Aug. i, 1894.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
103 
European Portuguese like S«nhor Nunea who plant 
all imaginable trees, shrubs, and vegetables, who 
make bricks, tiles, aud cement, construct water wheels, 
turning lathes, and sugar mills, who feed cattle and 
dress hides sre ideal colonists for Central Africa and 
areas welcome on British Territory as on Portuguese. 
Fruit is available at TVte in abundance. Mangoes, 
which are famous everywhere for flavour, guavas, piie- 
apples, oustard apples, oranges, and lemons, etc, etc. 
The mangoes were planted by the Jesuits, who appear 
to have done more for the conn' ry than anyone else 
and whose reward for their work was expulsion. No 
native of the Zambezi can be persuaded to plant a 
mangoe seed as they have a superstition lhat tho3e 
who plant a seed of the mangoe inevitably die; but 
for this stupid idea the who'e country would have been 
covered with these trees by this t'me. Wheat grows 
well in the Zambezi valley and bread is made at Tete 
bvSenhor Teixeira's people, pombe making tbe yeast. 
The flour is of a good white quality and makes as good 
bread as the English variety. 
Cooonut planting has begun to attract attention 
in good earnest in East and Central Africa and 
a great deal of information from recent articles of 
ours in the Observer and Tropical Agriculturist is 
given, but by a curious perversity is oredited to 
the Madras Mail (which had also copied from our 
publications). We quote as follows to show 
the great scope there is for palm cultivation in 
Central Africa : — 
COCONUT PLANTING. 
Perhaps it is not known to all our readers bow suc- 
cessfully the cooonut palm has bfen introduced on the 
west coast of Lake Nyasa by Jumbe, tbe Arab Sultan 
of Mariamba. Jumbo furnished the Admioistrat ; on a 
year ago with some young plants which are now thriv- 
ing at Fort Johnston. Makwira, a Makololo ohief, has 
coconuts growing and yielding fruit on the Lower 
Shire just above Elephant Marsh. There is no reason 
wby millions of coconut trees should not grow here 
and there along the shore of Lake NyaFa and on the 
banks of the River Shire. The writer of these lines 
has seen cooonut palms growing luxuriantly on tbe 
banks of the River Kwanza in South West Africa, two 
hundrul miles from the sea, aud it is a mistake to 
suppose that the coconut requires sea nir for its well 
being. It evidently prospers better for the presence of 
certain salts in the soil, but these are abundantly found 
on the low lying shores of the Luke and on the bmks 
of the Shire. Avery suitable district for coconut plan- 
tations would bs the ne ighbourhood of the salt Lake 
Tshilwa. In Zanzibar the yield is excellent, the aver- 
age being from 100 to 200 nuts per tree- 
A description is given of Mlanje district, of 
British Central Africa: — 
The total area is about 1,250 square miles, a large 
proportion of wlroh is occupied by the Mlanje range 
of mountains, their area perhaps being about 300 square 
miles. It is the most easterly collectorate division of 
the British Central Africa Protectorate and adjoins 
tho Zomba, Blantyre and Ruo dis'ric's. It has three 
Administration s'ations, namely Fort Anderson, Pan- 
gomani and Fort Lister. 
Forest and Fruit Trees.— The invaluable cypre»s 
forests on the plateau rank first both in oppearanoo 
and utility, tho only drawback at present being the 
difficulty of access. Theso tracts of forest are all on 
Cro«n land and every effort is made to pre erve them 
from damage bv fire and other means of des'raction 
Quantities of this useful timber have been used for 
building pnrpofos at Blantyre ar.d Zoinba w'th most 
gratifying result*. Mr. Wbyte, in whose honour the 
tree is 11*1110 ' {Widdrinijtonia Whytei) has collected 
lar^e quantities of seed and is ondeavjur ng to intro- 
duce iho tree [to other districts. On Mluije, it is 
seldom Eeen In low 3,500 feet elevation. The Mananjn 
name is " nvnguni ". The most useful forest trees 
are " Mula " or " nipcnibu " [ParinariuM mobala) a 
pret'ily grained wood. *• Mpindinibi " ( i'ilc.i ■ umbrom) 
"Mmlula" v> ry tough and olton usod for bows, 
"Msuku" (JVapaca h'irkii) a dark rod wood and very 
comniOD, • N-jopa '' ch so grained, aud "Mbawa" 
(Klta>/a sefiegalensis) and " nknngnza " both a species 
of nnahogeny. and mak'ng most beautiful furniture. 
