S8 FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



attention was attracted to large heaps, in numbers, of 

 rotting palm-nuts which presented themselves, in the 

 kingdom of Croboe, continually to our gaze. I may 

 here remark upon the cause, which was to the effect 

 that the cracking of the nut had been proclaimed 

 against by the fetishmen, and their reason for the pro- 

 hibition was that it gave small-pox. At a large public 

 meeting which Sir George Strahan held at Odumasseh, 

 in Croboe, he pronounced to the king, chiefs, and 

 people against the stupid absurdity of the edict of 

 the fetish, pointed out the riches that were being 

 allowed to rot at their very doors, and expressed the 

 wish that the king should remove the blindness from 

 the eyes of his people in this matter. His wishes 

 were promptly attended to, for that very evening, and 

 for some time after, a gong was beaten throughout 

 Croboe to the effect that henceforth palm kernel nuts 

 could be cracked, and that the kernels could be taken 

 to the traders and merchants. 



The following Tables of exports in palm kernels for 

 the past seven years from the Gold Coast and the 

 other West African Colonies will show the extent to 

 which this industry has grown (pp. 59, 64). 



The old and respected firm of W. B. Hutton and 

 Sons, then established in London — now in Liverpool 

 and Manchester — was the first to import regularly 

 (about 1848) kernels into the United Kingdom, after 

 which several years passed by before crushers would use 

 them. 



