766 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Mav i, 1894. 
BOADS 
are being opened out thronghont the country 
Blantyre has already been connected with Zimba 
and Mlangi right to tlie frontier, Fort Ander- 
son on the iiuu, comprising about 100 miles. There 
is also in course of construction a ro&d to connect 
Zomba and Mlangi. Also Tshilonio, the steamer 
Shire Biver, Bao terminub and Mlangi, which will 
be carried throngh in coarse of time to LakeNyassa 
so that anybody landing from the river steamers, if 
they briog a horse and trap with them, can drive 
right up to the Shire Highlands and visit all the im- 
portant Karopean Settlements where civilization has 
advanced with amazing rapidity during the past eight 
years. jEnglish vegetables thrive. AiVheat, oats, 
horses and cattle do about as well as they do at hom •. I 
measured a turnip 23 inches in circamference.and grew 
k crop of wheat (planted in August and reaped in 
November) well filled, equal to 40-fold, which speak 
volumes for oar climate. Men with pluck and 
energy are wanted to open np the country — 
men who are not afraid of a touch of hill 
country fever and prepared for pioneering work with 
some capital and any amount of pluck. 
liABOUB 
is cheap 1 may say, the cheapest in the world, a few 
shillings per month per man, and abundant to the 
bargain, if distant fields are tapped natives come over 
100 miles to seek work. Now they are sure they won't 
be kidnapped by slavers on the way as in days of 
yore. Land is abundant: one can travel 20 to 40 miles 
through forest and grass country without a single 
village — the home of the lion, rhinoceros, hippopotamus 
and any number of buck. I hope at no very distant 
date to see 
STRETCHES OF COFFEE 
like Dimbula and Dikoya in the dayd when coffee 
was king, I well remember in April 1873 how im- 
pressed 1 was with the undulating green fields, 
some 20 miles from the Gap to the Agras, of coffee 
with hardly a spot where I could see the ground and 
not a stick of forest to be seen except on the sides 
of the Great Western and other surrounding hill 
ranges. My S. D. days in Dimbula will always be 
looked back to with pleasure. 
Although I had a stout t.D, as far as work went, 
in Eyan, who has gone over to the majority, he 
always allowed his S.D. to take part in any amuse- 
ment, such as a game at cricket at Badella, the 
levee on the patana, and ball at Middleton store, 
breakfast to McLeod at Talawakele. Sir William 
Gregory did get a hearty welcome and no mistake 
on his first visit to Dimbula. Leaf-disease was 
known then, but laughed at by our P.D.'b. who were 
in great glee at coffee making 100s pei cwt. Stoddart 
and Fyera 
SOKVEYING A HAIlWAY 
although only • preliminary trace through the Walaha 
Valley, and boues and castor cake at K8 per ton. 
Such a change in 1888, when creeping along the 
Great Western by train, hardly able to depict the 
different estates, some partly in tea, and some aban- 
doned altogether. Now, however, going to beat the 
world with tea both ia quality and yield. 
VIHGIN FOBEST 
such as Stanley describes in the Congo Free State 
is very rarely to oe met with in this part of the 
country, for it has evidently at one time or an- 
other supported a teeming population, beariug traces 
^f viilades (with broken earthen a are pot:! in beaps), 
terraces raised for onltivating Iu(liaQcurii,long irregu- 
lar beds for hweat potatoes and the bist aud must 
indisputable evidence of all is the patch ot foreat 
graveyards in some places ftn acre or two in extent, 
with a heap of pots of vury aac eut pattern, rude in 
the extreme, iiot a bit like the pr< seat d.sign, over 
eaoh hollow in tbe groaud ioa catiug the rcetiug 
place of some villager of bygone (Jays. The i^habi- 
laotB of the country at pretext keep th.ir bur^iug- 
placos sacred, bury the dt-co^iseil's iieluugiugs with 
the body, dig a hole like » ballet bold ia ihe bottom 
of bis obattiea and place them over the grave, build 
k small (oos feet oiroaUr tbatohel beehive-like hut 
»ver the beadj wbi9i) is bQtp ju repaif prints 
and relati*iw. Nona of tko«e Me in b» M>e<i, how- 
ever, in the old ersveyar.la a* ttey htva tiot been 
nsel wt«hin the memory of the prcsrot geo'iaUon. 
