172 FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



and unused, the natives purchasing from the Coast 

 for their own consumption supplies of the prepared 

 leaf sent from America." 



It is the experience of the Rev. F. Ch. Dieterle of 

 the Basel Mission, which prosecuted on the Aquapim 

 Hills of the Gold Coast for a certain time a tobacco 

 industry, that " if any one would try to grow tobacco 

 in great quantity he must take care not to plant it too 

 soon in the year, for if the leaves get ripe for gathering 

 during the first or second rainy season, many will get 

 rotten on the stalk, as the ribs of the leaves are too 

 watery, so it is advisable to sow the seed not before 

 June, so that the tobacco may be ripe for plucking at 

 the end of the second rainy season and at the begin- 

 ning of the harmattan, that is, in November and 

 December." 



On the growth of tobacco in the vicinity of the 

 Upper Gambia and Upper Niger, the late Winwood 

 Reade addressed the Director of Kew Gardens as 

 follows in December 1869 : — 



"I enclose in this letter a flower of the native 

 tobacco (Nicotiana ricsticd). It is grown only in the 

 interior — never, that I am aware of, near the coast. 

 This may be owing to either of two reasons — 



" I, Difference of soil. Wherever I have seen this 

 tobacco, the vegetation has points of difference and 

 contrast with that near the coast. For instance, the 

 palm-oil tree does not grow on the same soil with this 

 tobacco. It is a higher and drier locality. 



