COCOA-GROWING COUNTRIES 427 



1875 up to the present time a gradual increase and 

 extension has taken place, and the exports, amounting 

 to about 20,000 kilograms in 1875, have steadily in- 

 creased till 1912, in which year 3,400,000 kilograms 

 were exported. 



The exports were as follows : 



Kilog. 



1894 . . . 650,000 



1898 . . . 1,000,000 



1900 : . . 1,200,000 



1901 . . . 1,350,000 



1902 . . . 1,525,000 



1903 . . . 1,696,700 



1904 . . . 1,650,000 



1905 1,357,600 



Kilog. 



1906 . . . 2,505,600 



1907 . . . 2,218,700 



1908 . . . 2,694,400 



1909 . . . 3,214,100 



1910 . . . 1,743,100 



1911 . . . 2,783,000 



1912 . . 3,400,000 



Though these figures indicate that the cocoa industry 

 is not unimportant in Jamaica, the increase must be 

 considered as slow. The position of the cocoa culture 

 in this Colony was well described by Mr. Wm. Fawcett 

 at the Agricultural Conference in Trinidad in 1905. 

 Mr. Fawcett said : 



The cacao industry in Jamaica is of considerable importance, 

 although rather overshadowed by the banana industry. Therefore 

 we do not look upon it as you do in Trinidad and Grenada, as one 

 of our great industries ; it is rather a subsidiary industry in 

 Jamaica : but I hope it will become in time one of our great 

 industries. The reason why it has not advanced quicker is that 

 the banana has been so very important. But now the planters, 

 seeing the bad effects of hurricanes, are gradually beginning to 

 plant their estates with cacao, and some have converted their 

 banana estates altogether into cacao estates. 



The increase in the cultivation of cocoa has been 

 simultaneous with the extension of the banana industry. 

 This industry is the most important of all in Jamaica, 

 and the island owes to the banana the revival of its 

 agriculture after the decline of the sugar industry. 



In fields where the bananas have been cultivated 

 for many years in succession, and do no longer yield a 

 paying crop, interplanting with cocoa has often been suc- 

 cessful. The bananas give a temporary shade to the 



