476 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



NATIVES ARE TAKING TO GROWING COTTON 



to be ablo to pay their 3/ annual hut tax ; for 

 they cannot gfct employment even one month 

 out of the year to enable them to earn this 

 small wage, owing to increase of population 

 and the want of people to develop tho re- 

 sources of the country. 



Nyasaland natives are not anxious to emi- 

 grate any more than Asiatics are, for they are 

 fond of their homes andfamily ties like other 

 human beings. Government has to devise 

 ways and means of being able to secure revenue, 

 as the hut tax cannot be paid by a people who 

 have no money, so a system of emigration has 

 been again started and large numbers of 



OUR LABOURERS ARE BEING SENT TO SOUTHERN 

 RHODESIA 



and elsewhere to work. The wisdom of this 

 policy is disputed by all right-thinking resi- 

 dents who have the interests of the country 

 at heart; besides, the natives themselves object, 

 but being told by Government Officials that 

 they must go, of course they obey. Although 

 Government men say they are not pressed, all 

 those who are behind the scenes know better 

 and a Commission of enquiry into our system 

 of emigration would certainly expose some 

 high-handed proceedings on the part of Govern- 

 ment Officials who are connected with the ex- 

 port of labour from Nyasaland Protectorate. 



A MUCH WISER POLICY THAN EXPORTING 

 OUR LABOUR 



would be to educate them and encourage them 

 to grow valuable economic products (which 

 they know full well how to do, as they are 

 born cultivators) for sale to traders who would 

 export them ; for it is an expert that is needed 

 to make Nyasaland go ahead. This, however, 

 means some expense and a little trouble to the 

 official element which does not seem to moot all 

 their views sufficiently to support or encourage; 

 none so blind as those who will not see. 

 Coffee 



continues to form one of our largest exports, and 

 some estates, where climatic influence favours 

 the successful growth of the fragrant berry, con- 

 tinue to give fair crops, although the cultivation 

 of this product is giving way to tobacco, cotton, 

 &C, owing to the experience of the past having 

 proved how unreliable and uncertain the re- 

 turn from this coffee is now a days. 



Kubber 



has attracted much attention of late, owing to 

 big prices and the rapid growth of ceara in the 

 country. Considerable extensions have been 

 made all over the country ; it is quite common 

 talk to hear of the big fortunes that so and so 

 is to make in the course of five years ! ? It is 

 certainly wonderful how the price of rubber 

 keeps up, but — and there is& "but.'' Wait till the 

 trees that have been planted all over the Tropi- 

 cal World come to yield; and it remains to to be 

 seen whether (notwithstanding the new and 

 various uses that rubber id being put to now- 

 a-days) prices will not go below paying level, 

 the same as cinchona did in the "seventies in 

 Ceylon, India and Java. May the boom long 

 continue, however, as it means the spending 



of a lot of money that people can afford to 

 gamble with in Company shares. Some seed of 

 the new varieties of rubber nearly allied to ceara 

 have germinated and are growing well in differ- 

 ent parts of the country and a good number of 

 Para are doing well, from one to three years' old, 

 So in time we will have better latex-yielding 

 varieties of rubber in the country than ceara. The 

 natural rubber of Nyasaland is almost finished, 

 the exports are getting less and less every year. 

 Tea 



is attracting some more attention now it is 

 showing amongst our exports, hitherto, most of 

 the tea grown was either consumed in the 

 country or sent to South Africa, but during the 

 present year some 30,000 lb. have been sent to 

 the London market where prices ranging from 

 4Jd. to 7jd. have been realised, which proves 

 that Nyasaland will grow a marketable tea. 



The methods of curing have hitherto been 

 the old-fashioned hand-rolling and firing over 

 chulus with charcoal, a very risky and dirty 

 method; unless carefully watched during the 

 finishing off stage, the tea is liable to get burnt, 

 which spoils the tea and gives an objectionable 

 rank flavour, which means 2d. per lb. less value. 



Well does the writer remember the old 

 charcoal days of firing tea in Ceylon before any 

 machinery was invented, when the trays were 

 constantly requiring new cloth and the tea was 

 always burnt, and all sorts of devices were re- 

 sorted to to prevent the coolies burning it. Also 

 how kind and willing, the late James Taylor of 

 Loolecondera was, to show any new tea planter 

 his careful methods of tea-curing when we 

 used to send a few coolies to learn rolling, 

 &c, and be present ourselves during the 

 teaching. The late William Cameron, too, was 

 the tutor who first gave early-day tea 

 planters in Ceylon their lessons on hand- 

 rolling and fine-curing of tea and many 

 tea planters were much indebted to him for his 

 careful teaching of the Indian methods, which 

 he had thoroughly mastered during some 16 or 

 18 years in Assam before coming to Ceylon. 

 There are few planters of the present day, 

 who will remember the above named gentlemen, 

 who had to be thanked for their assistance to the 

 pioneer tea planters of Ceylon. 



Mlanji can now boast of having two tea 

 rollers (Jacksons), one on Lauderdale and one 

 on Thornwood estate, and a Sirocco (Davidson's) 

 also on the latter estate, so that a better quality 

 of tea may be placed in the market from date. 



A considerable area of 



NEW LAND IS BEING CLEARED FOR NEXT 

 YEAR'S PLANTING 



on the old tea gardens and two new estates are 

 being opened up rapidly, 100 acres or so at a 

 time, viz., Kavensby and Leeehmiya. The latter 

 was the Nyasaland Coffee Company's property, 

 where some £13,000 was spent in trying to make 

 coffee pay and subsequently sold to a Nyasaland 

 planter, very cheap indeed, so this late N. C. 

 Co.'s estate may in time become a valuable tea 

 property. 



The Company, during its existence, sent a 

 large consignment of tea seed from Ceylon — so 

 that the one product, coffee, should not be solely 