Bambnon are to be seen at all altitndes, those on 
the higher (dories cf tho mountain being very small. 
Varieties of Euphorbia prow en the Tsbilwa plain. 
Indiarubber is net tapped to any extent by the natives 
although th" vine (Landolphia) is quite common. 
Several orange trees are growing in the southern 
division, those at T'hipok'1'9 yielding fruit of a superior 
qua'ity. Lemons and refreshing limes are also plen- 
tiful tbe latter however coming chiefly from around 
Monnt Clarendon. 
Fish. — Are fonnd in nearly all the streams and the 
people make weirs and set nets and fish traps at every 
suitable locality. 
Of sad news we have the following : — 
It is with much regret that we announce the death 
at Rhodesia, Mweru, of Mr. F. Q. Bainbridge, the 
Collector for tbe Lnapula D'strict of British Cen f ral 
Africa. Mr. Bp inbridge originallv come to this Coun- 
try in the employ of the African Lakes Company, and 
was for some time engaged in currying on their trans- 
port service between Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika. 
He entered the service of the British Central Africa 
Administration 16th May 1893, and prooeeded with the 
late Mr. John Kydd to form the new station of 
Tthode°ia, on the Kslungwizi River (Lake Mwern). 
Upon the denth of Mr. Kvdd at Rhodesia Septem- 
ber 24tb, 1893, Mr. Bainbridgo took charge of the 
station, pending the arrival there of Dr. Watson. 
At the date of bin death. Dr. Watson had reached 
Mkula, onlv a few days distant from RhodeBia. His 
death was due to hoematurio fever, this being the 
second death from tbat cause in the Mweru District. 
Of progress again ■ — 
Two iron boats for the British Central Afrioa 
Administration are now on their way north, one for 
Tanganyika, the other for Mweru. They will greatly 
facilitate and shorten the journey to the countries 
south (or west) of Late Mwern. The stre'eh between 
Abercorn and Sumbn, which takes, by land, five days, 
en be done by boat in one to two days. From 
Mputa (N E. corner of Mweru) to Katanga (Mshidi's) 
takes by land three weeks, whereas with the help of 
a boat on Mweru it can be done in e'erht days. 
Moreover, from Mputa to tbe new s'a'ion, Fort Rose- 
berv, on the Luspola, oan be done by boat in eight 
days, whereas the same journev bv land with a 
caravan could not be aecomplished in less than 
fifteen days' actual travelling. 
Captain Jacques paid a short visit to Zomba and 
Blantyre on his way fron Tanganyika to tbe coast. 
He has, as most peop'o interested in Afrioa are aware, 
held, with much gallantry, for some time past the 
Congo Free State station "Albertville" on the west 
side of Lake Tanganyika. His joorn°v from T«n- 
ganyika to Tehinde has been accomplished in five 
woeks. Previous to Captain Jacques' departure from 
Albertville, Captain Desoamps, who passed through 
Blantyre on his way north some few months ago, had 
arrived there. Captain Jacques expressed his astonish- 
ment at the substantial progress made in tbe Shire 
Highlands. 
->> 
INDIAN TEA DISTRICTS ASSOCIATION- 
The following is from the fourteenth annual re- 
port: — The oommittee of the Indian Tea Distriots 
Association have the pleasure to submit to the mem- 
bers the following statement on the conclusion of the 
fourteenth vear of's operations : — 
Shortly after this Association was formed in May, 
1879, effor's were mado to e'tabli-h branches both in 
Calcutta aud tbe various tea distrio'g in India. Two 
years later, viz., in May, 1881, the Indian Tea Asgo- 
cia'ion was formed in Calenttv It has from the- 6 r»t 
t-een tho erdeavour of your eommittee to bring about 
as clos« a union bs po s sihle hetweon the two Asso- 
ciations, whioh have but ouo end in view, the promotion 
of measure* tending to the advantage of tbe tea 
industry. With this special objeot communica- 
tions have been made to Calcutta during the laal 
two or three year*, and tho following resolutions 
