Part 3

But the administration, or the critics of the administration of the Protectorate, had discovered that the lack of proper means of communication was not the only factor that retarded the progress of this richly endowed country. The unrest amongst the natives had revealed on the part of the authorities the lack of that sympathetic understanding of their native subjects which makes for successful colonisation. Their treatment of the natives was culpably injudicious, and their mistakes in dealing with them were so frequent and serious that the relations between the Government and the native population were constantly strained, and the services of the Imperial troops were in great demand.

GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL FEATURES.

The country on the whole is mountainous and forms the north-west limit of the central African plateau. The coastland is flat alluvial country spreading out on either side of the Cameroon Mountains, and broken up with mangrove swamps, lagoons and deep estuaries. The Rio del Rey region on the west of the Cameroon Mountains is a stretch of alluvial land with a breadth of thirty to forty kilometres, which forms the extreme eastern portion of the great alluvial plain extending from the Gold Coast to the Cameroon, and attaining its greatest development in the Niger Delta. Within the alluvial the volcanic massive of the Cameroon Mountain rises to a height of 4,070 m., and divides the land into two parts, which are connected only by a small and high strip of territory. To the east of the dividing mountain lies Dualaland. The other three orographical regions which comprise the Cameroon country includes the Cameroon plateau, which forms the largest and most important part of the colony; the enormous region of Adamana, which is generally level and nowhere reaches an elevation of more than 600 metres; and the extensive swampy lands of the Lake Chad basin which are under water during several months of the year.

The greater part of the colony is covered with red, loamy, sandy weatherings, which are characteristic of the tropics. If this red earth contains hard concretions of brown iron ore, they are named “Laterit.” These cellular-like volcanic scoria are characteristic of the surface of the soil generally, and especially in those districts where the loamy deposits have been washed away by heavy rains. Vegetable soil is more abundant in the rainy regions of the south, and also in the lowlands. Indeed the result of this humid weathering is a kind of whitish yellowy kaolin, or china clay, which is found in the south plateau. A blackish mould to a thickness of one or two feet covers the lowland south of Lake Chad, and is there called “Firki.” Whilst in the south of the colony red and yellow clayey soil preponderates, the further north one goes to the dryer regions, reddish sand, a product of the physical weathering, is to be found.

CLIMATE.

In the coast region of the Cameroons the climate is warm and moist, with a high rainfall. The temperature is not excessively high, the heat being tempered by the cold Benguela current coming northward from the Polar regions. According to Knox (_The Climate of Africa_) February is the warmest month and July the coolest, the maximum and minimum temperatures being 89·7° F. and 66° F. respectively. The mean temperature at Victoria and Duala is about 77° F. The coast is one of the most unhealthy places in Africa, but the conditions are considerably better and more suited to Europeans in the high-lying districts in the north. The climate of the latter is largely of the continental type, characterised by extremes of temperature. At Bali the mean temperature is about 64° F., the maximum 87° to 90° F., and the minimum 43° to 45° F. At Fort Crampel, on the eastern side of the plateau, the maximum temperature reaches 113° F., and the minimum 49° F. On the Ngaumdere plateau it is sometimes very cold, and sleet storms are not uncommon, the temperature sometimes falling to 37° F.

As regards rainfall, there are as a rule four more or less distinct seasons in the southern and central regions--the chief dry season at the beginning of the year, the so-called long wet season from June to September, a short dry season in October and November, and a short period of great rainfall in part of November and in December--but the divisions indicated are by no means well marked. The Adamana district, situated on the north of the plateau, lies beyond the equatorial beet, and there are consequently only two seasons, one wet and one dry.

The massive of the Cameroon Mountains presents a district which is singular with regard to its climate, vegetation and animal life. At its base is a primeval forest, and the climate is tropical and humid. Debundja and Bibundo have practically no dry season, the rain being continuous nearly the whole year round. On the east side, the rainy season lasts for only two to three months in the year. Buea, which lies on the lower slopes of the misty region, has a fresh, cool climate, and is quite free from malaria. The temperature varies frequently, in some cases from 1·5° to 2° Cent. in the course of two or three minutes. Instead of the usual heavy tropical rains, it has only a drizzling rain, and the humidity penetrates everywhere, even the dwellings. On the upper slopes, when the north-east wind blows, it is icy cold, except at midday. Hoar frost is frequent and snow fairly so. The mountain is nearly always cloud-capped, and it is seldom possible to obtain a really clear view of the summit.

VEGETATION AND FORESTRY.

