Chapter II: Part 2

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.

In considering the question as to whether Germany will ever be in a position to supply her own demands in rubber from her own colonies, Dr. Paul Preuss, writing in the _India Rubber Journal_, says that it depends on three factors: (1) Soil, (2) Climate, (3) Labour. “Regarding soil,” he says, “the Colonies of Cameroon and New Guinea alone possess several hundred thousand acres of land suited for the cultivation of the most valuable rubber trees. The climate there is also very favourable. Taking the annual requirements of Germany in rubber at 16,000 tons, this quantity can be produced from an area of 150,000 to 170,000 acres exclusively planted with Hevea, and from 200,000 to 250,000 acres under cultivation with the various species already planted, but with Hevea predominating. Even if the demand for the raw material should considerably increase, the answer to this question would be an affirmative as regards soil and climate; whether, however, with the accompanying development in the cultivation of cacao, cotton, cocoa-nut and oil-palms, &c., the necessary labour will be procurable for such an extension in rubber cultivation, the question cannot be answered.” It has been stated that in the coming years, when the rubber plantations are ready for tapping, and the tobacco plantations are demanding the services of thousands of natives, the insufficiency of labour will prove a serious problem, and the importation of Chinese labour was submitted to the consideration of the German Government as a feasible solution.

RICE, COFFEE, COCOA, AND TOBACCO.

During recent years the cultivation of rice has received more attention, especially in the experimental gardens. The forest land inhabitants have also begun to lay out water and hill rice fields in great extent, and it is only a question of time for the Cameroons to become a rice producing country. But whether the negroes will ever be capable of carrying out the troublesome cultivation of water rice, with the necessary transplanting and careful watering, is regarded as doubtful.

One can depend with greater confidence on the exportation of maize and millet from the forest land and the drier hinterland, as soon as means of transport are provided, as it has been found that the black can be entrusted with this cultivation. Rice, as well as maize and millet, and also bananas and pines, which grow in great quantities, would be, as native cultivation solely, open to question.

Regarding the cultivation of coffee, the greatest hopes were raised in the first years of occupation of the colony. The Cameroon Mountains resemble in every respect the island of San Thomé and Fernando-Po, where, in 1884, a flourishing coffee cultivation existed. Nothing was more natural than the expectation than that a fresh impetus would be given to coffee cultivation on the mainland, but these hopes were not fulfilled, and now scarcely any coffee plantations are to be found. Tea was planted in Buea by Deistel, and the tea-shrub developed splendidly.

Plantation cocoa has borne the preponderating share of the total exports of that product in recent years, the areas in bearing having increased as follows: 1909, 13,328 acres; 1910, 15,290 acres; 1911, 17,560 acres; 1912, 20,438 acres. The large increase of exports in 1912 is attributed to the very favourable weather in that year. It is stated that more care, with artificial manuring, is wanted in the cultivation, and that the chief diseases and pests of cocoa, such as brown rot, “cockchafer grubs,” and “bark bugs,” are not under control. Nevertheless the future for cocoa is believed to be good.

Much was expected of tobacco planting, especially in Bibundi, where tobacco was planted at first, and the quality was excellent, although the cultivation was proved to be too dear and too difficult on account of the dampness of the climate. In 1902 there was a deficit of 200,000 marks, and for some time the cultivation was discontinued. Attempts were made in 1911 to encourage tobacco planting in the German colonies by the guarantees of a definite price for quantities of at least 100 cwts. raised and prepared in those colonies. The planted area in plantations in the Cameroons increased from fifty acres in 1911 to 383 in 1912; 230 acres of the latter had yielded a crop. In view of the expensive nature of the cultivation, it was hoped that Cameroons’ leaf for wrappers would gain a good market.

The planting of the Kola-nut was undertaken very energetically, and in 1904, 400 were planted in Garna, but with what result is unknown. The experimental cultivations in the gardens of Victoria have produced no palpable result. The trees flourished and bore fruit, but it was entirely consumed by worms. The natives, on the other hand, cultivate this tree in great extent in the forest land, and especially in the Kimbo highland. Among different plants, especially in the trial gardens, are the vanilla, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, and other spices. Vanilla was quite destroyed by blight in Victoria. Pepper, cloves and cinnamon all furnish excellent productions.

PALM OIL CULTIVATION.

The oil-palm in the old days was the glorious heritage of the native, who found a ready sale for such oil as his women-folk were able to extract by a slow and laborious process. It is likely that the native believed that so long as he retained the tree and the fruit, his time-honoured oil business would never be taken from him, but the great and growing demand for oil has beaten him, and he is fast losing the trade because he can no longer make the quantity that the market requires. Palm oil is now requisitioned for a hundred-and-one new uses. It is no longer the monopoly of the soap-maker or the chandler. Palm oil deodorised by hydrogen is needed for the “nut butters” of the vegetarian; makers of nitro-glycerine explosives derive their glycerine constituents more and more from palm oil; whilst the exploiters of novelties in metal polishes ransack the ship’s hold for leakages from the palm-oil cask. Oil must be had in increasing quantity; machinery speeds up the production; yet still the cry is for more oil, until the European himself attempts to become owner of thousands of trees, eagerly and not too scrupulously encroaching on lands that once were considered native, in the vain hope of finding a speedier road to prosperity.

