The agricultural and forest products of British West AfricaDudgeon, Gerald C. (Gerald Cecil)
History
The agricultural and forest products of British West Africa
Dudgeon, Gerald C. (Gerald Cecil)
Agriculture -- Africa, West; Forest products -- Africa, West
The vine is found throughout the forest region of the Gold Coast
and Ashanti, climbing over and interlacing the main branches of
large forest trees; but an apparently terrestrial form of the same
species has recently been discovered in the ultra-forest region,
where the stunted habit in which it grows is probably occasioned
by the annual grass fires.
Under different atmospheric conditions the latex of _L. owariensis_
behaves differently. In the drier regions it coagulates upon the
wound almost immediately upon exposure to the air, whereas in other
and moister places it runs from the cut in such a manner as to allow
it to be collected in a vessel. The acid juices of some of the local
wild fruits are added to hasten coagulation, when this is necessary,
or the collector is said to smear the fresh latex upon his naked
body, until enough has been coagulated to form a small ball, which
serves as a nucleus for winding on the strings of fresh latex as
the new cuts are made. There is a quantity of “scrap rubber”
formed on the wedge-shaped cuts which it is usual to make, and this
is added to the ball, which attains a diameter of three or four
inches when complete. The crushing of the root and stem for the
manufacture of so-called “root-rubber” does not appear to be
practised in this country, although common elsewhere in West Africa.
On account of the colour and form of this rubber, the name of
“White ball” is usually applied to it, although, from the fact
that the Krepi tribes, living on the east bank of the Volta river,
produce a large quantity of it, the name of “Krepi ball” is
frequently given.
White ball rubber is seldom adulterated by the addition of other
latices, as these would retard coagulation and interfere with the
preparation of it in the manner mentioned. For this reason the
rubber sold under this name usually obtains a higher price than
other rubber.
_Landolphia owariensis_ presents many disadvantages for cultivation
in plantations, and the yield is small in proportion to the space
which the plant occupies. Several species of this and allied genera
are being grown experimentally at the Aburi Botanic Gardens.
“Flake rubber” is a name given to a very inferior quality of
rubber which is produced upon a small scale in many parts of West
Africa, but it has not been determined from which species of vine
that exported from the Gold Coast is obtained. In Northern Nigeria
_Carpodinus hirsutus_, Hua, is said to be the source of the exported
rubber of this name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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