Plantation Cultivation
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.