PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
The present series of Handbooks is intended to present a general account of the principal commercial resources of the tropics, and has been written with special reference to the resources of British West Africa. These Handbooks will furnish a description of the occurrence, cultivation and uses of those tropical materials, such as cotton and other fibres, cocoa, rubber, oil-seeds, tobacco, etc., which are of importance to the producer in the tropics, as well as to the manufacturer and consumer in Europe.
Without attempting to include all the detailed information of a systematic treatise on each of the subjects included, it is believed that these Volumes will contain much information which will be of value to the tropical agriculturist as well as to the merchant and manufacturer. They will also be of importance to Government Officials in tropical Colonies where the advancement of the Country and the welfare of its inhabitants depend so largely on the development of natural resources. In recent years those candidates who are selected for administrative appointments under the Colonial Office in British West Africa are required to pass through a short course of instruction in tropical cultivation and products, which is now arranged at the Imperial Institute. For these prospective officials the present series of Handbooks will be helpful in the study of a large and generally unfamiliar subject. Similarly it is believed that the series will provide a valuable aid to the teaching of commercial geography. It is hoped also that the Handbooks will not be without interest for the student of Imperial and national problems.
The increase in the productivity of the tropics, and especially of the tropical regions within the British Empire, is important, not only for the natives of those countries, and others who are actually engaged in tropical enterprise, but for the merchant and manufacturer at home. The preparation for general use of cotton and other fibres, of tea, coffee and cocoa, of oils, of tobacco, and of numerous other products exported from the tropics, provides the means of employment and livelihood for a very large proportion of the working population of this country, whilst every one at home is interested in securing an adequate supply at a moderate cost of these necessaries and luxuries of life.
The subjects of these Handbooks, treated as they will be, as far as possible, in non-technical language, should therefore appeal to a large class of readers.
The present Handbook deals with the Agricultural and Forest Products of British West Africa and serves as an introduction to this series. Mr. Dudgeon, who until lately was Inspector of Agriculture in the West African Colonies and Protectorates, writes with an unrivalled knowledge of his subject, and gives a comprehensive account of the vegetable products of that country, which will afford to the general reader some idea of the enormous possibilities of this British territory now in the process of rapid commercial development.
WYNDHAM R. DUNSTAN.
Imperial Institute, S.W.
March 1911.