78 THE GOLD COAST 



between Labolabo and this place. The cost of carriage 

 by native canoe is arranged at twenty shillings a ton, 

 and the bales are pressed into a suitable form for con- 

 veyance. 



American and other Exotic Cottons at Labolabo. A 

 large number of different kinds of American cottons have 

 been tried at Labolabo, but most of them have proved 

 unsuccessful. Those which yielded a good crop for the 

 first year have generally been found to produce seed, 

 which, owing to the greater susceptibility of the plants 

 to the attacks of insects, refused to germinate in the 

 following year. Some of the lint produced was, appar- 

 ently, of excellent quality and sold well, but the necessity 

 for the renewal of seed each year formed a serious 

 obstacle to the establishment of a new variety. The 

 plants from American seed are not so hardy as those 

 from native seed, and the necessity for greater care in 

 cultivation renders them unsuitable for use by the natives. 

 Sea Island and various Egyptian cottons have not proved 

 successful. See British Cotton Cultivation, by Professor 

 Dunstan (" Colonial Reports," Miscellaneous, Cd. 3997, 

 1908, pp. 28-30), and the Bulletins of the Imperial Institute, 

 vols. vii., x., xi., xiii., xiv. (1909-16). 



Attempts at Hybridisation. In the early days of the 

 plantation the Agricultural Department made several 

 experiments with a view to the establishment of a 

 cross between the native and the American plants, but 

 the subsequent changes in the management of the plan- 

 tation resulted in the disappearance of most of these ; 

 subsequently several others were attempted in 1906 and 

 1907 by Mr. Fisher. 



In all cases plants of the "Green seed" or the 

 " Volta " native forms were made use of as female parents, 

 and the descendant plants partook of the characters of 

 the native forms in every way for the first generation, 

 but in later generations seem to have produced a number 

 of various types, from which it is now necessary to make 

 a careful selection. The quantity of lint yielded by the 

 first generation of plants, from the experiments made 

 by Mr. Fisher in 1906, is said to have reached a higher 

 figure, per acre, than that of any other form grown on 

 the plantation, and the quality was satisfactory ; but 

 that of the second generation appeared to be unequal in 