THE PALM TREE AND ITS PRODUCTS.

The profitable carrying on of this industry depends on the demand for palm oil and the use which can be made of the residues. That the supply of palm kernels themselves should decline is unthinkable. The steady increase in their growth in all parts of the West African Coast is conclusive evidence of their almost limitless possibilities. Moreover, the statistics clearly show the extensive nature of the demand. Great Britain and Germany are no longer the only purchasers; South Africa has entered the market, as well as Holland and France, though their lots are comparatively small, and could not in any way effect the profitable exploitation of kernel-crushing on a large scale.

In a paper read before the Royal Colonial Institute, entitled “The War: British and German Trade in Nigeria,” Mr. R. E. Dennett, of the Forest Department, Nigeria, made it abundantly evident that Germany had been farming the commerce of the Protectorates to the detriment of the Britisher. He showed from statistics that Germany’s export trade to Nigeria greatly exceeded ours, while of the Nigerian produce which left the country, Germany in 1913 took nearly all the copra, half the cocoa, more than two-thirds of the palm kernels, one-eighth of the palm oil, half the hides, one-third of the mahogany, more than half the ground-nuts, over a third of the shea nuts, and all the palm kernel cake.

On the subject of the palm tree and its products, Mr. Dennett is both interesting and instructive, and in view of its inevitable increase in importance as a British industry, the following extracts from his paper may be usefully reproduced here.

“People who have little or no knowledge of the palm tree (_Elæis guineensis_) confuse the palm fruit with the palm kernel. The palm kernel of commerce is the seed of the palm tree. This is surrounded by a hard shell, and it is then called the palm nut. This shell is in its turn covered by an oily fibrous matter, and is then known as the palm fruit. If we take this fruit and cut it into two parts, we can see these three parts of the fruit more distinctly; first the outer yellow covering or the fibrous pericarp, from which the palm oil of commerce is extracted; then the shell, and finally the kernel, from which the white palm kernel oil is extracted.

“The composition of this fruit is as follows:--

Pericarp Oil 18 per cent.
Fibre and Moisture 12 “
Shell and Disk 58 “
Kernel 12 “
---
Total 100 “

“The uses of the palm oil tree are various. It yields the palm oil and kernels of commerce. It gives the native a drink he is very fond of, called palm wine, which, when fermented, gives our cooks yeast for bread-making. The shells of the nuts are used by blacksmiths as fuel, as they give off great heat. At the present time there are three methods of making palm oil: (_a_) from the fresh fruit, (_b_) from partially fermented fruit, and (_c_) from well fermented fruit.

THE NATIVE AS CULTIVATOR.

“Bunches of fruit having been severed from the parent tree, are sliced and hammered by natives, using long poles, until the fruit becomes detached from the bunch. The fresh fruit is either prepared at once into what is called soft oil, or allowed to ferment, or partially ferment, and made into hard oil. The procedure followed in making either of these kinds of oil is much the same. The fruit is placed either into canoes or clay troughs, water is poured over them, and then, by treading or beating, the fibrous matter containing the oil is separated from the nuts. The nuts are then taken out and placed in the sun to dry, while the fibrous matter, by further beating or treading, is made to yield the oil which floats to the surface of the water. This oil is ladled out into pots and boiled, and then allowed to rest, so that all dirt or sediment falls to the bottom of the pot. This clean oil, soft or hard, is the palm oil of commerce. This oil is taken in calabashes or tins to the traders’ factory, which, generally speaking, is near to a river or a railway, and there put into casks and sent to the nearest port for shipment to Europe.

“There are, practically speaking, two kinds of palm oil exported from the West Coast, i.e., hard and soft, but soft oil is of two qualities--Lagos and ordinary soft oil. As a rule, Lagos and soft oil is worth £3 to £4 more than hard oil, the reason being that there is about 8 per cent. more glycerine in the soft than in the hard. The percentage of glycerine varies in inverse proportion with the acidity.

