THE TROPICAL AGRICULTQRI3 P. 
[P«b. r, 1895. 
BE\VT)« FAIR AND AM EXPERIENCE AT DINNER TABLTt. 
[ niiicj the dea h, yesterdiy, of one o' 0 ilifornia's 
nuunrous mitlionair s, Senator Fair. He levves a 
fortune of from £8 to £10 030.000 sterin;, to b<j 
divided equally between his thr;e children., ftwo 
daighters and a sm) one, daughter still nu n 
Only thr) day be for j agentlemtn enter.id into con- 
versation at din ier with me, an 1 said ' thiigswiu'd 
never be right while it was allowable for on s mil 
to accumulate millions, and others were starving." 
I said " I thonght if the large f irtunes /<• rt divided 
equally between everyone, some himself probably 
anungst the number, wou'd complainbeciu.se be lid 
not t/et more than others; that the amount each una 
would receive would only be a few poinds sterling, 
which sum would be dis3iptted in a few we ks. or 
months, at most; and that «nvh people would be 
worse off than evflr they ware, and tend to fill the 
prisons with criminals," begging him "not to tike 
my remarks too personally,' I went on with my 
dinner, and'the geutlem vn of soiialastic proclivities 
remain <d thoughtful and orobably disgusted \vr li my 
old-fashioned and outspokon views, several neigh- 
bours smiling at his discomliture. 
I must close now as it is mail time. Wishing you 
all a Happy New year. — I am, yours truly, T. A. 0. 
PLANTING AND PRODUCE. 
A CORRESPONDENT OP THE " TlMKS " ON CF.YI. >N. — 
We mentioned last week that the Tim's published a 
letter from a correspondent on Ceylon. It is nearly 
two columns in length, and touches on several 
subjects. The correspondent takes it for granted 
that there is a great deal of ignorance at home as 
to the government of the island, and he remarks 
that Ceylon is widely known as a producer of tea, 
adding: — -"Perhaps few people realise that it is 
governed under the Colonial Omoe, anl not as 
parcel of our Indian Empire." We should not care 
to say much in defence of the knowledge possessed 
by the majority of people at home on this point, 
or any other conneoted with information about our 
colonies ; but we think that more is known about 
Ceylon than the correspondent is aware, and this is 
largely due to the importance of the tea industry. 
Produce is a factor in the education of the people, 
and if it takes some time to acquire a knowledge of 
geography and the way the British Empire is 
governed, the lesson is learned as much from produce 
as from the primer. Brazil we know is " the place 
where the nuts come from," and Ceylon, is the place 
where they grow tea; vide the grocers' placards. 
The correspondent of the Times admits this, for he 
says, "Within the last fifty years the development 
of the European planting enterprise in Ceylon, attend- 
ed by the creation of a powerful offieial European 
community, has had a marked non-effect in differen- 
tiating Ceylon from India." In his reference to the 
planting industries of the island, the correspondent 
cannot be accused of optimism.— Here follows an 
extract regarding which it is said : — -This is ancient 
history, but the Timet correspondent appears to be 
apprehensive of further trouble. — Another extract 
follows of which it is said: — There is a "hope for the 
best and expect the worst " air about this which is 
depressing. It is quite true that no one can predict 
the fate of tea, any more than they can foretell what is 
to happen to the British Empire, and it is never 
safe to prophesy unless you know. As the correspon- 
dent of theTimes has, however, paid such tribute to 
the qualities of the Ceylon planter for "dogged and 
undaunted perseverance, " he might have expressed 
more confidence in their power to keep the teapot 
boiling for a long time yet. Perhaps his speculative 
fancy as to the possible dangers ahead is merely 
meant as a warning against rasb extensions. Extreme- 
caution and the apprehension of danger are all very 
well in their way, but if the Ceylon planters, after 
the failure of coffee, had merely wagged their heads 
and wept at the possible miseli nice which might 
come if they attempted to cultivate anything else, the 
tea planting industry would certainly not have been 
established.— H. & C Mail, Jan. 18. 
A TBIP TO NY ASS ALAND : 
RETURN OK MR. J. II. CAltSOW 
Mr. J. H. Carson who returned from Ny.i-w.x- 
land re.-eutly, has been good enough to favmn 
ona of our representatives with the following 
interesting particulars : — 
" Tit ere U nothing to tell you aUout the different 
ways from Ceylon to Nyassalaud and back. If 
I had been able to obtain time-tables of the 
different routes in Chiudi f would have return'.- 1 
via Mauritius, bat as f was unable to get any 
particular* as regards the sailing of ship-,, I »•*» 
obliged to .stop at Port Louis aud Durban, and 
I decided to coma back by the way I already 
knew, namely via Zanzibar and Aden. All I 
can say about coffee in Nyassaland is that 1 pur- 
chased several blo"ks of laud in different [mrts 
of the country, ami I think the iirosjreets are 
good enough to entice me to o|»en land there to 
the utmost of an)' spare money I have got. 
The less said about the climate the better. 
In the lowcountry it 1* very feverish aud 
unhealthy, but on the hills it is 110! malarious. 
If a man could be transported from on l»oard 
ship at Chiudi to the Shire Highland* lie w»nld 
not gat fever, butgoiu„' up the ordinary way 
by steam-boat he is almost hound to get it. iu 
fact it is a toll which nature exacts from every 
one going into the country — for have it yon 
must, ami the sooner the better. I myself had a 
very had attack at Blantyre and I was followed 
out of the country by another attack which 
pursued me as far as Chiudi. While in Nyassa- 
land, no less than six different parties of people 
came into the country to find out what they 
could about coffee prospects. Only two, I believe, 
penetrated as far as Blantyre anil returned 
from there. I think anyone going into the country, 
when he got to Blantyre, should consider his 
journey only commenced. Not that the diffi- 
culties of going up are very great — thanks to the 
facilities now offered by the African Lakes 
Company. The natives are afraid of travelling; 
with any man they .are not acquainted with. I 
had the good fortune to meet Mr. John Muir 
soon after I arrived at Blantyre and we went 
through the greater part of the coffee districts 
together in macheelas. A inacheela is a ham- 
mock carried by two men and accompanied by some 
l.o others to relieve them at every few hundred yards. 
By this means, 50 miles a day can be covered 
■without any great difficulty. I may say I vi- 
sited every coffee estate in Nyassa by means of 
macheela. I went first of all with Mr. Muir 
to Soche and from there on to Cholo, where there 
are more estates opened up at present than in 
any other part of the country. This is about 
30 miles from Blantyre. From there I went on 
to the Milan jee district and stayed with Mr. 
Muir for several days. His bungalow is built 
on an old crater of the Milanjee mountains, 
with the rock rising up behind from a height 
of 2,000 ft. where his bungalow is, to 9,700 
ft. I saw very good pieces of coffee belong- 
ing to Mr. Buchanan at Zomba, a few 
miles from the residency. It was simply white 
with blossom at the time I was there. I 
was told by the Superintendent that last year 
ib yielded 1-t cwts. per asre, while this year he 
expects about 12 cwts. This is the oldest piece 
of coffee I saw in the country — it was 8 years 
old. The rest of my time was taken up with 
shooting. I must say I enjoyed myself 
very much. I am glad that I went there. I 
left Ceylon on the 16th of August last 
year so that I may say that I have been absent 
from Ceylon for about 6 months only. 
