Die Betriebsverhältnisse der Farmen des mittleren Hererolandes (Deutsch- Südwestafrika) / von Johannes Gad

This detailed case study of 54 settler farms, one of the very few undertaken during the German colonial occupation, is especially valuable for its thoroughness and breadth of scope. The investigation, undertaken in 1912, covered half of the allocated farms - in practice most of those actually operating - in an area located in the heartland of the cattle-raising country from which the Herero had been driven less than eight years previously. The micro-economics of commercial farming are analysed in great detail, with as many as 93 tables, covering natural environment, water infrastructure, transport and marketing, a critique of official settlement policy, methods and costs of production, capital and credit. Also unusually in both German and South African literature, considerable attention is devoted to labour, especially wages. One of the author's conclusions was that in the great majority of cases farm rations were below the bare minimum standards of nutrition. (Eriksen/ Moorsom 1989)

W000932, W000933