PLANT INDUSTRY 397 



In Sierra Leone there are good prospects for co-operative societies 

 in the Scarcies rice area where the need for credit is already felt. 

 One association of an administrative, rather than a co-operative 

 type, has been instituted as an experiment, and an ordinance to 

 establish societies has been proposed. Stockdale (1936) held that 

 the introduction of a co-operative movement on a large scale 

 would be premature. 



In the palm oil districts of West Africa conditions are much 

 more difficult for instituting societies, because the crop is obtained 

 from so many owners of trees and in comparatively small quanti- 

 ties. The movement is afoot, however, in parts of Nigeria and in 

 some cases producers have grouped together to purchase palm 

 presses under common ownership. 



In Eastern Africa the tendency has been to use the small political 

 unit rather than the village as the basis of the co-operative society, 

 a method which is open to criticism from those who hold that trade 

 and administration should not be combined. From Tanganyika an 

 administrative officer was sent to India in 1934 to study co-opera- 

 tive methods with a view to his appointment as registrar of the 

 societies. The Kilimanjaro Native Go-operative Union markets 

 the produce (coffee) of its members in bulk, and it has been pro- 

 posed to form societies on the same lines as this organization in the 

 tobacco districts of Songea and Biharamulo. 



In the Bugishu district of Uganda measures have been taken to 

 maintain the quality of coffee exported at a uniform high standard. 

 Central pulping-stations have been built and each consignment 

 is sent to a central factory at Bubulu, where it is properly dried, 

 hulled, and graded. The scheme is controlled by the Native Ad- 

 ministration with the ultimate object of encouraging the establish- 

 ment of co-operative societies among the growers themselves. In 

 Buganda associations have been formed to deal with cotton and 

 other crops (Thomas and Scott 1935). 



In the French territories of West and Equatorial Africa a system 

 similar in some ways to co-operative societies has been evolved. In 

 every district headquarters there is a local Societe de Prevoyance, 

 which is organized by the administrative officer in charge of the 

 district with the assistance of a secretary-treasurer, but has also 

 a council of natives chosen by the local assembly of chiefs. Sub- 



