'The proper cultivation of the soil is, and must always be, the true
foundation of prosperity in any country. The shop cannot flourish unless
the farm supports it, and the friends of the colony regard with anxiety
the centralisation of capital at Freetown. I have been gratified, however,
to notice that the desire to acquire land and cultivate it has lately
increased to a very great extent, and I regard it as a very hopeful sign
for the future. The people still want two things, capital and scientific
agricultural knowledge. The native implements are of the rudest
kind--their hoes little more than sufficient to scratch the ground, and
their only other implement a cutlass to cut down the bush. Ploughs are
unknown, and spades very little used. Wheelbarrows are detested, although
they are not quite unknown; the people would sooner "tote" the soil in a
box on their heads, and instances are on record where the negro has
"toted" the wheelbarrow itself, wheel, handle, and all.'

Mr. Griffith further informs us that the Colonial Government is desirous
of fostering and encouraging agriculture; that it proposes to establish,
or rather to re-establish, a model farm; that lands have been granted at a
trifling sum to Mr. William Grant on condition of his devoting capital and
labour to the development of agriculture; that Mr. Thomas Bright has laid
out a coffee and cocoa farm at Murray Town; and that Mr. Samuel Lewis, a
barrister-at-law, universally well spoken of, is engaged in cultivation,
with a view of studying the best methods and of influencing his
fellow-countrymen in favour of agricultural pursuits. Major Bolton also is
working the land seventeen miles down coast, and planting cocoa-nuts,
chocolate, and Kola-trees. The latter, when ten years old, are said each
to fetch 15_l_. per annum. Here, therefore, we have at least a beginning.

During the discussion on Mr. Griffith's lecture, some home-truths were
told by the Hon. Mr. Grant, [Footnote: This 'eminent African,' who had