The climate of French West Africa is suit able for producing cotton, the type of which has not yet been improved all-round, but which nevertheless can be used in the metropolitan workshops. From the results already obtained great hopes may be placed in the future of this cultivation. Upper Senegal and Niger, the Ivory Coast and Dahomey have, moreover, commenced to export a certain quantity of cot ton. Dahomey exported in 1913, 171,173 kilo grammes (376,580 pounds) of cotton wool and 37,740 kilogrammes (83,028 pounds) of unseeded cotton; the Ivory Coast exported 18,221 kilo grammes (40,086 pounds) of cotton wool anti Guinea 60,517 kilogrammes (133,137 pounds) of unseeded cotton. Kapok exported about 33,000 kilogrammes (72,600 pounds). The di grows wild in the Sudan and produces beautiful fibres. The growing of agave has several times been seriously attempted by the Europeans in Sene gal.
Sorgho or large millet has been greatly cul tivated in the West African colonies; it has been said, not without truth, that "millet is to Africa what rice is to Asia.a Another variety of millet is also found, the little millet or sania, or °mil chandelle) (wax millet). There is also a fairly considerable local trade in rice, culti vated more in Upper Guinea, in Casamanca and in the inundated countries of the Middle Niger; there were 11,584 kilo grammes (25,485 pounds) of rice exported from Guinea in 1913. Manioc is more especially cul tivated in Dahomey, the Ivory Coast and in Guinea; at the present time it is only used for local consumption, but when seriously taken up as a commercial proposition it will give con siderable traffic to the railways. Sweet potatoes are found everywhere. Maize is cultivated particularly in Dahomey and locally serves as a food, but its cultivation for exportation is only carried on by the natives and therefore merits attention; the exports from Dahomey alone reached 13,256,193 kilogrammes (14,582 tons) in the year 1913.
Bananas form the principal food for the in habitants of the Ivory Coast. Copra is ex ported from the Ivory Coast and Dahomey. Coffee is a product of Guinea where the “Rio Nunez,a with its rather small beans, of a dirty yellow with brilliant pellicles, is much appre ciated on account of its special aroma, and on the Ivory Coast, where its export reached a figure of 10,637 (23,401 pounds) for 1913. The cultivation of cocoa, attempted with much success by the natives in the Eng lish 'colonies of the Gold Coast and Nigeria, has been developed in Dahomey and above all on the Ivory Coast which respectively exported in 1913, 10,651 kilogrammes (23,432 pounds), and 47,190 kilogrammes (103,818 pounds).
Among the principal products derived from the forests, rubber holds one of the foremost places, the territories producing it being Guinea, the Ivory Coast, the Sudan region and Casa manca. No definite choice has yet been reached
as to which rubber trees should be cultivated but it would seem that the Funtumia will give good results, and accordingly the administration has taken steps, principally on the Ivory Coast, to protect this tree against a too extensive ex ploitation. The French markets of Bordeaux and Havre, new to this commerce, receive a fairly large quantity of African rubber, but Liverpool also receives an important supply. The exports for the year 1913 were the follow ing: Guinea, 1,455,450 kilogrammes (3,210,990 pounds)• Ivory Coast, 4,684,095 kilogrammes (10,305,009 pounds) ; Upper Senegal and Niger, 83,300 kilogrammes (183,260 pounds) ;• Senegal, 90,421 kilogrammes (198,926 pounds) ; Dahomey, 5,105 kilogrammes (11,231 pounds).
The Ivory Coast and Dahomey are the colonies which export the greatest quantity of palmetto; this is abundant in the coastal region which is not dominated by the large forests. During the year 1913, Dahomey ex ported 7,971,220 kilogrammes (17,536,684 pounds) of palm oil, the Ivory Coast 6,014,460 kilogrammes (13,231,812 pounds), and Guinea 164,221 kilogrammes (361,286 pounds) ; for the same period Dahomey exported 26,371,438 kilo grammes (58,017,163 pounds) of palm almonds, the Ivory Coast 6,949,206 kilogrammes (15,288, 253 pounds), Guinea 5,172,165 kilogrammes (11,378,763 pounds), Senegal 1,901,024 kilo grammes (4,182,252 pounds). Palm oil and palmetto are used principally in the manu facture of soap and stearine and are dispatched to Marseilles and England; a considerable quantity of these products was also sent to Germany. No Coast is the richest as regards forest lands. The forests in this colony only have been most carefully explored by M. Au guste Chevalier, Directeur du Laboratoire d'Agromomie Colonial au Muse de Paris, who has made a thorough botanical classification of the different kinds of wood, and who estimates the wooded area at over 120,000 square kilo meters (46,332 square miles). This area is very rich and valuable woods, the only ones which have been cultivated for many years, foremost among which is mahogany suitable for diagonal grained work and for decorative panels. Since then, many other samples have been experimented with and it now appears certain that commerce in general and the cabi net-making trade in particular will find on the Ivory Coast, the former, woods supplanting oak and teak which are lacking and of lengths and widths to which they have not been accustomed; the latter, new woods of beautiful shades which will enable satisfaction to be given to all cus tomers' tastes. Wood exports from the Ivory Coast amounted in 1913 to 52,700 tons, repre senting a value of 5,000,000 francs ($1,000,000).