The combination of tropical heat and rain in the alternate regions of forests and brushwood swamps produces a tropical growth of cocoa palms, cotton plants, flax and fibrous trees, and rubber vines in prodigal luxuriance and variety. The virgin forests are tropical to a height of about 1,000 m., when they become less dense, and the oak ferns make their appearance. Between 1,500 and 1,800 m. the wild coffee shrub grows abundantly, the oak ferns disappear, and are succeeded by glades and brushwood. At an altitude of 2,200 m. the forest suddenly comes to an end and the grass land begins. Only in the ravines, in which the soil is moist and sheltered from the winds, the forest continues to the 2,700 m. level. The high forest--the most magnificent of all tropical forest formations--is characterised by its amazing variety of entirely different trees, including, among others, the great wool tree, the mahogany tree, the yellow and red wood trees, the oil-palm, and rubber. Among the trees of the brushwood districts the principal are acacias and the oil-palm, which to a height of from 700 to 900 m. covers the slopes of the Cameroon plateau to the coast.

The chief planting activity appears to have been at Johann-Albrechts-Höhe, and in the Dibombari district on the Northern Railway. A forestry plantation at Manoka, near Duala, was abandoned on account of its remoteness, the difficulty of water supply, and the constant lack of labour. The principal work for the making of forest and state reserves has been conducted in Yabassi, Yaunde, Edea, and Dschang. The efforts of the forest department and of private persons have been concerned mainly with: (_a_) Investigations of woods suitable for beams, wharves, and for boat and waggon building; (_b_) trials of woods resistant to _teredo navalis_ for small boats; and (_c_) experimental shipments to German South-West Africa of woods serviceable for building, mining and street paving.

A large increase, amounting to 270 per cent. in the production of building and other timber, took place in 1911. The first place in the exports is held by Cameroons mahogany, which is stated to be increasing gradually in value in the market; its exports having risen in value from £7,022 in 1910 to £22,000 in 1912. The next wood in importance is Cameroons ebony, the exports of which have been as follows: 1909, 672 tons, worth £3,038; 1910, 1,221 tons, worth £6,090; 1911, 1,652 tons, worth £6,777; whilst in 1912 the value of the shipment was £9,055. The increase of exports has been largely due to an increase of cutting by the natives, and this has entailed a considerable amount of robbery by them. As a consequence, timber exploitation on Government lands was entirely prohibited to natives in the period 1912-13, and concessions were given to Europeans with much caution; a decrease in the production was therefore expected. A difficulty regarding the exploitation of timber in the Cameroons is the lack of good waterways in the forest regions.

CATTLE RAISING.

In spite of the very great difficulties caused by the tsetse fly, much attention has been paid to stock-breeding in the Cameroons, although with the exception of certain efforts made in Kusseri, in the extreme north, and in Garua, in Adamana, nothing in the nature of methodical horse-breeding by natives exists. The indigenous cattle are of two kinds, the dwarf cattle and the humped cattle. Cattle-breeding in the proper sense is only found among the Fulla tribe in Adamana, in Banyo and the Lake Chad regions. From these places there was once an active export of cattle to the neighbouring British and French Protectorates, but this has been diminished in recent years owing to a large export duty. The interest in cattle-production on the part of the natives has been increased in recent years, under official encouragement, in the districts of Dschang and Bamenda.

The Fulla cattle are greatly prized in the central districts, in which, by reason of the ravages of the tsetse fly, no cattle can be bred, and when railway communication has cleared the infected regions, a thriving cattle export industry to the coast will be developed. The increased prosperity of the rubber districts of the south, especially Molondu, Dume and Lomie, has led, in recent years, to a demand for meat among the natives, and this has been supplied from the Hausa and Fulani herds. In 1911 about 20,000 head of large stock and 8,000 of small stock were sent from Adamana to the south, and this is estimated to mean an exchange between the north and the south to the value of about £150,000.

As is usual in West Africa, the natives possess neglected goats, sheep and fowls, and in some cases pigs, though this is only true to a very small extent in the southern districts.

NATIVE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION.

The chief agricultural products of the Cameroons are rubber, palm kernels, cocoa and palm oil, and the Protectorate may be said, in a general way, to present three chief agricultural areas: the southern, with rubber in increasing production; the middle province around the Cameroon river basin, with their plantations and areas rich in oil palms; and the grass country, northward, suited specially for cattle breeding. Nearly all the rubber exploited has been derived from the native exploitation of wild plants. Almost all the male population of Lomie, Molondu, Dume, and Dengdeng was concerned in rubber collection in 1910-11, in which years more than 1,000 coloured middlemen bought the rubber from the natives and sold it to the forty-nine mercantile firms who had no fewer than 230 stations established for its purchase. The comparatively small share of rubber plantations in the whole production of the Protectorate is shown by the fact that, of a total export of 5,957,516 lbs. in 1911, all except 23,912 lbs. was from wild plants; whilst in 1912 cultivated plants accounted for only 53,040 lbs. in a total shipment of 6,184,222 lbs. The results of the attempts to induce the natives to take up new cultivations depend on the presence or absence in their district of wild plants that they can exploit. Whilst, for example, the inhabitants of the Lomie district, who still know of rich stands of wild rubber plants, are hardly to be excited to commence rubber cultivation, it has been experienced in Kribi, where these do not exist, that the distribution of young plants are gratefully received and readily planted.