“In the olden days one of the chief occupations of slaves was that of cracking palm nuts; now this work is left to boys and women. After the nuts have been dried in the sun, they are heaped up under little sheds to protect them from the rain. In places where rocks are plentiful the nuts are taken there and cracked on them by a stone held in the hand of the cracker. In other places the nuts are put on a block of wood resting on the ground between the cracker’s legs and struck with a piece of iron held in the cracker’s right hand. In this way one worker will crack from 15 lbs. to 25 lbs. of kernels per day. The kernels are then packed in different kinds of baskets and taken to markets near rivers, where they are bought by native middlemen. Competition is very keen, and so these middlemen are tempted to adulterate the kernels by adding shells to them or by soaking them in water for two or three days. Finally, they are taken in canoes down rivers or by rail to the European traders and sold by measurement at so much a bushel.... Think of it! 241,000 tons of palm kernels shipped to Hamburg in 1913, and nearly every nut containing one kernel is cracked by hand.”

THE FUTURE OF PALM OIL AND KERNEL INDUSTRY.

Although the palm kernel industry has not attained important dimensions in the Cameroons, there is no reason why it should not form one of the staple products of the colony, or why the whole of the trade in palm kernels should not be transferred from Germany to this country. Hitherto the quarter of a million tons of palm kernels--valued at over £4,000,000--exported annually from British West Africa has gone to Germany, where crushing-mills and manufacturing plants have been established, while considerable quantities of high-priced kernel oil, in manufactured or unmanufactured form, have been exported from Germany to Great Britain. About 50 per cent. of the produce of the crushed palm kernels is marketed in the form of oil, and the balance is made up into palm kernel cake, practically the whole of which is consumed in Germany, where it commands a good price and is in great demand, especially among dairy farmers.

This profitable German industry has now been suspended owing to the war, which has rendered it necessary for planters to find a new market for their produce, and the opportunity seems propitious for an endeavour to establish it in Great Britain upon a substantial scale. With a view to arousing interest in the subject in commercial and agricultural circles, Sir Owen Phillipps, K.C.M.G., Chairman of the West African section of the London Chamber of Commerce, has issued a timely pamphlet in which the present position of the trade is described and its potentialities are indicated. The Anglicisation of the industry, in addition to promoting Imperial commercial intercourse, and securing increased industrial employment in the United Kingdom, would furnish British farmers--who are complaining of the enhanced prices of present foods--with a new supply of a relatively cheap and excellent feeding material.

The profitable exploitation of this crushing industry depends upon the capacity of the British market to absorb a larger supply of palm kernel oil and upon the possibility of inducing British farmers to adopt the use of palm kernel cake. There are at present two mills, both at Liverpool, for dealing with palm kernels, capable together of crushing annually about 70,000 tons, leaving a balance unprovided for of at least 180,000 tons. To cope with this additional quantity several of the great milling companies of Liverpool, London, Hull, &c., have already made and are making alterations in their machinery in order to crush palm kernels, so that in the near future much greater quantities will be dealt with. A new mill on the Thames, at Erith, is also being erected, which, when completed after the war, will be capable of crushing a very large quantity.

PALM KERNEL CAKE FOOD.

In order to ascertain whether British farmers would be prepared to make a larger use of palm kernel cake, Sir Owen Phillipps placed himself in communication with the leading agricultural authorities in all parts of the country--principals of agricultural colleges, experimental stations, &c., and these gentlemen have taken up the matter with the greatest enthusiasm. They are practically unanimous in asserting that the fact of large quantities of palm kernel cake being available at a price comparing favourably with that of other similar foods (now becoming more expensive than formerly) has only to be brought to the notice of farmers to ensure a greatly increased demand; in fact, that farmers are looking out for a new and comparatively cheap feeding material. Many of the principals and professors of the colleges referred to in various parts of the country have undertaken an elaborate series of comparative experimental feeding tests with palm kernel and other cakes, so as to demonstrate the merits of the former. When these are completed the results will be made widely known to the agricultural community.

In an article published in the _Field_ on “Palm Kernel Cake,” Mr. F. J. Lloyd, F.I.C., points out that a really good cake, made from this product, is now available in this country. The nutrients in palm kernel cake are quite exceptionally digestible, and one German authority says that, “owing to its pleasant taste, its great digestibility, and the way in which cattle thrive on it, no cake fetches so high a price.” It increases the yield of milk, improves the quality as regards butter fat, and is said to impart a good colour to the butter, so that it is especially valuable for winter feeding. Though mainly used in Germany for dairy cattle, Professor Lloyd adds that it has also been given with satisfactory results to steers, sheep, and pigs.

PALM KERNEL STATISTICS.

The _Bulletin_ of the Imperial Institute contains an article calling attention to the magnitude of the trade in palm kernels, and discussing its commercial aspect. The following table shows the quantities and values from each of the chief producing countries in West Africa in 1912:--

_Quantities._ _Values._

British Possessions: _Tons._ _Tons._ £ £
Gambia 445 6,518
GoldCoast 14,629 205,365
Nigeria 184,624 2,797,411
Sierra Leone 50,751 793,178
-------- 250,449 --------- 3,802,472

French Possessions:
Dahomey 36,708 535,937
Gaboon 354 4,671
Guinea 5,054 41,079
Ivory Coast 6,692 70,710
Senegal 1,736 28,221
------ 50,544 ------ 680,618

Belgian Congo -- -- 110,835

German Possessions:
Kamerun 15,742 220,300
Togoland 11,456 168,978
------- 27,198 ------- 389,278
------- ----------
Totals 328,191 £4,983,203

This article also gives the average value of the kernels, which in Hamburg ranges from £18 2s. to £19 2s. per ton (June, 1914); the value in Liverpool was £17 17s. 6d. to £18 18s. 9d. per ton in July last, and in September was £16 7s. 6d. to £17 10s. per ton.

