MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS 649 



widely distributed. In addition to these pests, much 

 damage is done by two thread blights (Marasmius scandens 

 and M. equicrimts), by brown pod disease (Diplodia 

 cacaoicola), black pod (Phytophthora Faberi), and in 

 1913 true or " wet " canker due to Nectria theobromx, 

 Massee, was diagnosed from a number of widely 

 separated districts. Notice is not here taken of coleo- 

 pteron and lepidopteron stem borers, as at the moment 

 these are making no headway; but squirrels, rats, and 

 white ants all harass the farmer, should the foregoing 

 not be a sufficient array of enemies. Yet the statement 

 already quoted from the Annual Report of 1912 is 

 apparently amply warranted, for farms are hardly touched 

 save at the reaping seasons, pods are left on the surface 

 of the soil, pruning is done with cutlasses in a most crude 

 manner, and snags and gashes are abundant, dead and 

 decaying wood plentiful, and tar, as an antiseptic dress- 

 ing, almost entirely absent. With the possible spread of 

 canker one almost dreads to anticipate the results. 



Nor is the danger confined to cocoa, as there is no 

 reason why coconuts should not be planted on a large 

 scale, possibly in conjunction with cocoa; but in one 

 small plantation as many as 200 adult rhinoceros beetles 

 were captured in fourteen days, and palm weevils are 

 very abundant. With the heaps of cocoa pods every- 

 where, the recent researches of Mr. R. W. Doane in 

 Samoa point to immediate injury to coconuts, should 

 such be started in the Gold Coast without adequate 

 restrictions to control the plantations. 



Again, with the Para rubber industry, there is menace 

 from two serious fungoid diseases Fomes semitostus 

 and Hymenochsete noxia. These have been noted in 

 European-managed rubber plantations and promptly 

 treated, but Para is being extensively planted by native 

 farmers with their cocoa, and there is reason to fear that 

 should such diseases make their appearance they may not 

 be effectively treated. 



To cope with agricultural education, conduct experi- 

 ments, arrange model plots, and supervise the work of 

 school gardens, there is at the present time a staff of 

 eleven European officers, assisted by six native travelling 



