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** or 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 123s. 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 lb. — the average crop — to 

 400 lb. 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 19 10 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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