58 THE GOLD COAST 



and by the issue of pamphlets in English and the Twi 

 language. There was at first an insufficient staff for 

 instruction to be given except at the Botanic Stations, 

 and only those growers who lived in the vicinity were able 

 to obtain benefit from it. After holding several confer- 

 ences with chiefs and planters in the cocoa districts it 

 became evident that the appointment of European Travel- 

 ling Instructors was necessary, and following this the 

 Government detailed certain officers for the work ; the 

 object being that they should occupy a large portion of 

 their time in travelling through the country in order to 

 give personal instruction to the natives in correct methods 

 of treating cocoa and other agricultural products. Persons 

 selected by chiefs are now trained to act as instructors in 

 planting in their own native towns. 



The preparation of a large quantity of cocoa of even 

 quality is so greatly dependent upon the similarity of 

 the treatment and conditions at a time when the material 

 is undergoing fermentation and drying, that it is almost 

 imperative that a large quantity should be prepared at 

 one operation. This is an important consideration in 

 British West Africa, where native plantations range in size 

 from a few trees to about five acres in extent, the average 

 being perhaps about a hundred trees, or, roughly, one- 

 tenth of an acre. The production of each plantation is 

 at present prepared independently, and the result of one 

 picking of pods, if all mature, is often quite inadequate 

 to yield sufficient for fermentation purposes, it being 

 recognised that a few hundredweights of beans in their 

 pulp are necessary for the satisfactory accomplishment 

 of the operation. The same difficulty has presented itself 

 in the West Indies with regard to the crops picked by 

 owners of small plantations, and arrangements are usually 

 made by some larger concern in the neighbourhood to 

 purchase the pods from them. The establishment of 

 central fermenting and drying houses, controlled by the 

 shippers themselves, would perhaps get over the difficulty 

 on the Gold Coast and result in a superior class of cocoa 

 being produced. The planters would doubtless consent 

 to sell their pods, instead of performing the laborious 

 work of preparation themselves, and would probably be 

 able to extend the size of their individual plantations, 

 which, by reason of their inability to prepare more 



