TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 703 



mineral wealth, afford facilities for a vast development ot commerce, which should 

 be beneficial alike to the natives and to the Europeans who deal with them. 



The tendency of our present policj^ is to leave this work to be done, if at all, by 

 tlie French, who, in extending their influence along the course of the Senegal and 

 among the communities beyond, are acquiring a position wliich may prove extremely 

 detrimental to us in our dealings with the tribes near the coast. In the meanwhile, 

 by our treatment of these latter tribes, we are doing yet more to injure our pros- 

 pects and spoil our opportunities. Such harsh and frivolous meddling with the 

 natives as is generally the rule with our officials on the West African coast, though 

 ostensibly and primarily adopted with a view to protecting and extending our 

 trade, is really most prejudicial to it. 



As quite recent examples of this mischievous and discreditable policy, may be 

 adduced the expedition despatched from Sierra Leone this year against the Chief 

 Markiah in the Sulymah district, last year's crusade against the Tavieves at the 

 Gold Coast, and the recent overthrow and deportation of King Ja Ja in the Niger 

 Protectorate. 



Our policy should be to befriend, not to bully, the natives ; to make alliances 

 with their chiefs, not wars against them. As Lord Brassey has said, ' We must co- 

 operate with the native populations in the development of their resources, we must 

 help them to accumulate wealth or they cannot purchase our goods.' 



SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14. 

 The following Papers were read : — 



1. Agricultural Statistics. By Wm. Botlt, M.B.A.S.E. 



The paper gave a tabular statement of the acreage of corn, green, and grass 

 crops ; number of horses, cattle, sheep, and swine ; value of corn, food, and live 

 stock imported ; of dead meat in cwts. ; and value in 1887 and 1888. Number and 

 value of horses imported and exported as decidedly in favour of our own breed ol 

 horses in number and value. The import of wool, butter, cheese, eggs, &c. 



The comparative yield of wheat, &c., in different countries, proving the great 

 superiority in our yield per acre. Rental, expenses, and profit per acre, with total 

 production and value of all crops ; comparative acreage of tilled and untilled land 

 in this and other countries, Russia having the smallest and Denmark the largest 

 proportion under cultivation, and the United Kingdom only 29 per cent, tilled as 

 against 71 untilled of its acreage. 



The value of imported agricultural produce was shown to be 3^. 5s. to each 

 inhabitant ; the results of fruit-farming ; and that agriculture, though the largest 

 single interest, was only 14 per cent, of all the other industries. 



The author considered that banking on sound principles had been a great assis- 

 tance to agriculturists, especially in the trying seasons we had passed through, and 

 wliich may not as yet have cleared off; by the way instancing the gi-eat development 

 of our colonies through banks and other cognate establishments ; concluding by 

 showing the utility and antiquity of agricultural statistics in the prevention of 

 famine by quoting the 41st chapter of Genesis. 



2. On the Methods of Forecasting the Yield of Crops. 

 By Professor W. Fbeam, LL.B., B.Sc, F.S.S. 



It has become a custom in this country to make, in the early part of August, a 

 forecast of the yield of crops — that is, an estimate as to the probable produce of 

 the chief cultivated crops. The method adopted is to send out priiited forms, or 

 schedules, to a large number of farmers in all parts of the country, with the request 

 that they should be returned, duly filled up, by a certain specified date. Two 