I am oorioBS to know ih? aire of tliore (in,yay.rA», 
bat would not like to dieiLter any gr*ve tb« 
people ate very BuperktitiouB. Ai all ereotf, tbere are 
trees 150 feet high aud 20 teet in eiroamfcreooe 
of hard timbar, Blow grow>.r« Joabtlei*, over 2,0(iO 
yein old. 
The coun if la 
OSH BCOB OBAea FIELD, 
but looks like !>rokon forest f'om a dia'aocn. Th'-T« 
ia DO undergrowth like vir|,i i foreol. Tb« g a'« i> 
buroed off core a year aifl uutil ft groita ajjain 
after the rainy eea'O'i cetp in, oue can walk under 
shade of the trees reg»idl(8< i-f pa'lia almoil from 
one end of Nyaseiland to the other. C t^l*' He«mto 
e it all our (^rieBes (abaot 10 varieties). The; grow 
ill about 6 month) to C to 8 teet high, di* down and 
liif up during the winter moLtb. Thi^ oouutry re- 
minds toe a goo I deal of »ou>e park-like forests I 
have seeu about Polonairuwa in Tamankadawa, Nortb 
Central Provincp, Ceylon ; the (>uly differeuce is long 
gra's instead of 6poit. What • magnificent graziog 
eronnd but no eat'.Ie withia a honored miles of db 
the l»ke ehcreB of NajMsa, exotpt a few kept by one 
or two pliinters. 
I bear 
THE TELEGKAPH LIKE 
is bbsog rapidly laid down from the Tita oi the 
Zambeti to Zomla, our site of Oovaromtn^, and the 
seotiun eoutb of ibe Zttnl>e>i to Fort Salisbury ii 
als) progressing rapidly, so we sball soon be in touch 
with the old country. It takes a letter from twj to 
three mooths to reaah here. There is room for im- 
provement in our pofital serviee, the de'av is principally 
between here aod the coast rivers drying up and 
one thing or another. We have had wars aod 
rumours of wars of late, but as there are m maoy 
rumours as to the trae cause of (hem, the least said 
about them the better. All is quiet agsio now; h <*- 
ever, a lasting peace promises to exist. 
_ 
The Balata IsDUbiHY at PAaiMARiso. — TJi'dti 
the name of balata, a substance similar iu many 
respects to gutta-percha, but furnished by Mima- ops 
globosa, bas been from time to lime brought to notice 
in tLi3 country in the course of the last thirty-four 
years, for it was in 1859 that Tt made its first ap- 
pearance in Loudon. In 1862, however, daring the 
international Esbibition, some samples of the raw 
product were shown from British Guiana, and at- 
tempts were made to utilise it either as a substitute 
for, or in combination with, guttapercha. The result 
was that a demand sprimg up for it, aud some 
20,000 lb. were imported in 18(j5. Daring the next 
ten years the demand continued (o decrease, reviv- 
ing again in 1877, and after that fluctuating con- 
siderably till about three years ago, when but a 
very small quantity found its way to the British 
market. The advantages claimed at first for balata 
was its greater ductility and tenacity than gutta- 
percha. But time has proved that, like gutta percha, 
balata becomes brittle and cracks when exposed to 
the air, and that it has no advantages over the 
longer- known substance. As an illustration of the 
continued fiuctuation of this product, we quote the 
following extract from a Keport by the Britieh 
Consul on the Trade and t ommcrce ^f Paramaribo 
for 1892 : — '' Althougb|" says the Consul, " the balata 
exploitation has made a steady progress, the general 
results ai^ not favourable, owing to the price of 
the artio^ having gone down remaxkably in the 
course of the year. Unless an improvement in the 
price of the article takes place, very little will be 
Lione during the next year in the exportation of it, 
which will be a terrible blow to the district in 
general. It is expected that an ordinance will soon 
come into force regulating this industry, smd by 
which oidinance it ehaU be enacted that the g^aoit- 
boldei bas to pay year y a certain Bom par aer 4 
of lftft(i."— G(W(fefi«r»' Chrwkle. 
