KERNELS, AND CACAO. 



the West Indies, the Malabar Coast, British Guiana, and 

 it is now being cultivated in India and East Africa. The 

 coconut is an important commercial product for exploita- 

 tion in West Africa, but it requires careful handling ; for, 

 although coconuts are found all along the coast, they are 

 not in any one area so numerous as to make by themselves 

 a good paying proposition. In most cases excepting 

 here and there in a part of Sierra Leone, in Togoland, or 

 in Liberia they are scattered and under the control of 

 different families or tribes, and only those who know 

 the country and its laws and have obtained the con- 

 fidence of the people can successfully combine various 

 lands and planted areas for commercial working. 



Only since the author * drew attention to the possi- 

 bilities of coconuts in the Sierra Leone Littoral has the 

 Government seriously taken up coconut growing there, 

 importing the seeds from Malay. Previously the authori- 

 ties had failed, owing, among other causes, to native 

 antipathy, the natives neglecting to water the young 

 trees because " the nuts themselves contained liquid/' 



Similarly, about seven years ago the Agricultural 

 Department of the Gold Coast Government reported 

 that the natives were making extensive plantations of 

 coconuts, and that many were giving the trees very careful 

 attention and taking a greater interest in the preparation 

 of copra. These developments are now commencing to 

 yield their beneficial results. Up to 1905 the coconut 

 had not been energetically cultivated in West Africa, but 

 copra is now commanding such abnormally high prices 

 that there is every inducement to stimulate the industry. 

 After the war immense developments will take place ; 



* " Sierra Leone: Its People, Products, and Secret Societies." 



