420 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 
for forest products less than those to be had in the forest. There is thus 
a surplus for export. Up to the outbreak of war, out of all this area 
only 47,000 acres, or 734 square miles, had been, or was being, leased as 
timber areas. Outside these areas some 285,000 acres, or 445 square 
miles, had been alienated, chiefly on the lower slopes of the Cameroon 
Mountains and in the neighbourhood of Mount Kupe. Under the 
old German law, ten marks per ton was charged on Ebony, Mahogany, 
Bush Oak, and one or two other species, and five marks on all soft 
woods, except certain trees which had proved unprofitable to export. 
Compared with those in force in Nigeria, these fees were very low, and 
despite the fact that on the average the Cameroon forest would be 
more difficult to exploit than the average one in Nigeria, there should 
still be more profit in the former ; also, with the considerable number 
of water-power sites available, timber conversion could be undertaken, 
and thus the cost of transport cheapened in comparison with the 
value of the product to be transported. Well-squared logs, large 
flitches or planks of timber could be cut and transported. Under 
the German Colonial land law, with the exception of 15 acres per 
head allowed to each native, all the land could be declared Crown 
land, so that no difficulty would be involved in leasing land to timber 
companies ; that is to say, it was first declared to be Crown land and 
then subsequently leased to timber companies. The natives, how- 
ever, then received no royalties on the trees which were felled. Thus 
those in the immediate neighbourhood had no incentive to work 
in the forests as they do in Nigeria. Sufficient emphasis was not 
laid on the fact that a timber company should possess ample capital. 
In afforestation a great deal had been planned, but only a small 
amount had been executed. In the north, at Fontwans, in the Dschang 
district, a 40-acre teak plantation had been made. At each of the 
stations themselves, Dschang, Mbo, Djutisha, various experimental 
plots of trees had been planted. Nearer the coast, at Kumba, valuable 
test plantations, aggregating some 400 acres, had been planted with 
Ebony, Diospyros suaveolens, Umbrella Tree, Musanga Smithii, 
Casuarina, Casuarina equisitifolia, Cigar-box Cedar, Cedrela, Iroko 
(Chlorophora excelsa), Djave Nut (Mimusops Djave), Teak (Tectona 
grandis), Para Rubber (Hevea Braziliensis), Cacao (Theobroma cacao), 
and Oil Palms (Elesis Guineensis), Red Ironwood (Lophira procera), 
Mahogany (Khaya euryphylla), and Heavy Mahogany (Entandro- 
phragma sp.). 
At Mussake at an elevation of 6,000 feet on the side of the 
Cameroon Mountains, there was a quinine plantation. At an elevation 
of 3,000 feet at Buea there were small experimental plantations of 
tea, Ceylon and ordinary, quinine and Casuarina. Several of the 
roads had been planted with avenues of cypress and Biota trees. 
On the coast at Victoria, small Casuarina plantations had been made. 
