COCOA 177 



-detailed history of development I would refer members 

 of the Congress to an article contributed by me and 

 published in the Journal of the African Society in 1909. 



The Gold Coast has never been looked upon as a white 

 man's country (I mean as a residential country), and this 

 has, to a large extent, restricted the introduction of 

 European capital in the development of agriculture under 

 the system of European-owned plantations. All such 

 ventures, too, in the past have left cocoa culture almost 

 severely alone, so, contrary to the experience of most 

 other countries, the cocoa industry of the Gold Coast 

 owes nothing to the European planter. 



The Gold Coast is typical of the West African tropical 

 bush. The greater part of the country is covered by tall 

 forest growth. The contour of the land is undulating, 

 containing low ranges of hills, and probably there are 

 fewer swamps than in any other West African Territory, 

 and decidedly less than the preconceived ideas at home 

 of the West African Coast. Some of the low-lying land 

 adjoining rivers is, however, liable to flood during the 

 rains. 



Extensive belts of oil palms are met with, which owe 

 their initial formation to past generations of the native 

 inhabitants. Palm oil and palm kernel production was 

 at one time an important native industry, but the 

 tendency now is to neglect the palms for the more lucra- 

 tive and less laborious cocoa crop; nevertheless, they still 

 remain, and constitute a crop of considerable potential 

 value to the colony. 



The country is far from being densely populated, but 

 the population seems to be increasing annually, due in 

 large measure to an influx of native races from adjoin- 

 ing territory. These people come, in the first instance, as 

 labourers or carriers, and many of them in time become 

 cocoa farmers. The population of the country, within 

 the cocoa-growing areas of the Gold Coast and Ashanti, 

 at the last census, taken in 1911, approaches 1,000,000 of 

 all ages spread over an area of approximately 45,000 

 square miles. The density of the population in the 

 different Provinces is shown in the following state- 

 ment : 



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