CH. IV] COFFEE, CACAO OR CHOCOLATE, KOLA, ETC. 73 



pound. This is about the first case of spraying, now so very 

 much in use in colder countries, being employed on a large 

 scale in the tropics. Science is also coming in in the use of 

 green manures, various leguminous plants being planted between 

 the rows of cacao, and subsequently being ploughed or dug in, 

 increasing the nitrogen available at small cost. 



With the great extension of cacao cultivation, which is now 

 taken up in nearly all tropical countries, there will presently 

 be a fairly severe competition, and prices will probably be very 

 low. Improvement must therefore be sought for by those 

 countries which would keep ahead in this matter. Some of 

 the directions in which this improvement may be looked for 

 are in the selection of better varieties for cultivation, e.g. even 

 in the simple substitution of Criollo for Forastero, or the 

 selection of seed from trees that regularly bear large numbers 

 of good pods (for there are well-marked differences in this 

 respect). Another moderately easy thing to manage, and one 

 which repays itself, is the careful grading of the seeds sent to 

 market. If Criollo (pale pink or brown) and Forastero (purple) 

 seeds are sent into the market mixed, the price paid for them 

 will of course be the lower price, that of the Forastero, whereas 

 if they be separated, the Criollo seeds will fetch a much higher 

 price. Though at first the two kinds of seeds look alike, it will 

 soon be found possible to distinguish them, and coolies can be 

 trained to separate the two kinds of seeds with a fair amount 

 of certainty. Prevention of disease, by spraying and in other 

 ways, is another thing that requires careful attention, cacao 

 being very liable to various diseases. 



Kola or Cola. Another very important cultivation, more 

 perhaps from the point of view of its local uses than from that 

 of export, though the latter is large, is that of the Kola nut, 

 which is extensively cultivated in West Africa from Loango on 

 the south to southern Senegambia on the north. The con- 

 sumption of these nuts is one of the great features of West 

 African life, they being used both as a food and as a stimulant. 

 They are sent in token of reconciliation, are used like olives 

 before a meal, are said to make bad water drinkable, are a cure 



