140 FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



VIII. 



Cotton. — Cotton is to be found wild all along this 

 Coast. In some places it is cultivated, but rather for 

 local use than for export. The low prices for the past 

 few years — in fact, since the American War — realised 

 in the European markets for West African cotton 

 have militated against the demand for the article, and 

 ■consequently there has not been the same attention 

 turned to its development as might be expected from 

 -what should prove to be a rich and extensive field 

 for supply. 



Again, intertribal wars, slave-hunting, and cattle- 

 lifting raids — the present curses of West Africa, and 

 the main obstacles now against its development and 

 opening up — have much to account for as regards the 

 backwardness of the cultivation of cotton, indeed of 

 other articles, the quantities of which might otherwise 

 multiply themselves. 



The high prices obtained for cotton during the 

 American War proved a great incentive to the native 

 growers and native buyers, especially in the cotton- 

 growing country of Crepee bordering the Upper 

 Volta and its neighbours on the Gold Coast, and in 

 the Yoruba country behind Lagos. Great exertions 

 were then put forth by merchants, and cotton gins 



