106 NIGERIA SOUTHERN PROVINCES 



COPAL. Some quantity of a kind of copal resin is 

 collected from Cyanoihyrsus oblongus (syn. C. ogea), and is 

 exported under the name of " Ogea gum." The quality 

 appears to be similar to that obtained from the Gold 

 Coast Cyanoihyrsus sp., and which is sold under the name 

 of "Accra copal." Both are obtained in a fresh and a 

 fossil state. Owing to the recent fall in the price of 

 ogea gum, the collection of it has diminished, but there 

 are said to be large quantities available which would be 

 collected as soon as a better demand occurred. (See 

 articles on " Copal Resins from British West Africa," 

 Bull Imp. Inst., 1908, p. 245 ; and 1914, p. 218.) 



COCOA. The good fortune which has recently attended 

 the planters in West Africa, owing to a sudden demand 

 for their cocoa, has encouraged them, especially to the 

 north and north-east of Lagos, to make more extensive 

 plantations. The climatic conditions in the Western 

 Province, however, are not favourable, and the repeated 

 failures of trees, due to the exhausting effect of the long 

 dry seasons, give the plantations an irregular appearance. 

 The trees in the plantations made at Agege, where many 

 well-to-do planters have made farms, are stunted, and 

 planted in too close proximity, mostly without permanent 

 shade trees. In some instances the trees showed disease 

 from the sapping of the bark juices occasioned bya Capsid, 

 the species of which is as yet undetermined. The chief 

 cause of their sterility and death seems, however, to be 

 the unfavourable climatic conditions. In the direction of 

 the Abeokuta-Ibadan boundary, better planting seems 

 to have been done and permanent shade trees preserved. 



It is said that the Agege planters are dissatisfied with 

 the prices they obtain for their cocoa, which they main- 

 tain is properly fermented and of better quality than 

 that of their neighbours. An association of the local 

 planters was recently formed to ship their own produce 

 direct to the European markets. The Agege cocoa gener- 

 ally, however, does not appear to be more carefully 

 prepared or of better quality than the other local kinds. 

 Fermentation is certainly practised in many places, and is 

 becoming popular throughout the Western Province, owing 

 to the discovery that the fermented pulp juice forms a 

 beverage, which is said to be used as a substitute for palm 

 wine, but the beans are frequently improperly dried. 



