Products and Resources of Nyasaland 



coffee growing, owing to there being lime in the 

 soil. Good coffee land is available on lease at a 

 moderate rent. Coffee Arabica does well in the 

 Shire Highlands, and the best results are attained 

 when the temperature in the shade does not exceed 

 93 r 95 F- Several sorts have been grown 

 successfully in other districts. Pulping is done by 

 machinery, and there are two pulpers at Blantyre 

 and one at Mlanje. Great care and judgment are 

 required during the subsequent curing stage. 



Tea* There are five hundred and ninety-eight 

 acres of tea under cultivation in the Mlanje district. 

 This area is within twenty miles of the Shire 

 Railway, which is a great advantage; carriage to 

 London costs 1233. per ton. There are one 

 thousand acres now under tea in the Protectorate, 

 and a further twenty thousand acres of suitable land 

 awaiting cultivation. The quality of tea is superior 

 to that grown in the low-lying districts of Ceylon, 

 but the yield is less; experiments to increase this 

 are being tried from 350 Ib. the average crop to 

 400 Ib. the acre. 



West Nyasa is the only other ideal district for 

 growing tea. A considerable quantity is consumed 

 locally; we thought the quality excellent. In 1908-9 

 twenty-three thousand pounds were exported, and 

 in the season ending March 1910 this had increased 

 more than a third. 



Cocoa* Very probably in a few years cocoa 

 will be among the exports, for some three-year-old 

 plants of Theobroma Cacao have flourished in West 

 Nyasa, and are now five feet high and bearing fruit. 



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