the selected spot, and after these have dried, fire is set to them. The ground is then scraped with a short-handled hoe, and planted generally with cassada and cocoa, or eddoe, with perhaps the addition of rice if the farm is on the lowlands. The next year or two the husbandman abandons the original site for another, and so continues till he can raise enough money to embark in trade, in which the example of the older and more opulent colonists, whether Europeans or persons of African descent, taught him to

regard as the best occupation to engage. The best opportunity was lost for utilizing or directing the

labour of the liberated Africans for the proper promotion of agri¬ culture in Sierra Leone. It cannot be said that attempts have not been made by the local as well as by Her Majesty's Government for remedying the evil. Only a brief space can now be spared to enumerate some of the forms of remedy proposed or attempted.

It cannot be ascertained whether the Agricultural Society estab¬ lished in 1816, under the patronage of Sir Charles MacCarthy, had any connection with a plan for instructing the liberated Africans, or what were its objects, or the extent of its operations. It seems, from its having applied for and obtained a grant of 500 acres of land in 1828, and from its Committee having been composed of public servants and missionaries, that its objects must have been experimental, and intended for the immediate and sole

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benefit of the public; but in the absence of any trace of its opera¬ tions, if even they ever were begun, it would be idle to predict the cause of its leaving behind it no visible result,

i The next traceable attempt to increase the agricultural know- I ledge of the community was made during the administration of

S Major-General Turner. In 1826, Mr. John A. Gyles was sent out

by Earl Bathurst, in the capacity of Agricultural Agent, to super¬ intend the liberated Africans in agriculture. Mr. Gyles introduced various species of cotton, and he was appointed by General Turner, Superintendent at Kissy, where also he had to grow indigo with the aid of the liberated Africans. But Mr. Gyles died very soon after his appointment, and the post was given to Mons. Rene Caille, the afterwards renowned French African traveller, who made the first successful visit to Timbuctoo and back. After the death of Major-General Turner, his patron, Caille resigned his

/post,

because, as it was believed at the time in Sierra Leone, he wanted more pay. It is but justice to the French traveller to acquit him of sordid motives. We are inclined to accept the

/' explanation given in his works, and to add, that his passion for

Nj£^, adventure was greater than his knowledge of agriculture. Indeed r he had no such knowledge; and it is no wonder, therefore, that the

Indigo Scheme failed. The death of Major-General Turner was unfortunate for the

Colony in many respects. To the enlightenment and zeal of Sir Charles MacCarthy, he combined courage and decision in executing great schemes, and prudence in forecasting consequences which have taken half a century to unfold themselves. " Had he been spared to the Colony," says the British Commissioner appointed in 1827 to report on the British Colonies in West Africa, " much might have been hoped from his encouragement of agriculture, which was to him a favourite pursuit, in which to his usual zeal he added

practical knowledge." His farm, known to this day by the name of Turner's Estate,

now parcelled out amongst a number of holders, was the largest in the Colony, " which he obtained with the hope of introducing

^ among the colonists an improved knowledge of agriculture. v

' Unfortunately, his numerous avocations, and the difficulty of

~t ' " y procuring a competent overseer, in a great measure frustrated his

views, though we know he looked forward with confidence to more

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favourable circumstances for their accomplishment. Prior to his time agriculture appears to have been almost totally neglected by the Europeans, Those who had the means of carrying it on exten¬ sively were totally occupied in other pursuits; and even had it been their wish to embark capital in the cultivation of the soil, an insuperable difficulty presented itself in the want of eligible overseers."

While in 1822 the tillage of the soil—which was probably promoted by the Agricultural Society of that period amongst a few of the citizens of Freetown—was confined to ornamental gar¬ dening, in the later years there appeared to be established, here and there, small farms by the merchants and traders, for their amusement in the cultivation of more useful articles.

Governor Henry Dundas Campbell, who administered the go¬ vernment for about three years from 1834, attached to the Liberated African School at Bananas a small farm, where some of the liber¬ ated African children at the school were taught to cultivate the ground. The operations were of a very limited character, and the only instructor of the agricultural art was the schoolmaster. Here the boys grew and manufactured arrowroot, and raised ginger and some edible products. Upon the departure of Governor Campbell in 1837, the system appeared to have been given up.

