land is an indication of poverty of soil, although the presence of heavy forest does not necessarily guarantee the suitability of the locality, as imperfectly drained land often bears a heavy forest growth. Good natural drainage is essential, and is nearly always found where the land slopes and the rock underlying the soil is friable or deep. Natural drainage can often be improved by artificial means. The last important condition necessary is the selection of a position where shade and wind protection can be obtained naturally to as great an extent as possible. Plantations in valleys, sheltered by mountain spurs or by belts of high forest, are suitable, and such formations are met with in many parts of the Gold Coast and Ashanti. In these localities the climate as well as the positions and soil obtainable are generally so well adapted for the fruitful growth of cocoa that, even where the average annual rainfall is as low as 41 inches (the average at Aburi), plantations are proving successful, the regular distribution, humidity of the atmosphere, and the natural shade constituting a compensation for the shortage. The native planter sows the seeds in small patches or in roughly prepared beds in the vicinity of water, often in such proximity to one another as to choke a number of the young plants. This form of nursery is met with throughout the forests, and it is common to find circular patches containing two or three hundred plants adjoining a road. In addition to this, a large number of seedlings are grown at, and distributed from, the Government Botanic Gardens. Native plantations are for the most part formed of irregular lines of trees, generally planted too closely. The evil effect of this does not become apparent until the trees attain a large size, when the excessive shade they afford to their fruit-bearing branches, which in cocoa consist of the trunk and main structure, prevents the fruit from forming and induces rot through want of evaporation of moisture. The native planter is slow to recognise this, and disinclined to remedy the matter by removing some of the trees. The distance at which cocoa trees are planted by the native is roughly from 7 to 10 feet apart, whereas that recommended for plantations in the West Indies and Ceylon varies, with the quality of the soil and the elevation, from 12 to 15 feet; the latter would be more suitable for most of the Gold Coast plantations. The advantage which the native planter sees in his method of planting is, that in addition to getting a larger number of trees into a given space, the density of their foliage soon becomes so great that weeds cease to grow beneath, rendering cultivation unnecessary. Until such a state has been arrived at, the cutting of weeds is an operation which may have to be performed twice, or even three times, in the year. This is the only form of cultivation given, no manure being used or any breaking of the soil done. In the West Indies it is not