New-York tribune., 1902-06-29
WOMEN AGRICULTURISTS.
THEIR FOREST GARDENS ON THE WEST
COAST OF FAFRICA-ARDUOUS
BREAD MAKING.

Women on the West Coast of Africa. who have
always been sold in plural marriages. may now
be made free at their own request Th1s is a
recent innovation, introduced by the German
Government after long and earnest solicitation
by PRESBYTERIAN missionaries. Several native
women have already availed themselves OF the
privilege. and a result of Christian teaching
have become the wives of who have abjured
polygamy. This is one of the triumphs of mis-
sionary effort in that part of the world
Miss Isabella Nassau. who has been a mis-
sionary of the Presbyterian Board for thirty-four
years on the West Coast of Africa. in interview
with a Tribune reporter yesterday, gave some
interesting facts regarding the people with whom
she has lived long. Miss Nassau is in this
country present At the close of her vacation
year She will return her field With her brother,
the Rev DR.. R. H. Nassau, who has been in
Africa for than forty years Miss Nassau
has worked among the Bantu people at Batanga
and ueighborng stations.
The the agricuItursts of the country.
and largely the breadwinners. said Miss Nassau
For this reason it IS a simple matter to become
acquainted with them. They are very industrious,
and shoulder the heaviest burdens of life bravely-
It their husbands part to build the houses, hunt
fish and make deals with the traders The number
Of wives a owns is limited only by the amount
of his property and his wives inconsiderable
part of his wealth. as they do his work. = wife
can be bought with goods worth from $50 to $50
The native women readily take civilized dress
and abandon their strips of bright hueds calico.
which they wear wrapped ABOUT themselves, dS
easily as they forsook their primitive bark cloth
for the product of the loom
PRODUCTS THEY RAISE.
August and September. before the rains come. are
the planting season. The natives have learned the
value of charcoal in enrching the soil. and ii is
their only fertilizer When the men have cleared
a tract of land trees their part of the farm
ing is at an end. Then the women. with their cut
Iasses and knives down the undergrowth and,
as soon as is dry enough burn II. Only the most
primitive implements are used. and they carried
In baskets on the backs of the women when they
start early in the morning, for their forest gar
dens The same ground is used only few years.
BY that time the upper soil is exhausted and IL
Is allowed 10 crow up again with wild and rank
vegetation while another plot is cleared as before
for cultivation. Cassava, sugar cane, yau1s, plan
,sins and bananas are the most common garden
products OF plantain there several hundred
varieties and there many kinds of yans. Ba-
nanas are seldom planted. Once started. they as
sert themselves and run OUT the plantains The
vomens baskets never return empty from the gar
dens II there are cassava, yams or other vese-
tables or fruits to carry back, they filed with
arewood which It falls to the feminine part OF the
community 20 provide. The Bantu men do a good
5.a1 NJ resting and would think OF shoulder
ing heavy basket for woman The man who
may be the most skiIfuI cooks in the white mans
house will sit hungry for hours in his own and
wait for his tired wife TO prepare the meal Until