MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS 507 



Nyasa Territories, as elsewhere, fertility is not equal 

 in all parts : all districts are not uniformly rich, of the 

 same nature, or susceptible to the same exploitation. 

 Great variations are found, from the desert, arid, dry 

 land, dotted with the mounds of the white ant, to the 

 plateaux of great altitude, or to simple chains of hills 

 which possess a temperate climate and well-cultivated, 

 fertile soil, densely wooded and capable of producing 

 products proper to the climate. Here, as in the south, 

 the productive power and the potentialities of the lower 

 lands vary, from the red, sandy soil, with scant water 

 supply, whkh gives a large harvest of cereals and oil 

 seeds, to the alluvial soil of the river mouths, banks and 

 river islets, with all the conditions necessary for the 

 cultivation of rich tropical products. 



" In general the vegetation has the same aspect as in 

 the south. On the coast and along the river mouths, 

 creeks and lagoons is the inevitable mangrove, dense, 

 hardly accessible and difficult of transport, which, un- 

 productive up till a short time ago, is now stripped for 

 bark in enormous quantities. In populous districts 

 the chief product is the coconut, while the plantations 

 of the half-castes also contain the cashew-nut tree, 

 a spontaneous product, requiring no care. The mango 

 tree in dense forests and other tropical fruit trees occur. 

 There are plantations of maize, mcxoeira and mutama, 

 and in the lower and watered districts, green of aspect, 

 is the sugar-cane, greatly enjoyed by the negro, while 

 everywhere we find mandioca fields yielding an indis- 

 pensable food. Proceeding a little into the interior, we 

 enter the jungle, more or less dense, according to the 

 fertility of the soil, with its useless trees, grass higher 

 than a man, and climbing shrubs running from one side 

 to the other, sometimes forming an impenetrable net- 

 work." (Governor Vilhena, Reports and Memoirs, 

 1905, page 355.) 



General Methods of Cultivation. 



Prior to the Company taking effective possession of 

 the Territories agriculture, in the modern European 

 acceptance of the word, did not exist. It was a district 



