The agricultural and forest products of British West Africa

by Gerald C. Dudgeon

Three distinct forms or varieties of cotton are cultivated in the forest region. The first variety is usually referred to as “Green seed,” and is the commonest one grown. The lint is long-stapled and nearly white, but experiments seem to show that this form does not yield heavily. The second form is recognised by the seed being dark brown or black, without any fuzz, except a small brown tuft at the apex, which has a sharp spike. The lint of this kind is creamy white, and the plant is known as “Volta.” The third form differs in having the dark brown seeds adjoining one another, and forming a conical mass, from which it is difficult to separate the individual seeds. At the point of connection each seed bears a small light brown patch. This form is generally known to the officers at the British Cotton Growing Association plantation as “Kidney.” All these varieties are cultivated throughout the forest country, and extend to some distance beyond; being replaced in the drier parts of the Northern Territories by a small plant with a white woolly seed. No cotton in a wild state has been seen in the country, and isolated plants, found springing up in open places surrounded by forest, are generally easily traceable to formerly existing cultivation.

The “Green seed,” “Volta,” and “Kidney” cottons, which are grown in the Gold Coast, are different in habit from the American and Indian plants, although in form they are similar to Sea Island and Egyptian, having, perhaps, arisen from the same original stock. The forms mentioned as cultivated locally attain the height of from seven to ten feet in nine months from the time of planting, and the stem near the base is often thicker than a man’s wrist. The cotton bolls continue to open for three months or more, and often as many as two hundred bolls are produced on a single plant in one season. If left for a second year the bolls are generally diminished in size. The soil which appears most favourable for growth is a sandy loam containing much humus.

From January to April the bolls ripen continuously, and the cotton is placed in the sun as soon as it is picked, in order that the “Seed bugs” may be driven out. In native markets small quantities are usually exposed for sale in an unginned form throughout the harvesting season. No gin seems to be in use in the Gold Coast for native work, and the lint is pulled off the seeds by hand when a supply is required for spinning.

The greatest damage is done by “Seed bugs” of three species—Oxycarenus hyalinipennis, O. Dudgeoni, and O. gossipinus—that infest the lint as soon as the bolls open, and undergo their complete and rapid metamorphoses during the period between the opening and the throwing out of the cotton, feeding meanwhile upon the juices which they suck from the seeds. The injury caused by the puncturing of the seed often renders it unfertile. A “cotton stainer” is also common on the plants, and damages the unopened bolls by puncturing, and the lint by a yellowish stain which it makes. This insect is known as Dysdercus nigrofasciatus, and it is at least four times as large as any of the species of Oxycarenus, on which it may possibly feed to some extent.

An attempt was evidently made, in the middle of the last century, to establish the cultivation of cotton for export, and Cruickshank mentions that an association had taken the matter up, and that several of the native chiefs were beginning to give it their attention about that time. Very little success seems to have attended these efforts.

About 1903 the Government of the Gold Coast commenced the plantation of an area in the Krepi country, at a place called Anum, and, under the control of the Agricultural Department, this was transferred to a better site soon afterwards, at a place named Labolabo on the east bank of the Volta river. In addition to the extension of about two hundred acres of land, which were planted with native and American varieties of cotton, encouragement was given to the natives in the vicinity to grow more, on the understanding that their crops would be purchased from them at one penny per pound. Unfortunately no arrangements had been made to store or gin a large quantity of seed cotton, and the entire native crop could not be taken over when brought in. This seems to have induced the native growers to convey most of their cotton into Togoland, where they were able to dispose of it at a fair price. Arrangements had to be made with a local firm possessing a ginning machine, which was erected about sixty miles lower down the Volta river, by which, on payment of a certain rate, the seed cotton grown on the Labolabo plantation was ginned and prepared for shipment. It was soon recognised that the expense of transport of the seed cotton for this distance, and the price charged for ginning, prevented the production of cotton for export except at a heavy financial loss. The co-operation of the British Cotton Growing Association was asked for, in order to supply gins at Labolabo, and in 1906 three hand gins were sent from the Gold Coast Exhibition, which had just been held. The machines were much damaged in transit, and it was some time before the large stock of seed cotton, which had accumulated, could be worked off. Soon after this the Labolabo plantation was transferred entirely to the British Cotton Growing Association, and an annual grant was made by the Government to assist in the working. In 1907 a large steam-power ginnery was put up, and the native farmers again began to bring in their seed cotton for sale, but still a considerable quantity was reported to be diverted to Togoland, where the price offered was a fraction higher than that paid by the Association.

The cotton bales are transported from the ginnery by means of native canoes as far as Amedika, which is the highest point on the Volta to which small steamers can ascend, but great risk is entailed in descending the rapids between Labolabo and this place. The cost of carriage by native canoe is arranged at twenty shillings a ton, and the bales are pressed into a suitable form for conveyance.

American and other Exotic Cottons at Labolabo.—A large number of different kinds of American cottons have been tried at Labolabo, but most of them have proved unsuccessful. Those which yielded a good crop for the first year have generally been found to produce seed, which, owing to the greater susceptibility of the plants to the attacks of insects, refused to germinate in the following year. Some of the lint produced was, apparently, of excellent quality and sold well, but the necessity for the renewal of seed each year formed a serious obstacle to the establishment of a new variety. The plants from American seed are not so hardy as those from native seed, and the necessity for greater care in cultivation renders them unsuitable for use by the natives. Sea Island and various Egyptian cottons have not proved successful. See British Cotton Cultivation, by Professor Dunstan (“Colonial Reports,” Miscellaneous, Cd. 3997, 1908, pp. 28-30), and the Bulletins of the Imperial Institute, vols. vii., x., xi., xiii., xiv. (1909-16).

Attempts at Hybridisation.—In the early days of the plantation the Agricultural Department made several experiments with a view to the establishment of a cross between the native and the American plants, but the subsequent changes in the management of the plantation resulted in the disappearance of most of these; subsequently several others were attempted in 1906 and 1907 by Mr. Fisher.

In all cases plants of the “Green seed” or the “Volta” native forms were made use of as female parents, and the descendant plants partook of the characters of the native forms in every way for the first generation, but in later generations seem to have produced a number of various types, from which it is now necessary to make a careful selection. The quantity of lint yielded by the first generation of plants, from the experiments made by Mr. Fisher in 1906, is said to have reached a higher figure, per acre, than that of any other form grown on the plantation, and the quality was satisfactory; but that of the second generation appeared to be unequal in type, and could scarcely be compared for quantity owing to the unfavourable season. The American plants used for pollination in the 1906 crosses were those which have given the best results among the exotic forms planted, and are called “Black Rattler” and “Richmond.” Of the four crosses attempted in that year, that of “Black Rattler” × “Volta” was said to have proved the most successful in point of yield.