CHAPTER XIV 



GROUNDNUTS, RICE, WATTLE, PHOBMIUM 

 TENAX, MAIZE 



The East African groundnut, though perhaps 

 not a heavy yielder, is richer in oil than that of 

 America or Madras, but it is not a crop that can 

 be profitably handled by the white employer of 

 labour, it being a very expensive one to harvest 

 and shell. The yield in good loam is from 

 1,000 to 1,500 lb., unshelled, per acre. Machines 

 exist for lifting the nuts out of the ground, but 

 they are not yet in general use. 



Rice is another crop that must, I think, be left 

 to the natives. Indeed, I don't know of any 

 tropical annual food product that pays the 

 European employer of labour to cultivate. Rice 

 is grown by the prazo companies and in the 

 Government reserves of Quelimane, but as the 

 conditions under which labour is employed there 

 do not correspond with those ordinarily en- 

 countered by the white settler, the results possess 



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