Sir John Jeremie's death in 1841, not long after his assumption of the government, prevented his continuing, as he had commenced in the wake of Major-General Turner, plans for supporting agri¬ culture, and for instructing the liberated Africans in the right pursuit of it. He offered premiums for the most successful agri¬ culturalists amongst them, and recommended to the Secretary of State the appointment, as manager of Waterloo, of a person from the West Indies or the United States of America—who, being practically acquainted with the mode of cultivating coffee and cotton, might teach the people of the district. But, as already intimated, death put an end to the fulfilment of his plans : for though, in accordance with his suggestion, Mr. Henry Vincent, a coloured person from British Guiana, was appointed as manager of Waterloo, he did not appear to have done anything to carry out the specific object of his appointment.

A similar appointment had been previously made for Hastings of a Mr. Coker, another coloured person from the United States,

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on account of his previous knowledge of agriculture. He grew two or three acres of cotton, part of which had been gathered, and part remained upon the bush; " but the whole," as the British

l Commissioner of 1827 reported, " appeared to have been managed I in so negligent a manner, that it could not have been brought to

~~V market with any hopes of success, and certainly not so as to form a just criterion of what might be done by the cultivation of the plant." His son, who was schoolmaster, raised some arrowroot, which grew luxuriantly ; but he stated that the price did not make it profitable. The Commissioner adds : " The result of these ex¬ periments, however calculated to show the capabilities of the soil, were not such as would prove an inducement to the liberated African to follow the example."

The question of the want of instruction for the liberated African in agriculture was strongly ttrged before the Select Committee of the House of Commons, appointed in 1842 to report on the West Coast of Africa.

The views of the Government since 1840 had been, that the readiest and most available means of giving the liberated African

^•^^ the requisite instruction, was by inducing him to immigrate into -*^ the great labour field afforded by some of the West India Islands,

where his employment on plantations would soon give him the knowledge which he lacked. Immigration from Sierra Leone was, accordingly, set on foot; but the scheme was opposed by the mis¬ sionaries especially, and comparatively few emigrants left these shores.

If the object of the Government were merely to provide for what might be regarded as a surplus population, emigration might have been a proper way to achieve it. But, for the purpose of improving the African soil, and bringing within the area of com¬ merce the untold and hidden wealth which lay buried within it, the proposal to emigrate, especially on the ground on which it was suggested, amounted to a recommendation to the liberated Africans to abandon for ever their native soil; for, if the advan¬ tages held out to the emigrants were realised in the West Indies,

-» few would find sufficient motive for returning, to put to practice / here the skill acquired in a land represented to be highly favoured.

'^f Time would fail to enumerate all the instances of efforts and methods of procedure adopted to meet an acknowledged evil. All



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felt, as one of the witnesses stated before the Committee of 1842, " that the liberated Africans had never seen any proper cultivation, and that they had no encouragement." In summing up their views on this subject the Committee reported as follows :—" No Model Farm has been established, no instruction in agriculture has been afforded. The rate of wages, when any earned, which is chiefly by a few in the neighbourhood of the town, is 4d. to 7d. a

day, and with this, and a little cultivation, a sufficient subsistence, though nothing more, is gained. The extent of good soil is limited There is little industry; there are no facilities for trade, as the Colony itself produces little to

export, save a little arrowroot and ginger; and the river which it commands is only navigable for 30 or 40 miles to any useful

purpose. The Government has not done much, but under any circumstances the Colony must be an artificial creation. The Government ought to have established a Model Farm, or in some way communicated agricultural knowledge; and we would recommend that it should be attempted even now."

This passage is cited with no intention whatever to animadvert on Government. The mention of the various instances of attempts heretofore directly or indirectly made, and to which we have already adverted, will bespeak our desire to do justice to their intention and their plans, which only forces external, and then uncon¬ trollable, prevented from resulting in successful acts. But I would vindicate, by these very instances of good intentions and significant failures, the character of the inhabitants of these Settlements against the reproach of the charge of contemning agricultural labour, and of unduly preferring petty trading.

It therefore becomes necessary to refer briefly to the actual state of agriculture amongst them—that is, to what they have done, notwithstanding the difficulties by which they are encompassed. In few cases will it be found, that a person whose regular occupa¬ tion is that of farming, had any pecuniary resources other than could supply him with hoes for commencing his operations on his farm. Without capital, without information, without implements, steady progress has nevertheless been made. To deal only with exportable produce grown in the peninsula of Sierra Leone (a large proportion of which is untouched, because its adaptation has not been studied), it is to be remembered that, of the large number of

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products that the varied experiments have proved as capable of being raised, only two ever had any extensive trial from the liberated Africans, viz., ginger and arrowroot. Both appeared

> to have been introduced into the Colony, and are not indigenous. Ginger was found in the Susoo country; and Mr. Afzelius, in his

