The introduction of licences for permission to collect wild rubber and that of the communal plantation system, previously referred to, have rendered the position more secure than previously, and insured the preservation of the wild plants which were threatened with extinction. This has moreover been effected in the most economical manner.
The results of the tappings on the Para rubber plantations in different parts of the country are of interest. In 1911 at Ebute Metta, trees eighteen years old yielded 3 lbs. 5½ oz. per tree; at Calabar six year old trees gave an average of 6 oz. per tree; while at Sapele in the same year, five year old trees yielded from 14 oz. to 1 lb. 6½ oz. per tree. In the following year the same trees at Ebute Metta gave 7 lbs. 4¾ oz., while those at Sapele yielded from 1 lb. 4¾ oz. to 1 lb. 11¾ oz. In 1915 from two Para rubber estates at Sapele 94,413 lbs. of dry rubber was harvested. (Cf. Bull. Imp. Inst., 1910, 1912, 1913, 1918.)
Export of Rubber.—The Commercial Intelligence Officer of Southern Nigeria, in his report on the trade of the country for 1907, gives a table showing the rubber exported from Southern Nigerian ports from 1900 to 1907; but as these figures include large quantities of the product from Northern Nigeria, shipped through Southern Nigerian ports, they do not represent the output from the latter country alone. Until 1907 apparently no record of the Northern Nigerian rubber exported was kept, but in the year mentioned 1,187,588 lbs., valued at £91,074, were recorded as having passed the customs post of Northern Nigeria at Ida, on the Niger. The amounts, in tons, exported from the Southern Provinces alone were: 1907, 690; 1908, 545; 1909, 620; and from the whole of Nigeria from that time: 1910, 1,180; 1911, 966; 1912, 705; 1913, 510; 1914, no figures; 1915, 248; 1916, 396; 1917, 392; 1918, 157; 1919, 398. The rubber production of the country is to some extent controlled by the market price, which is at present very low (1921).
COPAL.—Some quantity of a kind of copal resin is collected from Cyanothyrsus oblongus (syn. C. ogea), and is exported under the name of “Ogea gum.” The quality appears to be similar to that obtained from the Gold Coast Cyanothyrsus sp., and which is sold under the name of “Accra copal.” Both are obtained in a fresh and a fossil state. Owing to the recent fall in the price of ogea gum, the collection of it has diminished, but there are said to be large quantities available which would be collected as soon as a better demand occurred. (See articles on “Copal Resins from British West Africa,” Bull. Imp. Inst., 1908, p. 245; and 1914, p. 218.)
COCOA.—The good fortune which has recently attended the planters in West Africa, owing to a sudden demand for their cocoa, has encouraged them, especially to the north and north-east of Lagos, to make more extensive plantations. The climatic conditions in the Western Province, however, are not favourable, and the repeated failures of trees, due to the exhausting effect of the long dry seasons, give the plantations an irregular appearance. The trees in the plantations made at Agege, where many well-to-do planters have made farms, are stunted, and planted in too close proximity, mostly without permanent shade trees. In some instances the trees showed disease from the sapping of the bark juices occasioned by a Capsid, the species of which is as yet undetermined. The chief cause of their sterility and death seems, however, to be the unfavourable climatic conditions. In the direction of the Abeokuta-Ibadan boundary, better planting seems to have been done and permanent shade trees preserved.
It is said that the Agege planters are dissatisfied with the prices they obtain for their cocoa, which they maintain is properly fermented and of better quality than that of their neighbours. An association of the local planters was recently formed to ship their own produce direct to the European markets. The Agege cocoa generally, however, does not appear to be more carefully prepared or of better quality than the other local kinds. Fermentation is certainly practised in many places, and is becoming popular throughout the Western Province, owing to the discovery that the fermented pulp juice forms a beverage, which is said to be used as a substitute for palm wine, but the beans are frequently improperly dried.
In the Eastern Province the climatic conditions appear to be more favourable for the plant, and there are now a number of small plantations near Eket, Old Calabar, and Itu. The product is still improperly prepared and usually unfermented, but time and experience will remedy this.
In the Central Province from 1915 some activity in cocoa planting has occurred in the Benin district, but attention there is still mainly devoted to rubber planting.
See also Bull. Imp. Inst., 1914, p. 213; 1915, p. 553; and 1919, p. 289.
The exports of cocoa have been as follows: