COCOA IN ASHANTI 65 



The stupendous figures for the last few years include the 

 rapidly increasing output from Ashanti. 



British merchants and manufacturers, as we have 

 seen, have played the leading part in developing the 

 Gold Coast cocoa industry on the export side. We 

 know, too, that the Agricultural Department has 

 rendered valuable sefvice. But whilst we should not 

 forget to give credit, where credit is due,, to the Euro- 

 peans who have helped to make a success of the in- 

 dustry, we must remember that it was the people of the 

 Gold Coast themselves who founded the industry, 

 and that, commercially speaking, it is these people 

 and the Ashantis who have planted all the cocoa-trees 

 and who have produced and are producing every bean 

 of the total exports. In all the circumstances let us 

 rejoice that these people have made the British Empire 

 the biggest cocoa producer in the world, rather than 

 bemoan the fact that, at this comparatively early stage 

 in their civilization, they have not shown an " infant 

 prodigy " ambition to adopt modern agricultural 

 methods and to improve the quality of their output. 



Still, for their own sakes, for the sake of their country, 

 and for the sake of the Empire in which they are now 

 partners, it is to be hoped that the farmers will soon 

 begin to see more clearly that they need to raise the 

 standard of their efforts and of their ambitions. There 

 is no country in the world in which cocoa can be grown 

 as easily and as cheaply as in the Gold Coast and 

 Ashanti. An outside estimate, based OL. numerous 

 inquiries we have made on the spot, puts he all-in 

 cost of production at 5s. per load of 60 Ibs. At the 

 outset of the cocoa-growing enterprise, natural advan- 

 tages proved a blessm-* by acting as an encouragement 

 to a people who were making their first experiment with 



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