It is hoped that the reader will not feel defrauded by the title of this book when he finds that it deals much more with agriculture in Nigeria than in the other colonies. The limitations of our first-hand knowledge of the latter is not the only reason for our concentrating so much on Nigeria. In the four countries there are roughly similar areas: for instance, the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast resemble the Northern Provinces of Nigeria. Even were we able to do so, we should be led into wearisome detail if we attempted to recount fully the differences in the agriculture of such corresponding belts. Yet it is hoped that a reliable account of a particular agricultural practice in Northern Nigeria may assist a resident of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast to understand the corresponding practice there.

This book is written especially for the candidates for Government service in West Africa in the Administrative and Agricultural Departments; but we hope it may prove useful or interesting to those who intend to come out as missionaries. We have attempted to produce neither a standard text-book, nor a scientific treatise. Thus, matters such as climate and soil and the botany of the various crops have been very shortly discussed. Such information can be obtained from other sources. Our object has been to deal with some of the problems connected with farming in these countries and to emphasize the methods by which it is attempted to solve these problems. The economic side of the subject has been particularly stressed, as this is an aspect of tropical agriculture which has been but little dealt with in text books.

The details of the experiments on which statements are based have commonly been omitted. They are to be found in the annual bulletins of the Agricultural Department of Nigeria, and some of the more important have also been collected together in a special bulletin on “The Maintenance of Fertility by Green Manuring”.

The first part of the book is devoted to general subjects ; the second, to some of the more important details about individual crops.