Palm kernel oil is used for the same purposes as cocoa-nut oil, viz., the manufacture of soap and candles and the preparation of various edible fats, such as margarine, cooking fats, vegetable “butters,” and chocolate fats. By suitable treatment it can be separated into a liquid portion (olein) and a hard white fat (palm kernel stearin), and in this way the consistence of the material can be varied for the preparation of different edible products. These edible palm kernel oil products are prepared on a very large scale in Germany and elsewhere, and are largely imported into this country. With palm kernels at £17 to £18 per ton, the value of palm kernel oil in the United Kingdom is from £36 5s. to £36 15s. per ton, with Ceylon cocoa-nut oil at £40 per ton.

It is added that British oil-seed crushers who undertook to work them would find no difficulty in getting a market for the oil among soap-makers and makers of edible fats. Although the article points out that some difficulty might be experienced in finding a market quickly in the United Kingdom for the palm kernel cake, because English farmers do not readily take up feeding stuffs which are new to them, it will be gathered from what has already been said that, thanks to the initiative of Sir Owen Phillipps, this difficulty is likely to be overcome, and the opportunity is a particularly good one now that other feeding stuffs are becoming more expensive, as that is a point which will have great influence. It is not a new feeding material, but all the evidence points simply to the fact that it has only to become better known and available on a large scale to result in mutual benefits to the farmer, the miller, the manufacturer, and the West African colonies.

COTTON.

The cultivation of fibrous plants, which have made a highly satisfactory start in Togoland and East Africa, are to be found in Cameroon only in the preliminary stage. In the experimental garden, Sanseveria, the Romelia-pita from Central America, manilla hemp, Musa textiles, as well as the Uttari jute, have been planted.

Cotton should have a much greater future than the so-called fibrous plant. It is cultivated at present to a great extent south of Lake Chad by the natives, and the cultivation of cotton has been called systematic, as only one to two year-old plants are harvested. In that region the conditions are so favourable that a considerable development of the cotton cultivation may be counted upon, as soon as more favourable communication conditions are made. In the Benue Valley, cotton has also been cultivated for several decades. The whole of the forest and coastland are unfit for this cultivation, and it is somewhat surprising to hear that on the uncultivated lands of the Mandara Mountains, a very beautiful long fibrous cotton grows. At the instigation of the Colonial Agricultural Committee, cotton cultivation made a tremendous start in Togo, and in East Africa as well as in the Cameroons.

The export of timber has increased by leaps and bounds in recent years. While in 1909 timber to the value of only £8,500 was imported, this sum in 1912 had risen to £35,000, and, with the extension of the railway system, the revenue from this source can be increased almost indefinitely.

EXPERIMENTAL AGRICULTURAL WORK.

Dr. Walter Busse, of the Imperial German Colonial Office, writing in the “Bulletin of the Imperial Institute” on “The Organisation of Experimental Work in Agriculture in the German Colonies,” tells us that in Cameroon, as in other parts where land is being opened up for agriculture, the conditions of settlement of the natives, the density of the population, the general standard of civilisation, and the capacity of the natives for any particular kind of activity, all play an important role. “And in proportion as the people incline towards agriculture, so attention must be paid to the inclinations and needs of the separate races, and lastly to the extent, organisation and methods of native agriculture.... The German Colonial Government,” the German colonial official proceeds to explain, “has laid it down as a principle that native agriculture in the tropical colonies should be allowed to develop freely side by side with plantations under European control, wherever this does not interfere with higher interests. Local conditions will decide how far in each particular region this or that method of organising agriculture is to be preferred. But wherever climate, soil and condition of settlement do not admit of plantation culture, and a native population capable of production is present, the Government will, as a matter of course, encourage native agriculture as much as possible, and by this means create an improved economic position.”

