325 
The cake we have not yet had a report upon; but as soon as we 
have, we will send it on to you. We 29 ae think it can by any 
possibility be worth more than £3 per ton, which would to-day 
give the selling value of the nuts at a maxim mum of £6 per ton, 
delivered in Liverpool. Whether it would pay to import at this 
price we very much doubt, and from what we can see of the oil 
we think it would not be suitable for any other purpose than 
soap-making. It is not good enough for c andle-making, and it is 
Any further information we get on the subject we shall at once 
send you. 
Yours truly, 
(Signed) EDW. SAMUELSON. 
The Director, 
Royal Gardens, Kew. 
DLXXXI.—COFFEE em AT THE GOLD 
The progress made in the cultivation of us at the Gold Coast 
has been noticed in the ied Bulletin (1895, pp. 12, 21 and 165). 
In the Blue Book Rep a — year i893 (Colonial Office 
Reports, pue song 1895, N 136) the following account was 
given of the experiments carried « on in connection with coffee and 
cacao at the Botanic Station at Aburi : 
* A good deal of general work has been done in the Govern- 
ment Botanical Station during the year and considerable attention 
has been paid to the plantations of coffee and cacao, in ihe culti- 
natives appear to have become interested. Along the road leading 
from the Bolanos Station through the country of Akwapim to the 
teehee are large numbers of small clearings in which coffee 
are to be seen in a most flourishing condition. The Liberian 
coffee plant appears to thrive best, but there are large Seres in 
also of the Arabian coffee plant, the berry of which, however, is 
small and apparently Pose omen. It will probably be necessary 
for the Government at no distant date, if the coffee industry i is to 
be fostered as a trade, to instruct these native cultivators in the 
proper way o f preparing the berry for export. At present the most 
primitive method is employed. The berries are scraped by hand 
with a round stone worked in the hollow of a larger stone, and 
ain this process they are washed and dried in the sun. It is 
obvious that a large crop could not be so dealt with, and that the 
employment of machinery in the near future is imperative. The 
initiative will have to be taken by the Government, Pire cd E 
the general ignorance on the part of the natives of “all hin 
even of the simplest character, and because no single native culi 
vator possesses sufficient capital, enterprise, or experience to take 
the maher in hand.” 
the last two years the Government has introduced machi- 
nery for pulping and curing coffee, and consignments of both coffee 
and en forwarded through the Crown Agents for 
sale in the London market. This plan afforded the best means for 
