PLANT INDUSTRY 395 



involves a wider departure from existing native organization than 

 is supposed by its advocates, and that the authority of native chiefs 

 is a more effective influence in the introduction of improved agri- 

 cuhural methods. 



Whichever method is followed, the Native Administration, 

 where one exists, is in a position to exert an influence on the culti- 

 vator, to supervise marketing and generally to see that satisfactory 

 methods of cultivation are followed. In addition, in some terri- 

 tories, where non-natives hold land close to areas of native farming, 

 planters' associations, designed for mutual assistance and aid can 

 be helpful to their African neighbours. Such non-native associa- 

 tions are mentioned in a later section. 



To build up an efficient co-operative society from primitive 

 material is diflftcult, even where economic conditions are suitable. 

 The members are called upon, at the outset, to learn new and pos- 

 sibly incomprehensible principles and regulations. Go-operation, 

 far from being a method to get rich quickly without extra effort, 

 consists in the patient application of high standards, both of agri- 

 cultural and financial efficiency. In spite of these difficulties, 

 however, marked success has been attained in several territories 

 as detailed below. 



The Gold Coast, where the cocoa industry is well developed and 

 there are a comparatively large number of educated farmers, has 

 seen the greatest advances in this direction. The formation of 

 co-operative societies in the cacao-growing districts has been one 

 of the chief aims of the agricultural department. The co-opera- 

 tive movement has been studied in detail by Professor C. Y. 

 Shephard (1936) and is also described by Sir F. A. Stockdale (1936) 

 in the report on his visit to Nigeria, the Gold Goast, and Sierra 

 Leone, which gives a complete picture of many agricultural 

 activities in these territories. In the Gold Goast credit organiza- 

 tions have not been as extensively developed as in other British 

 territories and the policy has been 'to improve methods of prepara- 

 tion as a means of securing price discrimination' (Shephard 

 1936). The Go-operative Societies Ordinance was passed in 1931, 

 and in spite of initial native apathy and mistrust, in the five years 

 since then over four hundred societies have been formed with a 

 total capital of ;^i 2,000. In the initial stages the work of secretary 



