The agricultural and forest products of British West AfricaDudgeon, Gerald C. (Gerald Cecil)
History
The agricultural and forest products of British West Africa
Dudgeon, Gerald C. (Gerald Cecil)
Agriculture -- Africa, West; Forest products -- Africa, West
The buyers of cocoa pack it in bags for shipment, and these are
conveyed to the ports by motor lorries or placed inside large casks,
similar to those used for palm oil, and rolled along the roads. Some
of the shipments are conveyed in river steamers on the Volta, and,
more recently, owing to the growers having found a better market
for a short time at Kumassi, a considerable amount was sent by rail
from that place to Sekondi. In consequence of the imperfect state
of dryness in which the cocoa is often sold by the planter, a great
amount of care should be exercised before mixing and packing. Sorting
is not much practised, and some of the beans often become attacked
by mildew before reaching Europe, which depreciates the value
of the whole package. It is partly owing to the disregard of the
precautions of sorting and final drying that the West African cocoa
has earned such a bad name, and if more shippers were to follow the
example set by the one firm that has erected a drying apparatus,
it would do much to improve matters in this direction. Cocoa is
difficult to dry completely in the growing districts by means of
the sun, as the atmosphere in these localities is often so humid
that the beans absorb moisture when removed from the sun’s rays,
and it is for this reason especially that the final drying should
be done by the shippers. Transport to the ports of shipment from
the growing districts will be facilitated by the construction of a
short railway, which it is contemplated making from Accra, and until
this is ready the carriage by head-loads, cask-rolling, and motor
lorries will probably continue. The presence of the “tsetse”
fly throughout the growing districts prevents the possibility of
draught cattle being used.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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