EXPORTS OF COCOA 



59 



cocoa, single-handed, they have been unable, hitherto, 

 to do. The efforts of the Administration to improve the 

 preparation have been somewhat handicapped by the 

 system employed by some merchants of securing the crop 

 for themselves, by money advances, with but little 

 regard to its preparation, and of pooling the produce. 



Cocoa planting has revolutionised the native system of 

 land titles. Where only annual crops were under con- 

 sideration, a short, temporary occupation with subsequent 

 reversion to tribal ownership seemed an adequate pro- 

 vision, but with the establishment of permanent cocoa 

 plantations the planter claimed perpetual and undivided 

 proprietorship. 



Further information regarding Gold Coast cocoa will be 

 found in the Bulletin of the Imperial Institute, 1907, p. 

 361 ; 1912, pp. 240, 556 ; 1913, p. 154 ; 1914, p. 387 ; 

 1915, pp. 149, 645 ; 1916, p. 123 ; 1917, p. 117 ; 1919, pp. 

 49, 102 ; and Johnson's Cocoa, 1912. 



Exports of Cocoa. The exports of cocoa from 1900 

 to 1919 are as follows : 



Year 

 1900 

 1901 

 1902 

 1903 

 1904 

 1905 

 1906 



Tons 

 52,888 

 77,278 

 72,162 

 90,964 

 66,342 

 176,155 



RUBBER. Indigenous Species. The most important 

 source of rubber in the Gold Coast and Ashanti is the 

 indigenous tree locally caUed " Ofruntum " ; a compara- 

 tively small amount is also derived from some of the 

 vines belonging to the same Natural Order, and from 

 one or more of the wild trees of the Ficus Order. 



Reports on the quality and commercial value of some 

 of the principal kinds of rubber obtained in the Gold 

 Coast are published in the Bulletin of the Imperial Insti- 

 tute, vol. v. (1907), p. 248. 



Botanical Position of the " Ofruntum " Tree. The " Ofrun- 

 tum," or African rubber, is botanically placed in the 

 Natural Order APOCYNACEM, under the specific name 



