404 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



Western Africa there is practically no European-owned land in 

 British territories, except a few plantations in the Cameroons, 

 most of which passed back into German hands after the war. 

 French Guinea is the main centre of European agriculture in 

 French West Africa, and the French Cameroons include some very- 

 large plantations, which were taken up under the German admin- 

 istration. Large plantations are established also in parts of the 

 Belgian Congo. 



The distinction between native and non-native cultivation does 

 not depend now on the kind of crops grown, but mainly on the 

 difference between the large-scale organization of capital produc- 

 tion, and the small unorganized units of peasant cultivation. In 

 many parts of Africa, especially where systems of individual land 

 tenure are replacing the former widespread communal tenure, the 

 size of some native plantations has increased to a point where con- 

 ditions approach those on European estates. The larger cacao 

 plantations of the Gold Coast, the coifee plantations of northern 

 Tanganyika and parts of the Uganda cotton areas may be in- 

 stanced as examples. 



The alienated areas in Africa are not immune from some of the 

 troubles resulting from defective methods of cultivation which 

 have been described in connection with the native areas. Europeans 

 also have sometimes worked land until crops can no longer be 

 raised on it, even with the aid of fertilizers, and then abandoned 

 it to the ravages of soil erosion. In this the European may be even 

 more destructive than the native since he works on a larger scale 

 and aims at keeping a cleared area permanently under crops. A 

 large expanse of ploughed land enables surface run-off to gather 

 volume and force, and, unless adequate steps are taken to counter- 

 act this, erosion can be and frequently is very severe. In Nyasa- 

 land, for example, in former times many of the European tobacco 

 areas have been reduced from a loam to a sandy loam by the fact 

 that ridges and furrows for tobacco cultivation have not followed 

 the contour but frequently were aligned steeply downhill. The 

 result has been that the finer particles of soil have been washed 

 away by surface run-off, and the coarser sand has been left behind. 

 European cultivation also is usually cleaner from weeds than that of 

 the natives and, therefore, is more liable to wash, as there are only 