-- report made on the Plants and Vegetables of Sierra Leone in 1794, says that it was not then found in Sierra Leone. Its cultivation, like that of arrowroot, did not seem to reach any exportable quantity till 1829, when the value of both exported amounted to only £56; but by steady increases, the export in 1842, when the Select Committee justly remarked that the Colony produced only a little ginger and arrowroot, was as follows:—

Ginger, weighing 30,081 lbs. value £1,599. Arrowroot, „ 21,650 „ „ £403;

Europeans conversant with the character of the negro, acknow¬

ledge that one has only to shew him properly how money is to be made, and he will not fail to follow example. The activity of the

people was now stretched, so that in 1846 it would seem a new life had come over the country. The wages of daily labourers,

Z' ̂ i^ which had stood at 4d. for several years up to 1843, rose in 1844 to 6d., and in 1846 to 9d. The quantity of exportable produce in that year explained this sudden leap, which was maintained for three years more, till it rose to lOJd. in 1850. Men refused to be idle, and rushed to the field which promised them rich harvest j for in 1846 the export was:—

Ginger, weighing 131,105 lbs. value £14,631. Arrowroot, „ 82,486 „ „ £1,201.

Ginger, though falling in quantity somewhat lower in subsequent years (down to 1866) than it was in 1846, shewed after that year a tolerable steadiness in that respect; but it rose in 1866 to 998 tons 4 cwt., and valued at £24,740; and in 1877 to 1,102 tons 2 cwt., but valued less, £19,309.

Prices have fluctuated a great deal lately, and reduced the

profits of the farmer. Within the past five years the rate has come down from £20 to £12 per ton. Yet the quantity culti-

r~ j t vated seems to have increased. Last year the quantity exported

^ '2 was 1,860 tons 14 cwts., or 4,167,986 lbs. (avoirdupois), the "% largest quantity ever exported from the colony; but the value

declared is only £10,113.

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Since 1852, at least, the Sierra Leone exports of ginger surpassed the quantity from Jamaica. Taking the year 1877, Jamaica exported less than Sierra Leone by 612 tons; and had the Sierra Leone produce commanded the same price with it, the export of the Colony in ginger alone for that year would have been, not £19,309, as was actually the case, but £44,743. Yet the Sierra Leone ginger is acknowledged to be superior as an article of commerce and in flavour to the West Indian ; but the higher price commanded by the latter in foreign markets is due partly to a superior mode of cultivation, and partly to its better preparation for the market.

It is at once evident what an advantage it would be to Sierra Leone, if, as to the cultivation and preparation of this article alone, a proper knowledge could be given to our farmers.

But we must not omit the mention of other natural products of commercial value. The reason for the farmers confining their attention hitherto to ginger is obvious. It requires no capital, except for the purchase of seed; no implements of any value. A single able-bodied labourer, diligently working, can clear and plant, in one season, at least an acre or two of land, the yield of which, according to the locality, would be from \ to \\ ton of cured ginger, besides the cassada which is planted along with it. In the course of 12 months, when both the entire crops of cassada and ginger are sold, a single labourer would realize, with a good market, from £30 to j£40, after payment of all expenses ; whereas had he been employed as an ordinary labourer about the city, his whole year's pay, even at the rate of Is. per diem, inclusive of Sundays, would bring him only £18.

But as it is not prudent to sink all one's capital in a fluctuating investment, so it is erroneous to place all dependence on the culti¬ vation of only one produce, however profitable for the moment it may appear. This error is verified by the state of Ceylon, which at one time gave almost exclusive attention to coffee, and by the case of this colony in abandoning every other article, inclusive of arrowroot, for ginger alone.

Other natural products, which have been proved to be adapted to Sierra Leone, besides indigo, cotton, maize, and sugar-cane—all annuals, not unworthy of attention now—are castor oil, cocoa (the broma), coffee, cocoa-nuts, cola nuts, and perhaps cinnamon.



'23

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Some of these require special treatment in rearing, and experience must be brought from without to promote their profitable culti¬ vation.

Before referring a little more fully to this view of the subject, it is desirable at this stage to point out distinctly what have been the causes of the failures in all the attempts hitherto made to extend agricultural information in the colony, and promote the cultivation of a variety of produce. ^f-A^

Imperfect information has often taken shelter in the belief'that the soil is not sufficiently fertile. Without at this momeift dis¬

cussing the question of soils, the simple answer is that' the admittedly good soil in the peninsula alone has not nearly all been !"_

yet appropriated by the farmers. There is, unfortunately, a wxant of statistical information of the actual acreage under cultivation^ •- There is no means of ascertaining it, Patches here and there are all that is worked.

