COCOA-GROWING COUNTRIES 393 



future the cocoa industry, more especially in Kamerun, 

 will become important. 



The exports of these colonies amounted to : * 



Kilog. 



1895 . . . 120,000 



1900 . . . 261,000 



1901 . . . 528,000 



1902 . . . 65.8,000 



1903 . . . 918,400 



1904 . . . 1,109,200 



1905 '. . . 1,454,200 



Kilog. 



1906 . . . 1,368,000 



1907 . . . 1,966,300 



1908 . . . 2,737,500 



1909 . . . 3,823,300 



1910 . . . 4,072,700 



1911 . . . 4,404,000 



1912 . . . 5,400,000 



Kamerun has by far the most important cocoa 

 industry. The area planted with cocoa was estimated 

 in 1909 to amount to 8000 hectares (20,000 acres); 

 Samoa comes second with an area of about 2000 

 hectares (5000 acres) ; while Togo comes third with an 

 area of no more than 200 hectares. Cocoa is also 

 grown to a very small extent in German East Africa, 

 German New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and 

 Kaiser Wilhelmsland. 



The labour question 2 has caused some difficulties, 

 as the natives of the coast-region, where the plantations 

 are situated, dislike regular and continued plantation 

 work. Therefore the estates are obliged to recruit by 

 means of the contract system labourers from inland ; 

 especially from the Yaunde district, also from Ossidinge, 

 Joh-Albrechtshohe, Bali, and Banyo. 



In 1910 about 10,000 contract labourers were em- 

 ployed on the estates. 



The contracts are made by sanction of the Govern- 

 ment. The labourers are contracted for six, twelve, 

 or eighteen months ; the travelling expenses to the 

 plantation and, after expiration of the contract, home 

 to the native village are paid by the estate. In the 

 contract it is stipulated in what way the labourer 

 will be paid : the payment is partly in food, partly 

 in cash; when the labourer gets his food free from 



1 Gordian. 



2 Die Arbeiterfrage in Deutsch-Ostafrica und Kamerun (published by the 

 Association Internationale d'Agronomie Tropicale, 1910). 