It is also recorded that oil-palm cultivation has been introduced with some success to the natives, in the districts of Lomie and Yaunde, but any “cultivation” by the natives is very simple in nature, consisting merely in the keeping of the stands clear of “bush.” The large decrease in the exports of ivory in recent years is due in great measure to the exhaustion of the stores of ivory hoarded by the natives and the extent of elephant shooting in the past ten years. The exports in 1910 amounted to sixteen tons, valued at £124, and although there was a slight increase of quantity in the following year, the export in 1912 showed a large diminution. The other native products are chiefly djair nuts, shea nuts, kola, and gum arabic, but there has been comparatively little activity as regards the actual cultivation of crops, because of the natural richness of the country in products which enable the inhabitants to buy what they require. The raising of food crops exists, however, for special demands, such as arise near railways, administrative stations and larger towns, and the chief places on the caravan routes and rivers. Near such places the native raises maize, plantains, bananas, cassava, sweet potatoes and ground nuts, as well as sorghum (dura or dari) in the northern districts, and some kola and sesame in isolated places. In several districts a certain amount of tobacco is planted; there is also some little fruit raising, notably in the villages of Ambam. In the highlands of Dschang, and in other places, such as Ebelowe and Yaunde, new crops, such as the English potato, “black bush” beans and turnips, for which the climate seems to be suited, have been introduced. Numerous inhabitants of the districts of Duala and Edea have in recent years laid out farms for the raising of cassava, plantains, maize, yams, and other products.

North of the watershed the principal crops are guinea-corn, millet, ground-nuts, cassava, and sweet potatoes; cotton and tobacco are also cultivated by the Chamba pagans, Zumperis and Munchis. The corn is planted in April at the end of the rainy season, the method of cultivation being as follows. The ground is first cleared of weeds and the remains of the last year’s crop. It is then prepared for sowing by digging shallow trenches with a rough kind of hoe, the earth being piled up to form ridges between the trenches. Guinea-corn (_Sorghum vulgare_), the staple food of the country, is planted in these ridges. It grows to a great height, often fifteen to twenty feet, and is harvested in November. Millet is planted in the furrows; it ripens rapidly and is harvested in July. Cotton is ready for picking after December; tobacco and cassava are cultivated during the dry season on the hillsides, the streams being used for irrigation.

From October to March, during the dry season, the natives are engaged in stacking their corn into mud-walled granaries, and threshing what they require for immediate use. These months are also spent in repairing the damage done to the villages, grass being cut and tied into bundles for thatching roofs, and making new zana matting. The dry season is also the hunting season, when the long grass has been laid low by fire. This grass-burning is an annual institution, although the Government has given orders prohibiting it on account of the damage done to trees. But the hill tribes care very little for trees or grass, and a good deal for meat.

As in all parts where the tsetse fly prevails, and the employment of cattle for ploughing is impossible, the land is chiefly cultivated with the hoe; and as the West African hoe is a tool which calls for the exercise of patience rather than skill or strength, the native leaves the field work to his women. From this form of servitude the women will not be emancipated until cattle are rendered immune from tsetse fly and the hoe is supplanted by the plough.

PLANTATION CULTIVATION.

The Cameroons were regarded by the Germans as a plantation country of the highest promise, and the proximity of the Cameroon Mountain to the coast, facilitating the realisation of the products, render this part of the colony an ideal area for the planter. All the largest plantations are situated in this district, which has been extensively developed, and its products have already assumed considerable proportions in the export statistics of the dependency. The laying out of a plantation in Cameroon is by no means an easy task, as the fertile soil must be drawn from the primeval forest. And as the Cameroon primeval forest has no equal for vastness and impenetrability, laborious and costly preliminary work is necessary before any real planting can be attempted. On the whole it is very much the same as in East Africa, with the distinction that as a rule in the latter colony there is only the so-called bush to clear, while in Cameroon one has to deal with high-grown primeval forest.

