90 THE GREAT COMPANIES 



culture at Inyangoma, Muterara, and other centres 

 on the Zambezi, it is evident that the Company's 

 most important sphere of action is in the neighbour- 

 hood of QueUmane, where it possesses plantations 

 containing about 150,000 "coconut palms, to which 

 number large additions are now annually made. 



The planting of coconuts and cultivation of the 

 palm is a fascinating pursuit, and, given time to 

 arrive at a nut-producing stage, is one of the most 

 lucrative of African occupations. It is carried out 

 somewhat as foUows. The coconuts carefully 

 selected, with the external covering of coir undis- 

 turbed, are planted in a viveiro, or nursery, about 

 the commencement of the summer rains. The 

 nuts, of which it is customary to plant in this way 

 several thousands at a time, with due regard to the 

 area which it is intended to plant out, are placed 

 in the earth point downwards and almost if not quite 

 touching each other. They are then covered with an 

 inch or two of soil, and, if there should be any undue 

 delay in the appearance of the rain, must be care- 

 fully and sedulously irrigated. After some months 

 of warmth and moisture, the first sign of hfe takes 

 the form of a minute crack in the surface of the 

 nut, and the appearance at the point at which it 

 left the parent stalk of a tiny, bright green leaf or 

 fi'ond, which spreads out slightly in the course of 

 a few weeks until the whole is not unlike the 

 representations of a hand-grenade which you see 

 on the tunics of the Royal Artillery. The nursery, 

 with its slowly germinating nuts, is allowed to 

 remain undisturbed, but constantly irrigated, fi^om 

 the end of the first rainy season to the beginning 



