BACKWARD CONDITION OF AGRICULTURE 45 



viduals are still said to assume these distinctive names 

 without regard to their usual tribal affinities. 



The probable reason for the backward condition of 

 agriculture in the forest region is that a food supply 

 was procurable from the forest itself, and the continual 

 intertribal warfare, in which the people seemed to have 

 been engaged, was opposed to the cultivation of crops, 

 which might become an incentive to a covetous attack. 

 More recently, since these conditions have become altered, 

 through the pacification of the country, some of the 

 tribes, who were the first to become settled, have adopted 

 a form of cultivation which, although wasteful, seems to 

 be common among the forest people of West Africa. By 

 means of imperfect clearing of the ground before culti- 

 vation, and superficial turning up of the soil, small crops 

 of grain (maize) and roots (yams and cassava) are raised, 

 and the land is usually left to revert to a state of weeds 

 and " bush " after two or three years' use. This resem- 

 bles the " Chena " system in Ceylon. The tribes who 

 have developed a better and more economical form of 

 working are those in whose districts the advent of cocoa 

 planters has so raised the value of land that they are 

 compelled to utilise the same plot more frequently for their 

 annual crops. As an indication of this, the best culti- 

 vated fields are those of the Krobos, Akims, Krepes, and 

 Kwahus, while the least advanced tribes are the Ashantis. 



Owing to the remunerative return from cocoa cultiva- 

 tion in parts of the country, this commodity has attained 

 the first place among exported agricultural and forest 

 products. In recent years, moreover, development has 

 been so rapid that the country is now the largest producer 

 of cocoa in the world. Among exports, rubber, palm oil, 

 palm kernels and timber follow it in order of importance. 



COCOA. As a preliminary to an account of the cocoa 

 industry in the Gold Coast, it may be considered useful 

 to refer briefly to the botanical position of the tree which 

 produces cocoa, as well as to the varieties which are 

 cultivated. A comparison of the methods employed in 

 the Gold Coast with those adopted elsewhere seems also 

 necessary. 



The tree is a native of Trinidad and the north-eastern 

 part of South America, and is botanically classified 

 in the Natural Order STERCULIACEM, sub-Order 



