84 



According; to the nomenclature of the Cola trees, as fj^^iven by 

 MM. A. Chevalier and E. Perrot, the trees with all white nuts, 

 and with only two cotyledons, belong to the species Cola niiida var. 

 alba: this white Cola, then, must be regarded as the best one to 

 propagate. 



Tlie great excellence of MM. Chevalier and Perrot's work is 

 nnfortunately marred by their pessimistic strictures on the future 

 of Cola as a planting industry, strictures which would almost raise 

 a doubt as to their opportunities of observing the Cola tree under 

 fair conditions of growth, and which, at any rate, are without the 

 least justification. 



The autliors would have us believe that the Cola tree is ab- 

 solutely refractory to cultivation : that many of the trees only l^ear 

 male flowers and never fruit, which is not at all unlikely where, 

 as found by the authors, tliey grow under unfavourable conditions, 

 either, in the midst of dense forest thickets, or at unsuitable alti- 

 tudes of 800 metres above sea-level. 



Again, we are told : " the fruit pods are far apart from each 

 ■" other in the tree, and the harvesting must be slow and difficult." 

 Now, the authors may never have thought how the Chinese 

 or natives of this country bring down, with their long poles, 

 bunches of coconuts from 80 to 90 feet up in the air, but it is hardly 

 admissible that they should ignore the fact that the pods of the 

 Cola nuts fall of themselves at maturity, and that the cost of har- 

 vesting need only be the cost of picking them up off the ground ; 

 for such is tlie case. 



Lastly, we are informed : " Planters at San Thome liave 

 ■" assured us that the most vigorous trees only yield a few kilos of 

 ■" nuts in a year and that the crop was not worth the money spent 

 *' on it," and, if my memory serves me right, the maximum crop 

 to be expected from a tree, would be some 10 kilos of nuts. 



The reports given above from competent observers go some 

 way towards dispelling such unfounded pessimism. But the 

 following extract from the Report of the Government of the Gold 

 Coast for 1914, should effectually dispose of the matter: on page 

 31, it is said : 



"Cola. — The white cola trees are making fair progress.... 

 *' the 93 numbered trees produced 72,029 nuts. Four trees pro- 

 " duced no fruit at all, and the highest individual yield was 5302 

 ■''nuts. . . .one tree produced over 4,000 nuts — 4 trees over 3,000 — 

 *' 6 trees over 2,000 ; and 7 trees over 1,000." These figures lead 

 to conclusions very different from those expressed above and I shall 

 not labour the question further. 



But it is an understood thing that the introduction of a new 

 crop in any country has to fight its way against detractors. It was 

 the ease of quinine at its first introduction in the East: it was the 

 case of Liberian Coffee in the early eighties; and it was the same 

 with Rubber of which it was said, in the early days, that it would 

 not pay to tap before 8-10-12 years — that plantation rubber was 

 unsuitable for making this and for making that: all cobwebs 

 which time and fact have brushed awav. 