Unfortunately for the native, as Hanns Vischer points out in his article on “Native Education in German Africa,” his national feeling, his own industry and aptitude for work, was entirely ignored by the Government, and “higher interests” frequently interfered to retard the development of native enterprise, while the Teutonic professors proved too determined, for the good of colonial agriculture, to transfer to it “the long-approved system of German agriculture, which rests on a strong scientific foundation, built on the results of exact investigation and methods.” Germany started her experimental work as soon as she entered upon the occupation of colonies, with the establishment of gardens for raising imported economic plants, such as coffee, cocoa, rubber, &c., in the interest of plantation culture, and for the advancement of gardening and fruit production. When European planters commenced to take up agriculture on their own account, it was found that the experimental work of the botanical gardens was no longer adequate to the new requirements. For this purpose, experimental work on a purely agricultural basis, and an effort to effect an improvement of native agriculture, became necessary. To meet these demands, institutes were established, and agricultural staffs were organised, and the measures taken in Togoland in 1900, for the introduction and extension of cotton cultivation, became the standard for agricultural experimental work in the other tropical African colonies of Cameroon and East Africa.

THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

The Experimental Institute of Agriculture at Victoria remained as the centre for the whole of the experimental work in Cameroon until the year 1911, when the Imperial Government created a Department of Agriculture at Buea to deal with all questions relating to organisation, while the Victoria Institution continued to undertake the technical and scientific investigations. At first the agricultural work was mainly devoted to assisting the planting industry in the Cameroon Mountains, but as the colony became opened up, fresh problems presented themselves. The reckless exploitation of the _Funtumia elastica_ and Landolphia vines in the rubber forests led to the establishment of a special rubber inspectorate, and various arrangements were made for the development of all branches of native cultivation. Special small experimental gardens were created in the larger administrative stations of the interior and placed under the management of a European farmer or gardener, to deal with the cultivation by natives of products suitable for export. Later, a cocoa inspectorate was established to organise native cocoa cultivation in districts in which European cocoa plantations did not and were not likely to exist, and an experimental station was founded in the Jaunde district to encourage the cultivation of such crops as ground-nuts, plantain and manioc, with a view to export. At Kuti and Pittoa two agricultural experimental stations were established, primarily for the cultivation of cotton, but other branches of agriculture, including stock-raising, were embraced in the programme of work at these stations. In 1913 the agricultural staff consisted of fourteen first-grade, seven second-grade and twenty-eight third-grade officers.

The Institute at Victoria comprised a botanic garden and botanical and chemical laboratories, and the work carried on there included the raising of tropical economic plants, experiments in plantation culture and manuring, &c. Since 1910 young natives were trained as plantation managers in the agricultural school attached to the institute. At the cattle-breeding stations at Buea, Dschang and Djuttitsa (in the Dschang district), and Jaunde, the breeding of Allgau bulls and cross-breeding experiments with Allgau bulls and the indigenous humped cows were carried on with the object of obtaining draught cattle for the several districts and supplying meat and dairy produce to the Europeans. At the Dschang School of Agriculture, young natives were instructed in the use of the plough and in other rational methods of agriculture. At the Kuti station, in the Bamum district, and the Pittao station, in the Adamana district, the advancement of cotton cultivation is the primary study, but the programmes of work also include comparative cultivation experiments with indigenous cereals, pulses, root-crops, and fodder plants, the use of the plough, manuring and rotation experiments, cattle-breeding and cattle-keeping, and the training of native travelling instructors.

The Rubber Inspectorate established stations for rubber cultivation at Sangmalima (Ebolowa district), Akonolinga (Jaunde district), Dume (Dume district), and Djahposten (Lomie district), and the work comprised the distribution of Funtumia and Hevea plants to the natives, the superintendence of new plantations, the regeneration of the stocks of wild rubber which had become exhausted by careless exploitation, and the instruction of the natives in the tapping of rubber trees and the preparation and preservation of the rubber.

In order to deal adequately with the agricultural questions which arose locally in the various districts, most of the administrative stations possessed--apart from the established experimental gardens--agricultural officers whose duty it was to superintend local experimental fields and gardens. Such officers were employed, among other places, at Duala, Edea, Bara, Yoko, and Bamenda, the chief aim of the experimental gardens at these places being to develop the cultivation of export products, while experiments with foreign economic plants, yielding produce suitable for export, were also conducted.

MINERAL RESOURCES.

The mining industry has not yet penetrated into the Cameroons, and the mineral deposits of the country are commercially improved. Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks occur in the coastal area and extend northward to the Nigerian border. Gneisses and schists of pre-Cambrian age, with intrusive granites, extend over wide areas in the hinterland, and volcanic rocks of supposed Tertiary age are very abundant. Pegmatites and quartz veins are associated with granite intrusions in the pre-Cambrian rocks. These carry tourmaline in the region north of Duala, as in the Dschang district. Quartz veins with small amounts of pyrite and arsenopyrite also occur.

Tinstone, which occurs in pegmatite veins in Nigeria, may be expected to be encountered in the Cameroons, but although prospecting has been carried on in various parts of the region bordering on Nigeria, in the hope of finding tinstone and wolframite, no results have been obtained. The only trace of gold yet discovered was an occurrence of spangles of gold of theoretical interest only, which was found in a dyke rock (a bostoorite) on the eastern boundary of the Ossidinge district.