But the most fertile soil would not, however, of itself alone dis¬ place the difficulty.

The Clarkson Plantation, of which an account has been given, supplies us with grounds for suggesting that any instruction attempted ought to be given by professional farmers, and that no Model Farm will succeed here without having employed on it men who will themselves contribute their manual labour.

In such a case it might at first be necessary to have a European or American practical farmer, who could judge of soils, under¬ stand the application of manures, the rotation of crops, irrigation, and every department of farming, with a staff of say about half a dozen able-bodied negro labourers from tropical estates abroad, thoroughly acquainted with farming, who would work on the

• supposed Model Farm as ordinary labourers. Of course, their wages must be sufficiently high to tempt them from abroad ; but the result, in the spread of knowledge and example, would repay

• the outlay. This plan would obviate the incongruity and inconvenience of

a clergyman, a sailor, or a traveller leaving his regular vocation to assume a position in which his knowledge, if he had any, could at best be but superficial. It would also give in husbandry prac¬ tical lessons, which could not be obtained from ignorant natives, who themselves stood in great need of instruction.

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24

The knowledge would be imparted of the use of labour-saving implements—such as the plough, the harrow, and the drill—now wholly unknown in the farming economy of this colony, but the general use of which should be encouraged, even by their exemp¬ tion from customs dues, which must be felt as a heavy tax on their importation. This matter we would recommend now to the y attention of the Local Government

A Model Farm of five or six acres conducted on this principle would, we think, be a public benefit From that institution, and from any of its officers, the public should be entitled to ask and obtain advice and assistance which might be required in their farming operations. Such a farm might form the nucleus of a botanic garden, to which similar institutions are rising up in many British colonies, and to the deplorable absence of which, to serve as a means of exploring and developing the flora of west tropical Africa, attention was drawn in an able Paper read by Mr. W. T. Dyer, Assistant-Director of the Kew Gardens, before the Colonial Institute of London, in May last year.

The attempts of the past were rendered abortive at one time by the difficulty of securing the services of practical farmers from abroad, whose knowledge was competent, and whose health would **L spare them sufficient time to devote to their special work, in which, with the raw materials of native workmen to perform the manual labour, it would require a longer time than with more practised hands to make an impression and create an example worthy of general imitation; or, at another time, by the impossi¬ bility of harmonising the feeling of importance created by the sudden exaltation of men from the position of farm-labourers or subordinate overseers abroad, to the magisterial chair of districts in Sierra Leone,—with the disposition, by abstaining from the ex¬ hibition of the knowledge of practical farming, to conceal from the liberated Africans, over whom such men were called to exercise magisterial power, what might appear to themselves as the evi¬ dence of their own lowly condition abroad.

The positions of governor over a district and of agricultural instructor and guide, held by the same person, were incompatible under the past circumstances of their creation, and would be so * still. One must subordinate the other ; and it is not difficult to ~^v see the interests of which would suffer in the conflict. The agri-



25

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cultural department should not be the avenue to, or the means of qualifying for, a secretaryship, a justiceship, or any other exalted office. Hence we suggest the appointment of a practical farmer, to be assisted by practical manual labourers, who would have no encouragement or right to look beyond their own department.

When, as in the earlier years of the colony, death made fearful havoc amongst the European population, when' vegetation was rank, and Sierra Leone was truly the black-man's no less than the " white-man's grave," the scheme could not have been carried out. Now things have changed for the better—the sanitary condition of the colony has improved, and we scarcely hear now of death amongst the European population.

Another drawback to agricultural industry has been due to the inducements which trade offered to a large proportion of the popu¬ lation, so that any person who had acquired a little money expected quick and heavy returns from investment of it in trading. But we do not believe we should be sorry if that here now—in trade too—the times were changed, though for individuals not for the better.

The competition amongst traders at the present time has re¬ duced them to the smallest margin of profits, if not generally to sustain dead losses.

This condition of affairs is not without its advantages. It has served to awaken interest in agricultural enterprise ; and many traders would readily withdraw their sinking capital from an un¬ profitable business, if indeed they could have some guidance in its

right investment in the soil. To return to the introduction of new staple produce, we would

mention the cultivation of cotton, sugar-cane, indigo, and maize— and we might add castor-oil seed—for annual exports.

