16 COCOA 



boats from a very different point of view, seeing that 

 we should be dependent on them for putting aboard 

 every bag of cocoa we wanted to export, and for 

 bringing ashore motor lorries, scales, bales of empty 

 sacks, tarpaulins, building materials, and numerous 

 other accessories indispensable to the pursuit of pro- 

 duce dealing on a large scale ? As you can well 

 imagine, there would be heavy entries to be made on the 

 wrong side of our profit and loss account for damage 

 to cocoa that has got wet during the surf-boat passage, 

 and for out-and-out losses as a result of boats turning 

 turtle or performing somersaults in rough weather. 



The principal localities of the Gold Coast in which 

 cocoa production has been developed up to the present 

 are the districts around Coomassie and the country in the 

 neighbourhood of the Accra-Tafo railway line; there 

 is also a large area under the crop in Winnebah, off 

 the track of the railway, but near Accra, to which it is 

 accessible by a motor road activities such as the 

 erection of stores and bungalows are proceeding apace 

 for tapping the supplies available there. The Accra 

 cocoa district is in the Gold Coast Colony, whilst that 

 of Coomassie is, as I have told you, in Ashanti; but 

 Seccondee, the port for the Ashanti crop, is in the 

 Colony. The methods of farming and of marketing 

 the crops are similar in both districts, but as the 

 largest area under cocoa is in the Accra-Tafo region, and 

 as the development of the industry has been specially 

 favoured there by the provision of motor transport 

 facilities, we are going to make Accra our first head- 

 quarters; afterwards we will come back to Seccondee 

 and go up to Coomassie. 



At Seccondee we make our first acquaintance with 

 the Hausas, several of whom come aboard as deck 



