114 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January i, 1905. 



THE EXTINCTION OF AFRICAN RUBBERS.* 



To THE Editor of The India Kuuber World: In an- 

 swer to your request for my experience in connection 

 with rubber in Africa, and my opinion in regard to the 

 future of its production, I have pleasure in submitting 

 the following notes: 



A part of the continent I know very well is the German col- 

 ony of Kamerun, on the west coast, where I have been inter- 

 ested as a merchant for 23 years, and more recently in cocao 

 and other plantations on a large scale. When I first went there 

 rubber was not known to exist in the country. In the year 1884 

 I found lianes (creepers) of Landolphia growing abundantly on 

 the Kamerun mountain. I taught the natives how to collect 

 the juice and to prepare the raw rubber, taking much pains to 

 explain that they must not take too much from each liane, as 

 otherwise these would die. 



The people soon found that rubber collecting was a good bus- 

 iness, and the whole population went to " the bush." When a 

 party came to a place where some of the precious lianes were 

 growing a camp was made, and the collecting was performed in 

 this way: Armed with cutlasses, some men climbed up in the 

 trees where the lianes were hanging, cut these in pieces, and 

 threw them down. Then the pieces were laid on low stands 

 and the bark was chafed all over in order to get out as much as 

 possible of the thick juice. When all the lianes had been treat- 

 ed in that way, the collecting party left the place to look for 

 more. When I remonstrated against the destruction of the 

 lianes they answered it was of no use to leave anything behind, 

 as it would be taken away by whoever next came to the place 

 after them. 



In this way all the rubber lianes on Kamerun mountain were 

 finished within three years. From here the search for rubber 

 spread over the whole colony, and rubber was found almost 

 all over the thick forest that covers the country, from the sea- 

 coast up to the grass lands of the interior. Different species of 

 Landolphia were found, and also a large tree, giving just as good 

 rubber, was growing in several parts of the country. Professor 

 Paul Preuss, then as now director of the colonial botanical gar- 

 den at Victoria, found that it was a species unknown to science 

 and called it the Kickxia elastica. 



The rubber collecting went further and further into the coun- 

 try, and was to the rubber producing trees and liane.^ the same 

 as the forest fire is to the pine trees in the north. Both leave 

 death and destruction behind, and are kept up only by moving 

 on into new territories. In the most places the fire has already 

 ceased from want of fuel, but in the remotest parts of the dense 

 forest it is still smoldering — waiting for a gust of the " trade " 

 wind to hasten on the destruction. 



The same has been the course in ail other parts of Africa 

 where rubber has been found. The statistics prove it. In La- 

 gos, where Kickxia was found in great abundance, the destruc- 

 tion of the rubber trees was much quicker than in Kamerun, 

 due to the fact that the former country is more thickly popula- 

 ted and has better communications than Kamerun. The Con- 



* The author of this contribution, a native of Sweden, is a member of the com- 

 mercial hrm Linnell & Co., composed of c.Tpit.ilisis of S'.ockholm and Hamburg, 

 trading in Kamerun. Among their interests is the '" Debundja" cacao and coffee 

 plantation, on a concession of lands on tbe .Atlantic coast Our author was a pio- 

 neer in Kamerun. having been the tlrst white man ever seen in many of the native 

 villages. He was the first to engage in rubber trading, and his conclusions in re- 

 gard to present and prospective rubber conditions may be accepted as coming 

 fronj an exceptionally well qualified observer. ^TiiE Eiitor. 



go Free State has the widest rubber producing areas in Africa, 

 and most likely the rubber will last longer there than in any, 

 other part of the continent, in spite of the energetic efforts that 

 are made to finish it as soon as possible. 



In filteen years more the rubber export from Africa will be 

 of no consequence to the market. By that time all parts of the 

 rubber producing forests will be gone through by the collectors, 

 and the export will reach its minimum, at which rate it prob- 

 ably will keep on for several years. The export will not stop 

 altogether, as some of the Landolphia and Kickxia plants that 

 are too young to give rubber at the time of the first collection 

 will in the course of time grow up and give rubber. Also many 

 of the lianes that were cut off have not died, but pushed out 

 new shoots and are growing out again. But any great increase 

 in the export from this source is not to be expected, as very 

 likely most of the new trees also will be destroyed at the first 

 tapping. 



The best protection to the rubber producing trees would be 

 to give each an owner. This could be done by partitioning the 

 forest area surrounding each village between the families in the 

 village. Thus every native would feel a personal interest in the 

 preservation of the rubber supply, whereas, where the rubber is 

 common to all, the first thought of every collector is to get as 

 much rubber as possible no^v, feeling that anything left for the 

 future would be speedily wasted by some one else. This plan 

 is said to have been adopted by the natives themselves in parts 

 of the French colony Gaboon. It has also been done in one 

 place on the Kamerun monntain, and not long ago I spoke with 

 some men from that place. They told me how many rubber 

 lianes each of them had, how big they were, and how long they 

 still would have to wait before they could begin to tap the rub- 

 ber. They used regularly to inspect the lianes to see that noth- 

 ing happened to them. They laughed at the idea that anybody 

 else would go and tap the rubber. The thief would always be 

 detected, and as all people know that, and that a hard punish- 

 ment would follow, the rubber plants are considered safe. 



Perhaps to carry out this scheme would in many places not 

 be possible, and even if it were, it would increase very little the 

 rubber export. The only way to do this is to plant rubber 

 trees on a great scale. That the natives will be inclined to en- 

 gage in farming by which they have to wait ten years for a re- 

 turn, IS not to be expected. At least it will be necessary that 

 the white people show them a good example, as has been made 

 in the planting of cocao. Rubber farming is practicable only 

 for the capitalists, who have money enough to wait for the re- 

 turns. 



That practically nothing has been made in rubber culture in 

 Africa thus far is due to the bad result of experiments made 

 with some American rubber trees. In 1889 I purchased seeds 

 of the rapidly growing Manihot Glaziovii, which grows in the 

 Brazilian province of Ceara. A little later nearly all the cocao 

 farms in Kamerun grew the Manihot as shade trees. They 

 were planted on all kinds of ground and in different climates, 

 from the Bonge country with its laterit ground and compara- 

 tively dry climate, toDebundjaand Bibundi, with its black fertile 

 soil and 11,000 millimeters [=433 inches] of rainfall yearly. In 

 all places they grew well and quickly, but did not give any rub- 

 ber. The same experience, I hear, has been made with Mani- 

 hot in Java and India. Some years ago Castilloa elastica was 

 also planted in Kamerun, and the result can soon be reported. 