As to cotton, some experiments have been made here, and, when attended to, they have been successful. The tree grows about in yards; and, in 1808, 10,000 lbs. was raised in Tasso Island, by Messrs. Anderson, of London, and exported to England.

Mr. Lefevre also raised about the same time a large quantity on a plantation near Freetown. The abandonment of the cotton culture by these two gentlemen was not owing to want of success, but to circumstances personal to themselves.

The present price of cotton in England is about 5d. to 6d. per



26

lb. With the price of labour in Sierra Leone, its cultivation, with a prospect of sale on the sjiot at 3d., will be remunerative. Taking the average yield in America of 500 lbs. of cleaned cotton to the acre, £ 6 5s. will be the proceeds per acre.

In one of the most reliable English price lists of West African produces, published last month, is the following statement with respect to cotton :—" A constant supply of fairly good African would meet a good demand ; the small, uncertain supply does not enable spinners to use it profitably; it is consequently neglected. We think this great staple manufacturing requirement worthy of more attention on the Coast."

Should the colony set the example, it would probably soon be followed by the adjacent countries, now engaged in the production chiefly of ground nuts, which are becoming year by year more unremunerative,

Maize, or Indian corn, is becoming an important article in many parts of the world for exportation. In many of the soils of the districts three crops are grown in a year. Thus a large quantity may be raised. In the returns of this colony, it seemed to have formed an exportable produce for a very few years from 1835.

Though sugar-cane has not lately been an article cultivated, except in one case, with a view to export or the manufacture of sugar, it grows luxuriantly and plentifully.

The late Mr. M. Pindar Horton unfortunately died before large results accrued from his plantation and mill at Bendoo, yet he raised large quantities of sugar during the few years he em¬ barked in the concern. The rum he manufactured was pro¬ nounced excellent by competent judges. There was no successor to him, and the plantation came to an end with his untimely death.

The chief drawback to the extensive growth of cane by the inhabitants for manufacturing purposes, is the great outlay that the establishment of a mill will involve. The difficulty can be met, however, by the erection of a mill by some capitalists, who would allow the manufacture to be done for the cane-growers on consideration of a share of the produce.

The castor-oil tree is a plant of hardy growth, and thrives in almost any soil. It is seen growing in the streets, by the edge

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of rocks, on lime-heaps, and on sand. Its yield per acre is about 100 bushels of seed, which may obtain 2s. per bushel, if not more, but which it would pay better to press for the oil, and then the refuse seed would form a good manure.

Of the successful cultivation of cocoa (theobroma) and coffee there is very recent evidence. Liberian coffee, planted only between three and eight years ago, is now in full bearing in a small estate at Fourah Bay belonging to Mr. J. Taylor. On that estate cocoa is also in full bearing. Larger estates are being formed by other native gentlemen, amongst whom is the Honorable Mr. Grant, in whose new plantation at Rowesville a nursery of upwards of 40,000 plants has been raised, and they will be planted in the ensuing season. Mr. Thomas Bright has also established a coffee and cocoa farm at Murray Town.

Cocoa-nut has been neglected here, and although thousands of full-bearing trees are in yards, no serious attempt has been made to cultivate it. In fact, there is a superstition among the inhabit¬ ants respecting this article which prevents its being regularly cultivated. A plantation is in course of formation, in which the growing of this tree will receive a particular share of attention. For the encouragement of those who would wish to grow this article, it may be stated that, at the reduced price of £17 per ton now ruling in England for coprah—the dried kernel of the nut—it will repay the outlay of cultivation. Calculating the ordinary annual yield of the Sierra Leone trees at 12 dozen per tree, it will require the produce of only 42 trees to give the ton. In one street in Freetown—Percival Street—there are now bearing in yard' -18 full-grown trees, the produce of which is hardly utilized. A firm in Sierra Leone is prepared to give £11 per ton, and we believe other merchants will pay a similar price; and by availing themselves of the market offer, the residents in Percival Street will save every year £22 to £34, now practically thrown away. The tree takes from 5 to 8 years to bear fruit, and a plantation of it laid out at 25 feet distance would yield about 1£ ton per acre

annually. Cola nuts will take between eight and ten years to come to

maturity. It grows in yards in Sierra Leone, and yields about £2

annually per tree. If carefully cultivated, it would yield a greater result. The fact that the trade in this article is almost exclusively



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done by Sierra Leone, and that that trade has increased from £5,764 in 1867, to £25,000 in 1880, makes its cultivation worthy of immediate attention.

