THE TSETSE PROBLEM IN NORTH MOSSURISE. 375 



Mere ring- barking — with an upward-pointing frill — is required instead of cutting 

 down and this will economise part of the extra cost of the arsenite.* 



The balance of extra expense will doubtless in particular cases be justified by the 

 fact that the work will not have to be repeated, but it will be seen that where groat 

 areas of dense inidergrowth are concerned this will be considerable. Naturally 

 cattle should not be run where arsenic has been used in the last few months. 



XX. — Measures for the Control of Tsetses in Mossurise. 



The parts of the Mossurise district which are more especially suited to white 

 settlement are the two dolerite areas {a) that between the Lusitu and the Mtslianedzi, 

 and {b) the Gwenzi country from Spungabera to Mount Singunu. These areas would 

 split up into a very great number of 1,000 hectare farms, practically all good. Tlie 

 soil is for the most part rich and particularly adapted to Arabian coffee (a good close 

 settlement product, if the labour should be sufficient), the natives raise fine crops 

 even when crops are more or less of a failure elsewhere, the rainfall is considerable 

 and reliable, and a good deal of local labour is available ; the grazing throughout 

 is good and the grass early. It was pitiable to see my bait-cattle being followed for 

 miles like a circus by the children of some of the villages we passed in a country that 

 should be carrying its thousands of head. There are good permanent streams 

 everywhere. 



If there should be an unwillingness to sacrifice the Mafusi rubber forests — ^which 

 will always carry fly and be a menace — there might still be a large number of farms 

 in the remaining area. If the outlet to a market is not through British territory, 

 there is, for produce, the Lusitu-Buzi waterway investigated by Snr. Roma Machado 

 and capable of being opened as part of the settlement scheme. The eventual 

 creation of a safe winter route for cattle along the south of the Buzi is also not 

 improl^able. f 



The Umzila results, already described, show clearly — ^and it cannot be too much 

 emphasised —that settlement properly planned will protect itself. As settlement is 

 bound to be the eventual policy, no matter how long deferred, it cannot be said that 

 the ultimate future of the more delectable of the Mozambique Company's infested 

 areas is necessarily seriously compromised by the presence in them now of fly. 

 Umzila's results even suggest that some day in the very far distant future the question 

 will be settled by the natural increase of the now protected native population. 

 " Properly planned " settlement in fly will not consist in the giving out of isolated 

 farms, scattered over the face of the country. The failure to keep cattle at the 

 Dysart Concession is a case in point. 



There must be a definitely planned settlement scheme, affecting a large block 

 of country together, on some sound agricultural basis. The closer the settlement 

 can feasibly be the better, and first and foremost amongst the conditions of occupa- 

 tion must stand the effective clearing of the less freely deciduous types of woodland. 



* I have tried boring, both by auger and by down-slauting strokes with a narrow- 

 native axe, but find that this leaves unaffected areas of bark between the holes and kills 

 only particular branches, the poison (as might be expected) taking effect in a vertical, 

 not horizontal direction. 



t Later information suggests that the Sabi even now offers a safe route. 