Promising finds of mica have been made in the pegmatites of the Ossidinge and Kentu districts, and galena also occurs in the cretaceous sandstone in the Ossidinge district; but hitherto no argentiferous lead-zinc ores comparable with those of Nigeria have been located.

Iron ores, some of which are manganiferous, are abundant in the country. Many of these are of the lateritic type, and furnish material for native smelting, as in other parts of Western Africa. In some localities, iron ore has been formed by the decomposition of basalt. Masses of red and brown ores of this type are found on hill-slopes in the neighbourhood of Bali and Bamenda. A sample of this ore was found to contain 42·25 per cent. of metallic iron, 0·35 of manganese, 0·17 of phosphorus, and 12·26 of silica. Richer ores of the magnetic type are found among the pro-Cambrian gneisses.

Limestones are scarce and of unserviceable quality, but clays and loams, suitable for brick-making, are abundant. Indications of the presence of petroleum in the neighbourhood of Duala were falsified by borings. Asphal is said to occur at Ossidinge and Mamfe on the Cross River. A thin layer of coal yielding 48·3 per cent. of ash has been located at Mamfe. Salt springs exist in the Ossidinge district, and the yield of as much as from 5 to 8 per cent. of sodium-chloride from samples of brine, is believed to indicate that salt beds may be found beneath the surface in this district.

NATIVE EDUCATION.

In order to ascertain the work done by Europeans, the Government and the Missionary Societies in schools for the natives of their various African possessions, the German Colonial Institute in 1911 sent out to the colonies over 2,000 printed _questionnaires_, with a request to the authorities to return answers according to the state of the schools on June 1st in that year. From the information filled in and returned, Herr Missions-Inspector Schlunk, of Hamburg, was able to publish a voluminous report on the subject, and the state of affairs thus revealed is illustrative of the best and worst features of the Teutonic colonising system. The facts in themselves concerning the educational work accomplished in the way of providing the natives with schools and teachers are remarkable.

In Cameroon the first educational work among the natives was begun by the London Baptist Mission in 1845, and in 1885, the year in which the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America entered the field, the London Baptists resigned their organisation to the Missions Gesellschaft, of Basel. Two years later the first Government School was opened in Duala, and in the following four years the Apostolic Vicariat Kamerun, of Limburg on the Lahn, and the German Baptists, of Steglitz, established schools in the colony. In Cameroon, as in Togo, the Government were behind the missions in the number of schools and scholars, having, in 1911, only eight elementary schools, as against the nine of the American Presbyterians, thirty-eight of the German Baptists, eighty-six of the Roman Catholic, and 275 of the Basel Mission. Altogether there were in the colony 499 elementary schools, with forty-two European and 611 native teachers, and 32,056 pupils; twenty-one higher schools, with thirty-three European and thirty native teachers, and 1,802 pupils; eleven industrial schools, with twenty-two European and five native teachers, and 259 pupils; or a total of 531 schools, with ninety-seven European and 646 native teachers, and 34,117 pupils. Of the teachers 3·3 per cent. and of the pupils 8·1 per cent. were females.

THE SCHOOL COURSE.

In both Togo and Cameroon, the course of the elementary schools began with an infant class and lasted four or five years, the objects of the schools in both colonies having been to provide Christian instruction to natives and to train pupils for the higher schools with a view to their entering the service of Europeans. Instruction in German began in the first year, and in the third year pupils were required to read and write German fluently in both characters. The curriculum for the last year included the history of the German Empire since the Franco-German War of 1870-71, the history of the German Emperors since January 18th, 1871, the Geography of Germany, and the singing of German patriotic songs.

In the higher schools, the object of the teachers was to “impart such knowledge as is required in the service of Europeans,” and all instruction was given in the German language. The schools for practical work trained girls for domestic work, laundry work and farming, while boys received instruction in carpentering, cabinet-making, smiths’ work, boot-making and tailoring, printing and book-binding. At the completion of their course, all pupils were obliged to remain in the service of the Government for two or more years. In both Togoland and Cameroon, the Government had a school of agriculture, where pupils were instructed in farming, especially cotton-growing and the use of the plough, and at some of the mission schools in the latter colony the pupils were trained in brick-making and cocoa-planting, and the work connected with water-supply and bridge-making.

In both colonies the schools generally were open on five or six days a week, with from twenty to thirty-five hours’ instruction per week, according to the grade of the several schools. The average length of holidays for Mission and Government schools was from two to three months per annum. Unfortunately, no statement of revenue or expenditure is included in the case of Togoland beyond the fact that the Government made a yearly grant of £750, distributed among the various schools for the encouragement of German language-study. In Cameroon, in 1910, the Basel Mission spent £5,386 on teachers’ salaries, and the Roman Catholics £1,626. The cost of the Government schools in that year was £1,963. Generally no school fees were paid except in some of the higher schools in Togo, where pupils paid 50s. per annum, and at Garna, in Cameroon, the Government pupils paid 30s. per annum in kind.