Apart from the superstition already mentioned with respect to the cocoa-nut tree, a great impediment to the growth of all articles which require years to mature them, is—besides the absence of capital amongst those generally who engage in agriculture— their objectionable system of squatting, and of frequent change of the sites of their farms, in seeking for new ground after the old has been paitially exhausted. Were the knowledge of the proper application of manures, and of the rotation of crops, possessed by him, the farmer would have little occasion for abandoning parcels of ground once appropriated by him, and where, if he could have assured himself of the expectation of remaining long upon it, he would have from time to time raised a supply of permanent produce of great value.

Her Majesty's Government is prepared, we believe, to stimulate in every legitimate way the agricultural impulse which has come over this community, and therefore we can apprehend little difficulty to small farmers having grants of land on easy terms, made to them upon the condition of their regularly cultivating it, or growing on the land a certain number of specified trees, whose produce will be useful for export or otherwise. This arrangement, whilst it assures to the farmers what they generally have not— a title to the land on which they have for the time being squatted —will ensure a more regular system of tillage ; if, however, the farmers can, in the manner before suggested, or some other practic¬ able way, be assisted to the knowledge requisite to secure it.

This consideration of the matter leads to the question of the sufficiency of land at the disposal of the Government to meet any wide-spread desire of the inhabitants for extensive cultivation, and to the incidental enquiry of the capabilities of the soil to co-operate with that desire in the attainment of successful result. As to the first, we can only briefly point to a large proportion of the land in the peninsula itself, as well to the outlyling lands in British Quiah and British Sherbro, which are either unappropriated, or appear never to have been touched by human hand.

Whatever may be said of the want of fertility of the soil of Freetown and the mountain district, that along the valley

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to the river from Wellington to Waterloo, and in the neighbour¬ hood of Quiah, is considered by competent judges to be good soil, composed of the alluvial deposits from the river, of earth mixed

v more or less with sand and clay. The soil of Quiah and of i "71 Sherbro is even considered in some parts superior; but in every j-^"v_. case the adaptation of the soil must be taken with reference to the

particular article sought to be raised in it. It is on this point \ that so much misconception exists amongst people who have no

means of distinguishing the adaptableness of soils. Even the mountain districts have not been largely tested as to what they are likely to be suitable for, that is, the growth of the coffee which is

indigenous to it, and which was first found growing wild there on the 5th of February 1796, by Andrew Moore, one of the Nova Scotian. Settlers, and for the discovery of which he received an award of £10 from the Governor and Council, who at the same time offered a reward of two dollars each for further discoveries up to ten trees. The next two prizes were taken by Moore and one C'rankipone, both of whom seemed to have found the other

plants on the mountains.

f I ^ -^-t the present moment the mountain districts are the chief, if ~^* not the only places in Sierra Leone in which this description of

coffee grows, and whence a small quantity is raised for home

consumption. Though it takes a longer time to bear fruit, it

yields larger produce than the Liberian coffee, to which it is said to be preferred in the French colonies of Goree and Senegal. Attentive cultivation may yet give better results both in the quantity and quality of the produce. The mountain districts, then, are not without their specific agricultural uses.

Hitherto, besides the public attempts of which instances have

already been given, farming experiments have been made in the

colony by several native gentlemen during the past twenty years, but they were conducted with less knowledge and system than those made by or under the patronage of the Government. Gene¬ rally, the area of these private experiments were small plots of land selected for country residences, and where, therefore, the chief aim of the owners was not the cultivation of the ground for

profit, but the maintenance of it for the pleasures of rural life, J~^V~ whenever their avocations in the city could spare them time for

indulgence in so innocent a luxury. Seldom was any intelligence—



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except, perhaps, it were for laying out flower-beds and ornamental grounds—brought to the business ; and when a few plants which might yield exportable produce were sought to be grown, these were only entrusted to the care of irresponsible, ignorant, or dis¬ honest labourers, who either did not care or know how to perform their duties, or who not only robbed their employer's time, but stole the very plants or produce which it was their duty to grow and protect. This is nothing but playing at farming.

To succeed, agriculture must be taken up as a serious under¬ taking. Amateur farming for pleasure, upon one or two acres, is almost sure, financially, to end badly, and to discourage others who would be more serious.

The purpose of this Paper will have been served if it succeeded in inducing the conviction that the true causes of our backwardness in agriculture are remediable, and not inherent, evils—capable of being cured by knowledge, assiduity to business, and a careful, but not grudging, economy of time, labour, and money, which only constant supervision can secure.

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the agricultural position of sierra leone: lecture delivered at the wesleyan high school, sierra...

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