1920] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



535 



Rubber Plantations in Kamerun. 



By Alfred Dominikus. 



IT CANNOT BE DENIED that tile Germans, in so far as conditions 

 permitted, did their Best to further the cultivation of rubber in 

 their former African colonies which were taken away from 

 them by the war, but that on the other hand, many disastrous 

 mistakes and errors were made which prevented the expected 

 successful results from the work. Consider for example, former 

 German East Africa. Since the ground was not suitable for 

 Hevea tfrasiliciisis, the Ceara rubber tree {Manihot gladoi'ii) 

 was cultivated in this district, but it cannot be said to-day that 



about lifteen years old Have on the average in the course of three 

 years seven pounds of rubber per tree and per year. And what 

 fvere the results of tliis Kamerun Kickxia fever?" 



Information on this is given in an article by lleinrich Picht 

 in the "Tropenpflanzer" for January and February, 1920, on the 

 prospects of profits from some Kamerun plantations. As re- 

 marked above, and as Picht states in the introduction to his ar- 

 ticle, the Kickxia cultivation in Kamerun was taken up at the 

 time with great hopes. From the quality of the rubber obtained 



(West African Plantation Co.. "Bibundi," Kamei 

 Five-year Hevea Brasiliensis. 



\NIHOT GlAZIOVII 



Sl.N 



<D One-Half-Year Kickxia. 



there was any special success in the cultivation which some years 

 ago v.-as stigmatized scientifically as a distinct mistake. 



The English, who are masters of the colony they now call 

 Tanganyika— that is to say, English companies such as East 

 African Plantations, Lewa Rubber Estates, Kamna Rubber 

 Estate, and the Muhesa Rubber Plantations— at the time of the 

 rubber boom, with its deep shadows, took over the best Manihot 

 plantations of what was then German East Africa without ob- 

 taining any better results. 



.\ still more manifest failure can be recorded regarding the 

 Kickxia (Funtumia clastica) plantations in Kamerun. When 

 Dr. Schlechter, on the basis of the results from his West African 

 rubber tree (1899-1900), praised the agricultural value of the 

 Kickxia in the highest terms, designated the cultivation of this 

 species as "extraordinarily profitable" and recommended it, es- 

 pecially for West Africa, "since it is native to the country, and 

 therefore surely seems to offer better prospects for success than 

 the various rubber trees of other portions of the world," it nat- 

 urally resulted that the work of cultivating the native African 

 rubber tree should be eagerly taken up in former German 

 Kamerun. Dr. Schlechter had stated that a tree seven years 

 old had given 3,400 cubic centimeters of latex, out of which 

 2,000 grams of rubber were obtained; also that trees not yet 

 six years old had yielded 140 to 170 grams of dry rubber, from 

 which he inferred that the trees could be tapped four times a 

 year, and perhaps even more frequently with similar results. It 

 was said in the prospectus for a plantation scheme, that Kickxias 



and the reports of professed scientific men on the results, these 

 hopes seemed to be thoroughly justified. Yet hardly any such 

 tropical culture has brought on the bitter disillusions that 

 Kickxia has ! The author gives proof of this plainly from more 

 definite statements of the results of tapping, which he caused 

 to be made and could verify in part. The figures reported by 

 Picht are given in the following tabic: 



Rubber Rubber Per 



Total Yield Yield Cent 



Yield Per Per of 



Age of Dry Tree and Tree and Latex 



of Trees. Total Rubber. Tapping. Year, to Dry 



Number of Tappings. Kilos. Grams. Grams. Rubber. 



"" 329 7.9 11.7 30.0 



ipings. 

 214.298 fabout half of 

 the trees 2 x tapped) 



2 1912 6-8 353,350 (part of trees 2,827 8.0 . . 28.9 



3 X tapped) 



3 1913 6-10 194,755 (part of trees 1,316 6.7 21.1 22.6 



3 X tapped) 



Picht unfortunately can not give a reliable scale of crops ; yet 

 tree production increasing from the sixth to the tenth year from 

 10 to 50 grams seems to him attainable. When Preuss puts the 

 yearly yield of a six-year Kickxia at 50 to 60 grams, that of a 

 IS-year tree at 500 grams of rubber, his statements find as littlf 

 support in the results reported in the article before us, as do 

 the assumption of Schulte im Hofe that a tree witli a trunk cir- 

 ;umference of 50 to 55 centimeters will yield about 100 grams, 

 or the crop estimates of the English investigator Christy, wlio 

 assumes that the yield of five to ten-year trc^s increases from 

 85.2 to 426 grams. 



At all events Picht lielicves, on the basis of his experiences 