THE RESULTS OF GERMAN METHODS.

In Cameroon a Government Proclamation of April 25th, 1910, made school attendance obligatory for all native children, instruction in German from the first class was made law, and the punishment for a child who left school before completing the whole course was fixed at a fine of £2 10s. or a flogging. Although children generally were anxious to attend school in order to qualify for service with Europeans, truantry appears to have become more popular after obligatory attendance was introduced, and the native police were kept busy in bringing back absentees. School children, who were distinguished by the wearing of brass-buttons and cockades, showed a tendency to become denationalised: few of them returned to the family farms when they completed their school course, which had the effect of causing them to lose touch with their own tribe and families.

It is impossible, after reading Herr Missions-Inspector Schlunk’s report, to refuse admiration to the thoroughness of the German system of instituting these inquiries, or to the care with which the Germans lay themselves out to Teutonise their native subjects. Their organising ability, as revealed in their methods of imparting instruction to the natives and preparing their minds for the reception of _kultur_, is amazing, but as Hanns Vischer shows in his analysis of this informative publication, contributed to the _Journal of the African Society_, their method has its disadvantages. “Little love and scarcely any respect for the native,” he comments, “are to be found among the various reports. No mention is ever made of the natives’ national feeling. Natives are taught German history and the names of the German Emperors, and they can sing German patriotic songs. From every colony we hear that the boys who have been to school seldom or never return to their own surroundings, and although this is regretted, as being detrimental to the interests of a peasant community, no mention is made of the breaking-up of the native family and the inevitable harm which must follow. The importance of practical instruction is everywhere recommended to teach the native to work, but no mention is made of the natives’ own industry and love for work which might be developed.”

THE CAMEROON-NIGERIAN BOUNDARY.

The country bordering on the Nigerian boundary from Yola to Obokum on the Cross River, a distance of 360 miles, and the peoples inhabiting the several districts it passes through, have been admirably dealt with by Captain W. V. Nugent, R.A. Captain Nugent, who had been a member of the Commission under Colonel Whitlock which surveyed this area between 1907 and 1909, was sent out in August, 1912, to mark the boundary between the Cameroon and the Nigerias along the line which had been previously settled approximately on the map at a conference between the British and German Governments. The British Commissioner and his assistants met Lieut. Detzner, the German Commissioner, on October 8th, 1912, and the work of demarcation continued without interruption for six months, during which time 116 pillars were placed in position. Both Commissioners wrote accounts of this Anglo-German Frontier Demarcation Expedition, but, while Lieut. Detzner’s official article on the subject, published in _Deutsches Kolonialblatt_ (1913) is a dull, pedantic and unsatisfactory document, the paper read by Captain Nugent before the Royal Geographical Society in March, 1914, is compact of information and extremely interesting, and it is from his descriptions that I have derived the following details and extracts.

The frontier line divides the mountains, torrential streams and sparsely-inhabited areas of the Cameroons form the wide fertile plains, great navigable waterways and densely populated districts on the Nigerian side of the border. The fact that Benue River and its three great southern tributaries, the Teraba, Donga and Katsena Rivers, all rise on the plateaux of the Central Cameroon, and only become navigable for canoes upon entering Nigerian territory, explain the unequal distribution of man over the country; for, while the savage pagan tribes have withdrawn to the almost inaccessible hilltops, the more civilised agricultural and trading peoples have kept to the well-watered plains.

THE FULANI REGION.

The boundary line, which commences at Byaaer, a three days’ march from Yola, crosses the M’Bulo plain and follows the Upper M’Bulo river to its source in the Shebshi Mountains. “The plain,” to quote from Captain Nugent’s description, “is covered with thin bush, and dotted with villages, each with its surrounding patches of cultivation. The formation is brown laterite, the rocks containing occasional bands and lumps of ironstone.” The lower slopes of the isolated granite hills, which rise above the general level, are covered with pagan villages. “The people inhabiting the plains on both sides of the boundary are Fulanis, subject to the Emirs of Yola and Nassarawa; but the tops of isolated mountains, and the narrow valleys between the long spurs jutting out from the Shebshi group, are inhabited by pagans, offshoots of the Chamba and Dakka tribes. The habits and customs of the Fulanis are well known--they are by nature herdsmen, just as the Hausas are born traders and the pagans agriculturists. The country is rich in flocks and herds of cattle, sheep and goats. A large trade is also done in horses. The villages consist of round huts of sun-baked mud, with conical roofs thatched with dry grass. Sometimes, when the village is only intended to be temporary, the walls of the huts are made of zana matting, which is also used to enclose the compounds, or groups of huts inhabited by one family. Every village has its assembly place, generally under a large shady tree, where the headman and his advisers sit all day and smoke, while the slaves work in the fields or drive the cattle to pasture. Slave-dealing is still carried on in this country, advantage being taken of the proximity of the boundary, which makes it so easy to evade justice.... The work of marking the boundary was watched with the greatest interest by the Fulani population. The ‘kings’ of all the towns on the English side, and a good many from the German side, came to salute us, generally bringing a present of a fowl or a basket of limes. Each ‘king’ carries a long stick, surmounted by a brass crown, the emblem of his office under the Government. There are first, second and third class ‘kings’; the size of the crown varies accordingly.”

