COCOA-GROWING COUNTRIES 431 



Kilog. 



1904 . . . 2,531,000 



1905 . . . 2,162,000 



1906 . . . 1,820,000 



1907 . . . 2,226,000 



1908 . . . 2,709,000 



Kilog. 



1909 . . . 2,122,000 



1910 . . . 1,851,000 



1911 . . . 1,485,000 



1912 . . . 2,000,000 



The principal ports from which cocoa is shipped are 

 Jeremie, Cape Haytien, Gonaives, and Port-au-Prince. 



A few large plantations are in the hands of German 

 planters, but most of them are small and belong to the 

 negroes, who form the mass of the population. 



The island could certainly be of much more im- 

 portance from the cocoa point of view. It is considered 

 to be very fertile, and all the natural conditions seem 

 to favour the culture ; but the incapable administration 

 and the repeated revolutions have long since proved 

 that the people cannot govern themselves. The export 

 figures show that, though there has not been an 

 important reduction of the crop during the last ten 

 years, still a material increase has not been made. 



As regards quality, the Haiti cocoa belongs to the 

 inferior kinds. 



XV. FERNANDO Po 1 



The introduction of the cocoa plant into Fernando 

 Po a Spanish possession dates from the sixteenth or 

 seventeenth century, but only towards the end of the 

 nineteenth century did the cocoa industry begin to be 

 of importance. 



Cocoa is chiefly cultivated in the coast districts. 

 In the interior no regular plantations are to be found, 

 and the virgin forest is inhabited by the natives, who 

 cultivate in a primitive way bananas and the oil-palm. 



No large rogas are to be found here as in San Thome ; 

 the comparatively small plantations are mostly in the 

 hands of Spaniards, Portuguese, German, and English 

 planters. 



1 Chevalier, Le Cacaoyer dans I' Quest africain, p. 209. 



