The probable reason for the backward condition of agriculture in the forest region is that a food supply was procurable from the forest itself, and the continual intertribal warfare, in which the people seemed to have been engaged, was opposed to the cultivation of crops, which might become an incentive to a covetous attack. More recently, since these conditions have become altered, through the pacification of the country, some of the tribes, who were the first to become settled, have adopted a form of cultivation which, although wasteful, seems to be common among the forest people of West Africa. By means of imperfect clearing of the ground before cultivation, and superficial turning up of the soil, small crops of grain (maize) and roots (yams and cassava) are raised, and the land is usually left to revert to a state of weeds and “bush” after two or three years’ use. This resembles the “Chena” system in Ceylon. The tribes who have developed a better and more economical form of working are those in whose districts the advent of cocoa planters has so raised the value of land that they are compelled to utilise the same plot more frequently for their annual crops. As an indication of this, the best cultivated fields are those of the Krobos, Akims, Krepes, and Kwahus, while the least advanced tribes are the Ashantis. Owing to the remunerative return from cocoa cultivation in parts of the country, this commodity has attained the first place among exported agricultural and forest products. In recent years, moreover, development has been so rapid that the country is now the largest producer of cocoa in the world. Among exports, rubber, palm oil, palm kernels and timber follow it in order of importance. =COCOA.=—As a preliminary to an account of the cocoa industry in the Gold Coast, it may be considered useful to refer briefly to the botanical position of the tree which produces cocoa, as well as to the varieties which are cultivated. A comparison of the methods employed in the Gold Coast with those adopted elsewhere seems also necessary. The tree is a native of Trinidad and the north-eastern part of South America, and is botanically classified in the Natural Order _STERCULIACEÆ_, sub-Order _Buettnerieæ_, under the name of _Theobroma cacao_ of Linnæus.