The crop is usually grown in the river valleys, and is irrigated carefully. Manure in the form of house sweepings, ashes, and cattle-shed refuse is always applied, and the crop consists of leaves of all sizes and ages stripped from the plant at the same time.
The preparation of the tobacco usually consists in drying the leaves spread upon mats or upon sand in the sun. When flaccid they are twisted into ropes or plaits in the form in which they are afterwards sold, or they are completely dried and pounded up. In Ilorin an attempt has been made to prepare the leaves tied up in flat bundles, and this method has more recently been tried at the Baro prison farm, but the previous curing has generally proved inefficient and requires more attention. It is unlikely that tobacco fit for export will be produced except under expert guidance.
MISCELLANEOUS. Beeswax.—Bees are kept in many of the large villages, and are seen in hives placed in trees near the large towns in Kano and Zaria especially. Honey is employed in the country as a substitute for sugar. The wax is not greatly valued, and is frequently thrown away, although it seems to be of fair quality.
Locust Bean.—The tree which furnishes the well-known locust bean (Parkia filicoidea) is called “Dorowa” by the Haussas. The beans, which are produced in clusters, contain a sweet-tasting yellow flour-like substance, which is used for making a beverage. In this flour-like substance the flattened seeds are placed, and these are greatly appreciated for making into cakes, in the process of which they are boiled and apparently decomposed. The empty pods of the bean are boiled and used for making a strong cement used in flooring, etc. The pods have been examined at the Imperial Institute, and appear to be unsuitable for export as a feeding-stuff owing to their fibrous nature (see Report by Professor Dunstan on “Cotton, Gum, and Other Economic Products from Northern Nigeria” (Cd. 2778 [1905]), p. 21). [Fig. 30] shows a locust bean tree in Ilorin.
Date Palms (Phœnix dactylifera) and the fruit of the Run palm (Borassus flabellifer), “Giginia” (Haussa), are used for food and are sometimes sold in the markets towards the south, being commonly seen in Kano.
CATTLE.—Large numbers of cattle are moved about through the country north of the 11th degree, where the tsetse fly does not appear to occur. The “Cow Fulani” is the race whose work is confined to the care of cattle and the sale of milk and butter. These people have no fixed abode, but move with the cattle to localities suitable to the season. An illustration is given of a Cow Fulani woman selling milk at Gwari, a town south of Zaria ([Fig. 36]). The cattle are large and humped similar to the Indian Zebu type, although in some places the straight-backed kind, which are common in the south, are seen.
SILK.—Four kinds of silkworm are collected for the spinning of yarn used in the embroidery on the Haussa gowns. The best of these is that which feeds upon the Tamarind tree, “Tsamia,” and is termed “Tsamian tsamia.” The silk cocoons are collected in Bauchi Province and are boiled in water with wood ashes, and subsequently washed. The silk becomes nearly white, and is carded and spun into yarn in the same manner as cotton. The species of insect which produces this silk has not yet been identified, but is almost certainly referable to the genus Anaphe (cf. [p. 117]).
A second quality of silk is that called “Tsamian doka,” and is obtained from the cocoon masses produced by the larvæ of Anaphe Moloneyi, which are found in the same locality, feeding upon the “Bokin doka” tree, which has been determined to be a species of Macrolobium. Several hundred worms congregate together and form a solid mass of pale brown tubular cocoons upon the bark of the tree, covering the outer surface with a whitish envelope of silk. This silk is treated in the same manner as the other, but, after boiling and washing, does not become white. Two other species, which are used for the same purpose, are called “Tsamian fakali” and “Tsamian bauri,” and feed on another species of Macrolobium and a Ficus respectively. They produce inferior kinds of silk.
Much interest is attached to these Anaphe silks, which, in recent years, have been developed in the German Colonies of East Africa, especially, on a commercial scale. It is reported that, just previous to the declaration of war, German agents in British West Africa made endeavours to obtain as much of the wild silk as possible from Nigeria. Plantations of a species of Bridelia, the common food plant of Anaphe infracta, were made in the late German Colonies, and special machinery was in use there for the production of a commercial silk.
The following figures give the values of the chief exported products from Nigeria as a whole, from 1913 to 1919:—