82 COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS. 



extensive cocoa farms have been established and extend for miles 

 in that direction. The young trees appear to be doing remark- 

 ably well, and this locality will probably in a few years' time 

 prove to be a very rich centre for that produce. The farming 

 operations being carried out on this side of Ashanti are far in 

 advance of anything we saw r on the western side, and I am much 

 impressed with the future prospect of agriculture in the country 

 lying between the sacred lake and Kwahu. It seems to me a 

 pity, however, that the farmers have, excepting the various food 

 crops required for local consumption, practically put all their 

 eggs in one basket by confining their attention to cocoa and, to a 

 small extent, to Funtumia elastica; cola, which promises a steady 

 demand and a market that is unaffected by operations in Europe, 

 would appear to be a very desirable crop to cultivate on a large 

 scale, and it would increase trade generally with the northern 

 territories. 



Considering the value of agriculture to the country and agri- 

 culture will endure when all the gold-fields have been exhausted 

 it would certainly be a very wise step if a large staff of travel- 

 ling agricultural teachers were appointed and employed to 

 wander round the country for the purpose of teaching the natives 

 improved nethqds of cultivation and preparing produce for the 

 export market, as well as to introduce new species of economic 

 plants. The great danger of delaying such instruction is that 

 incalculable harm may 'be done to the fertility of the soil unless 

 a rational and well devised scheme of rotation of crops is adopted 

 by the natives. Improvement of the soil means the use of 

 artificial manures which could not be placed at the disposal of 

 natives out here except at a prohibitive cost. 



Concurrently with the expansion of agriculture will begin the 

 reduction of the forest areas, and with this reduction will follow 

 the train of evils resulting from the destruction of the wooded 

 areas reduced rainfall, water supply, &c., till a time will come 

 when the farming rotation adopted by the natives will be so cur- 

 tailed that the secondary bush, which is at present allowed to 

 grow up on the fallow lands and which helps to replenish the 

 fertility of the soil, will not have sufficient time within which 

 to reach the age necessary to ensure this object. Hence the 

 advisability of adopting a proper rotation of crops that will 

 diminish the exhaustion of the soil to the maximum extent. 

 The necessity for protecting a certain proportion at least of the 

 wooded areas against the axe of the farmer will further curtail 

 the land left at the disposal of agriculture, and thus eventually 

 tend to a more intensive system of cultivation. 



I may be pardoned for this digression on the agricultural 

 policy to be adopted out here, but it must of necessity be so 

 mutually interdependent with any forest policy chosen for the 

 country that it is just as well to mention the broad outlines of 

 their relations one with another. 



Tlie Forests between Konltota and Bompata. 



The rond between these two places passes through high forest 

 containing a large number of old trees, the most important of 



