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.
RUBBER.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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