The cultivation of cocoa prospers on the slopes of the Cameroon Mountain, where the climate and soil resemble those of the adjacent Islands of St. Thomas and Fernando-Po, and its cultivation is almost confined to the Cameroon Mountain and to some plantations in Sanaga and Kampo. It is to be hoped that with the further opening up of the country, many districts will be found suitable for its cultivation. In this case the many years’ experience on the Cameroon Mountain will facilitate the spreading. The cocoa-tree is, on an average, six to eight m. high, with a trunk diameter of about fifteen to twenty-five cm., and it begins to produce after four or five years. At harvest time the fruit must be carefully gathered, to avoid injuring the tree. The opening of the fruit to obtain the seeds is done with a cane, or by beating open the fruit on a stone. When the seeds are taken from the fruit, they undergo the important process of fermentation. It would take too long to relate the different methods employed, but it may be mentioned that the fermentation process affects the taste and aroma of the cocoa very much, drawing away the bitterness of the bean, modifying its sharp taste, and developing the aroma and the red-brown colour.

A still further proceeding is the drying of the beans, which is done either by the heat of the sun and the fresh air on threshing floors with removable roof, or by artificial heat in drying apparatus. Some days after the cocoa has been carefully dried, it is ready for exportation. It is packed in sacks or matting, and in the past it has been dispatched principally to Germany to be worked up in the factories. The kernels are ground and the grease when extracted is used in the form of cocoa-butter for medicinal purposes and for the fabrication of soap. The export of cocoa, which amounted to 2,450 tons in 1908, reached a total of 4,550 tons, valued at £212,500, in 1912.

RUBBER.

The attention of the rubber dealers was at first confined to certain lianas, especially the Landolphia florida, which was regarded as the greatest rubber-yielding plant in the colonies. But in the beginning of the century it was discovered that the great virgin forests of South Cameroon contained vast numbers of Kickxia-elastica trees, and that extensive subsidiary tracts covered with the same plant existed in the savannahs of South Adamana, in the Kumbo highlands, and the region of Lake Chad. Kickxia-elastica, known in the trade as “silk rubber,” was first discovered on the West African Coast in Lagos in 1894, and by October of the following year the exports had reached well over a million pounds. The eagerness of the natives to exploit this very valuable product led to the total destruction of the rubber-yielding trees, with the result that by 1906 the export had entirely ceased. Dr. Schlecter introduced the Kickxia rubber trees from Lagos into the Cameroons, where he proved that 1½ lbs. of dry rubber may be obtained from the six-year-old trees, a result which was more than confirmed subsequently by Dr. O. Warburg, the well-known authority on rubber. The first shipments of rubber from the Kickxia trees were obtained from the wild rubber trees known as Funtumia-elastica, and it has only been during the last few years that the Germans, realising that the Kickxia rubber trees are indigenous to the colony, have cultivated it, and there are now large plantations of Kickxia in the Cameroons containing millions of trees, which are doing well.

From the tapping of wild Funtumia trees, it is known that this species yields latex more readily than others, and that it is almost as sensitive to drastic tapping as Castilloa. Tapping of the cultivated tree has occurred experimentally in Cameroon. These trees, however, do not stand closely-planted, but singly or in rows, and the results must be judged accordingly. It can be assumed that from 3 to 3¾ ozs. are to be expected from six-year-old trees planted at good distances from each other, and 1 to 2 ozs. from closely-planted trees. The method of tapping practised in the last experiments with Funtumia differed from all other methods, in that vertical incisions the whole length of the trunk were made. As to its advantage over the herring-bone system, further observations and a more extended series of comparative tapping trials are first necessary. The rubber is procured by boiling the latex after diluting it with water; treatment with hydrofluoric acid yields a better product. Although Funtumia rubber is at present inferior in quality to that of Hevea and Ficus, and at most is equal to that of the Castilloa, still it may be confidently anticipated that with more suitable preparation it will yield a good serviceable product.

THE COST OF PRODUCTION.

Most of the Kickxia plantations are laid out on land which has been cleared of jungle, a process which does not entail a heavy outlay. The expenses, including all costs for inspection, tools, labour, &c., amount to about £10 per acre. A fair supply of native labour is available, and the average wage, including board, is about £10 per annum. The cost of the upkeep of the planted areas should not exceed 30s. per acre for the first year, 22s. 6d. per acre for the second year, and 18s. 6d. and 10s. for the third and fourth years respectively. The estimated inclusive cost of tapping the trees and delivering the produce in Europe should not exceed 1s. 3d. per lb. The value of Kickxia rubber, if properly prepared, is almost equal to that of the best Para rubber, and it is certainly safe to estimate that it will always fetch within 1s. of Para. These figures compare very favourably with those obtaining in other plantations, and they are given here as an indication that in its rubber exports alone the Cameroon territory has a profitable future before it.