66 THE GOLD COAST 



it is uncertain, and this has caused little value to be 

 attached to it in the Gold Coast, although in the drier 

 region of Togoland this species is being planted. Para 

 rubber seems to show much better results, although, up 

 to the present, no extensive experiments to ascertain the 

 yield of rubber have been made. Tapping two trees 

 growing at Aburi, Mr. Johnson obtained a larger quantity 

 of latex than from Funtumia elastica under the same 

 conditions ; and following this an extensive area was 

 planted with Hevea trees at the Tarkwa Botanic Gardens, 

 where the experiment appears to be proving successful. 

 Views are given of a tree at Aburi (Fig. 20). Large 

 plantations of Hevea are being made near Tarkwa, Axim 

 and Sekondi as well as in the Kwahu district, where 

 the tree seems to thrive remarkably well. A few of these 

 plantations made returns in 1913 showing promise of 

 success. At one, on the Offin river, there were said to be 

 90,000 Para trees of different ages, 20,000 Funtumia and 

 6,000 coffee (C. robusta). At another the yield of rubber 

 from a number of mature trees gave an average of 1-08 Ib. 

 of dry rubber per tree in eight months' tapping, and a 

 third had 22,000 Para trees of which about 8,450 had 

 been tapped and yielded 10,565 Ibs. of rubber, or 1| Ib. 

 per tree tapped. Labour was reported plentiful and 

 good. There are said to be many more rubber planta- 

 tions in the country from which returns had not been 

 received. Up to 1913 the Agricultural Department 

 had distributed 250,000 Para seedlings and 1,500,000 



Commenting on the fluctuation in the exported amounts 

 of rubber, His Excellency the Governor (Sir Hugh 

 Clifford), in his message to the Legislative Council in 

 October 1918, explained the recrudescence during 1916 

 and 1917 as due to the development of rubber plantations 

 under European control. It remains to be seen whether 

 the Gold Coast will be able to successfully compete in 

 this work with the Far East. Articles on Para rubber 

 from the Gold Coast are to be found in the Bulletin of 

 the Imperial Institute, vol. x. (1912), vol. xi. (1913), 

 vol. xii. (1914), vol. xv. (1917) and vol. xvii. (1919). 



PALM OIL AND KERNELS. Records are available 

 showing that the export of palm oil from West Africa has 

 continued for over one hundred years,, but the quantity 



