COCOA IN ASHANTI 61 



familiar with it in the Gold Coast Colony. We are con- 

 stantly being confronted with evidence which goes to 

 prove that Ashanti, no less than the neighbouring colony, 

 is richly endowed by Nature for cocoa production. 



Particularly interesting and enjoyable is our visit 

 to the Coomassie Agricultural Station, a Government 

 enterprise, consisting of gardens and experimental 

 plantations cultivated under the direction of trained 

 agriculturists. The senior curator acts as our guide, 

 and at the outset of our tour he impresses on us that his 

 labourers are all Ashantis, that they use their own 

 primitive style of agricultural implements, and that 

 they are only taught the simplest agricultural methods. 



The main purpose of the station, of the instruction 

 that is given there, and of the work done by the staff 

 of travelling instructors, is to give simple object- 

 lessons showing how the farmers could improve their 

 crops by taking more care over details, such as seed 

 selection and everyday measures for the prevention of 

 disease. The same policy and similar methods are 

 pursued at all the agricultural stations which have been 

 established in the Gold Coast and Ashanti, and 

 thanks largely to the whole-hearted service of the 

 Director of Agriculture and his staff, to the trouble 

 taken by these experts to understand the character 

 of the natives, and to their infinite patience, consider- 

 able progress is being made in the education of the 

 farmers, as we shall presently see when we visit a cocoa 

 farm as developed by one of the curator's model pupils. 



Ashanti has struck us as being quite as rich an agri- 

 cultural country as the Gold Coast. Our peep at the 

 Coomassie Agricultural Station strengthens this im- 

 pression. Here, where the land is cultivated with 

 knowledge and care, we are in a veritable paradise. 



