COCOA 183 



European and trained native officers attached to the 

 Government Agricultural Department are constantly 

 employed travelling throughout the cocoa-growing dis- 

 tricts delivering lectures and making farm to farm 

 visitations, advising the farmers at their farms on more 

 up-to-date methods. Instructions are in the majority of 

 cases accompanied by practical demonstrations. Pamphlets 

 giving hints on the various phases of the subject written 

 in simple language have been published in English and 

 several of the vernacular languages and distributed 

 throughout the country. Youths are being constantly 

 trained on the Government Agricultural Stations, and 

 every year a six weeks' course in agriculture is given to 

 school teachers, who in turn impart information thus 

 gained to the children at school. School gardens have 

 also been established. 



Through all these agencies there is no gainsaying the 

 fact that much good has accrued. 



An excellent scheme of local instruction was in- 

 augurated by His Excellency Sir Hugh Clifford, 

 K.C.M.G., last year, whereby representative men are 

 selected by the Head Chiefs, and after undergoing a 

 course of training in cocoa culture at an Agricultural 

 Station they return to their homes, and act as Instructors 

 or Advisers in the division of which they are members, 

 receiving periodical supervision from Agricultural 

 Officers. It is hoped that in time this scheme may be 

 brought into operation all over the colony, and with a 

 sufficiency of supervising and advising officers, I feel 

 sure the expenditure will be amply repaid in results. 



His Excellency will pardon me for saying that the 

 staff at my disposal has hitherto been far short of 

 the requirements of the colony. It is generally easier 

 to prevent initial blunders in cocoa culture, than to 

 correct them after they have got thoroughly inured in 

 a system, and with a comparatively small staff that has 

 not been possible. Native suspicion of the object of 

 Government in assisting them with their crops has also 

 retarded better results, but I am glad to say this is 

 gradually being overcome. 



A matter of grave importance, so far as the Gold Coast 