The line in crossing the Shebshi Mountains passes over the summit of Mount Dakka, upon which the boundary pillar is 5,388 feet above sea level. “The view from Dakka is magnificent. On all sides are tumbled masses of mountain, much cut up by deep ravines and rocky gorges, through which the many headwaters of the M’Bulo and Kam rivers tear headlong to the plains. On the German side, Vogel Spitz rises amid innumerable peaks and valleys to a height of nearly 7,000 feet, overlooking some hundred square miles of still unknown country. The northern spurs, projecting into the Cameroons, enclose high table-lands, extraordinarily fertile and highly cultivated.... The boundary crosses the plateau near the only practicable pass, the road being entirely on the German side, so that one result of the demarcation is to close the direct trade route between M’Bulo and Kam Valleys until a new pass is discovered. There are plenty of tracks over these mountains, but very few practicable for animals. A bull which costs £1 at Tibak, in the M’Bulo Valley, is worth £3 or £4 at Gankita, in the Kam Valley, the distance as the crow flies between these two places being no more than twelve miles.”

THE SHEBSHI MOUNTAINEERS.

“The Shebshi Mountains are interesting from the fact that they would form the principal obstacle, a well-nigh insuperable one, to the construction of a direct line of railway from Calabar, or a point on the Cross River, _via_ Takum and Bakundi, to Yola. Yola is one of the few important points in Nigeria which does not appear likely to be linked up with the coast by a railway for many years to come. The German railway from Duala to the north, if it ever does reach Garua, will pass to the east of the Shebshis, where many obstacles, almost as formidable, will have to be overcome....

“The people inhabiting the Shebshi Mountains and their foothills are principally Chamba and Dakka pagans. They have many points in common with other hill pagans of Northern Nigeria and Adamawa. The effect of Mohammedan inroads upon these tribes is especially evident. They may be divided into two classes: firstly, those who are slaves and mingle freely with the Fulanis, their villages being in the plain; and, secondly, those who hold themselves aloof on the hill-tops. The former have copied many things from the Fulanis, such as clothing, houses, &c.--almost everything, in fact, except their pastoral proclivities. The pagan will keep goats and fowls, but he will have nothing to do with horses and cattle.

“It is with the hill-top pagans, however, that we are principally concerned, as nine-tenths of the whole boundary zone are inhabited by people of this denomination. The first sign of the lower stage of civilization is the absence of clothing. A tuft of grass is the national dress, and even this is often dispensed with.

“The villages consist of little beehive-shaped huts of mud or grass, perched on apparently inaccessible heights, or cunningly hidden away in mazes of dense tropical vegetation. The inhabitants bear a great resemblance to monkeys, being small in stature, but extraordinarily active. The steepest and most difficult ascent over rocks and ravines is to them as easy as a straight, broad, level road. In fact, I have often noticed that these pagans, made to carry a load on the level, are utterly at a loss. They only come down from their rocky fastnesses to cultivate their fields, or to make war on their neighbours. They are armed with bows and poisoned arrows, from which it is never safe for them to be parted, even when working in the fields. They are almost invariably at war with a neighbouring village, the probable reason being that some of their women have been carried off. No regular trade is indulged in, but they are very fond of salt, which they obtain from Hausa traders. A bag of salt which costs half-a-crown on the coast has a purchasing power of at least ten shillings in this country.

“Each village is an independent community under a chief. The inhabitants are entirely ignorant of the world beyond the next village to their own. The nominal chief of the village has not, as a rule, as much influence as the local ju-ju man or witch doctor, whose power over these extremely superstitious people is directly proportionate to his success in imposing upon their credulity. Any calamity, such as an epidemic of sickness or a sudden death, is always attributed to the evil eye, and some member of the community is at once suspected, and either killed or sold to passing Hausa traders. If a chief dies, the village always moves to another site. This partly accounts for the number of deserted villages and ruins found in the Shebshi Mountains.

“The Chambas are industrious agriculturists, and keep large numbers of goats and fowls in their villages. The farms are generally at the foot of the hills. After the harvest the people brew large supplies of spirit from the grain, and get drunk for several days together. These orgies generally result in fighting among themselves. The principal industry, besides agriculture, is working in iron. They make their own farm implements, spear and arrow heads, and pipe-stems.”

THE TERABA VALLEY.