Experimental Agricultural Work
Dr. Walter Busse, of the Imperial German Colonial Office, writing in the “Bulletin of the Imperial Institute” on “The Organisation of Experimental Work in Agriculture in the German Colonies,” tells us that in Cameroon, as in other parts where land is being opened up for agriculture, the conditions of settlement of the natives, the density of the population, the general standard of civilisation, and the capacity of the natives for any particular kind of activity, all play an important role. “And in proportion as the people incline towards agriculture, so attention must be paid to the inclinations and needs of the separate races, and lastly to the extent, organisation and methods of native agriculture.... The German Colonial Government,” the German colonial official proceeds to explain, “has laid it down as a principle that native agriculture in the tropical colonies should be allowed to develop freely side by side with plantations under European control, wherever this does not interfere with higher interests. Local conditions will decide how far in each particular region this or that method of organising agriculture is to be preferred. But wherever climate, soil and condition of settlement do not admit of plantation culture, and a native population capable of production is present, the Government will, as a matter of course, encourage native agriculture as much as possible, and by this means create an improved economic position.”
Unfortunately for the native, as Hanns Vischer points out in his article on “Native Education in German Africa,” his national feeling, his own industry and aptitude for work, was entirely ignored by the Government, and “higher interests” frequently interfered to retard the development of native enterprise, while the Teutonic professors proved too determined, for the good of colonial agriculture, to transfer to it “the long-approved system of German agriculture, which rests on a strong scientific foundation, built on the results of exact investigation and methods.” Germany started her experimental work as soon as she entered upon the occupation of colonies, with the establishment of gardens for raising imported economic plants, such as coffee, cocoa, rubber, &c., in the interest of plantation culture, and for the advancement of gardening and fruit production. When European planters commenced to take up agriculture on their own account, it was found that the experimental work of the botanical gardens was no longer adequate to the new requirements. For this purpose, experimental work on a purely agricultural basis, and an effort to effect an improvement of native agriculture, became necessary. To meet these demands, institutes were established, and agricultural staffs were organised, and the measures taken in Togoland in 1900, for the introduction and extension of cotton cultivation, became the standard for agricultural experimental work in the other tropical African colonies of Cameroon and East Africa.