73° 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[May i, 1895. 
planted at the Blantyre Mission, where, I think J 
am right in saying, it still lives. The berries of this 
plant have started the coliec plantations of the Shire 
highlands. There are now planted probably 2, 1 1 ,000 
trees in the Shire province, and the export of c See 
has risen from about 5 tons in 188:1 to about 15 tons 
in 1893; though it is now likely to »< by L , 
and bounds, inasmuch as in the next two or three 
years some 1,500,000 coffee trees will come into 
bearing. 
There are yet some difficulties to be overcome, however 
before coffee planting can be pronounced a success, I 
mean a greater success than elsewhere. Oar favourable 
conditions, are the suitable climate, the jnst-suffi 
rain supply, the enormous extent of virgin soil, and the 
relative abundance and cheapness of native labour. 
On the other hand, the coffee tree does not grow in 
Central Africa quite as it should, and as it grows 
in Ceylon, and, I believe, in the Baails. In these 
latter countries the lower horizontal branches of the 
tree (which are those only that produce the b 
after yielding their first crop at maturity, give rise 
to secondary branches which bear the 
year, and which again give rise to othi t be: ring 
branches: thus, the tree keeps on for a number of 
yfears continually furnishing a moderate quantity of 
berries. In Central Africa, on the other hand, the 
tree in its first maturity produces an enorniou 1 bp 
of berries on the horizontal branches, but these, so 
far as is yet known, give rise to no secon I 
branches. After this first crop the horizontal 
branches die off, the tree goes on increasing in height, 
but bears very little more. So that it may not use- 
lessly encumber the soil it is then cut down, but a 
period of at least two years then ensues before new 
shoots come up from the roots which again bear 
coffee. If, by some experiment in manuring or 
pruning, the coffee tree in Central Africa could he 
induced to give rise to secondary branches as it does 
in Ceylon and elsewhere, then coffee planting would 
become twice as profitable. 
Up to the present no sign has manifested itself 
of the dreaded coffee disease which ruined the coffee 
plantations in Ceylon. There is, however, a milady 
known as " empty berry" which occasionally makes 
its appearance, the name of which is sufficienty ex- 
planatory. The causes of this are not very clear, 
but are probably due to poor soil or small depth of 
soil, the roots soon coming in contact with the un- 
derlying rock. Fortunately, this complaint is not 
widely met with. 
It will be seen at once thai Mr. Johnston seems 
to bear out the adverse statement of tire plant- 
ing correspondent who recently gave us a rather 
unfavourable account of his experience — and, of 
course, Mr. Carson as well as everybody else are 
prepared from what they know of the Observer, to 
see every authenticated statement sent us — good 
or bad — -being duly published. But, it is pass- 
ing strange to us, now we have gone into the 
matter, that we can find no reference to the ab- 
sence or failure of the second crop, or to the 
non-appearance of secondaries, in any other 
writings from Nyassaland. Neither Mr. Bucha- 
nan nor Mr. Moir — nor the old Matale planter 
who has so long acted as our special correspon- 
dent, and whose latest letter appears toaay — lias 
referred to this peculiarity reported on by Mr. 
Johnston. One Ceylon gentleman to whom we 
shewed the disquieting passage, remarked that 
surely the coffee trees referred to by the Commis- 
sioner had nob been "topped"! Be that as it may, 
we must just leave the matter for the present 
in the hands of our readers, while ready to give 
any explanation Mr. Carson, or later, Messrs. 
Bacbrtnan, Moir and our ex-Matale correspondent, 
may send us on Mr. Johnston's statement. 
Now, to turn to Health, here is the gist of 
the Commissioner's deliverance : — 
At the commencement of my Administration in 
July 1891 there were, as far as I was able to 
calculate, 57 Europeans residing in the eastern part 
of British Central Africa, of whom oue was French, 
two were Austrian Poles, and the remainder were 
British. At the present time (March 189h then 
are 237 Europeans in this same territory.* Ol these 
three are French, three are Germans, one is Italian, 
two are Austriau Poles, oue is a Hungarian, one i» 
a Dutchnid.11 and the remainder are British subjects. 
The British subjects agaiir may be divided iutoOtf 
English-, 5 Welsh, 130 Scotch, G Irish, (i Australians, 
(i natives of Cape Colony, and 5 Nataliaus. Out of 
the average of 200 Europeans during the twelve 
months from the 1st Marc 4, 1K93, to the 1st IC«rcfa, 
1894, there have been ten deaths registered. 1 
believe that three othpr deathis occurred which were 
not registered, f Of the number of deaths registered, 
three died from haunaturic fever, two from dysentery, 
two from heart disease, one from a gun accident, 
one from pneumonia, and one in infancy. The 
population map will show the chief centres of 
European settlement. As a general rule, it cannot 
be stated that British Central Africa is healthy for 
Europeans ; the best that can be said of it is that 
it is not so bad as other parts of tropical Africa, 
that it is possible for men with good constitutions 
to live with unimpaired health if they will take he 
most extraordinary care of themselves. If I uiitiht 
he allowed to cite my own experience, I niiglit state 
that, apart from the exceptional strain caused by 
the hard work aud anxieties of the last three years; 
I have enjoyed remarkably good health. I have not 
been incapacitated by illness for a day since arriv- 
ing in British Central Africa ; but during my short 
visit to Sjuth Africa in 1893 I was ill for a week 
with a very virulent form of the much-dreaded black- 
water fever, and this, I suppose, I must not put 
down to the climate of South Africa, but to the 
accumulated malarial poison engendered in my system 
by two years of Central Africa, and brought into sudden 
activity by the sharp contrast between the warm, 
moist atmosphere of this climate and the bitter cold of 
a South African winter. Whilst preparing this Report, 
I thought it would be useful to ascertain the opi- 
nions of almost all the Europeans settled here as 
to the effect of the climate on their health. I 
therefore issued a Circular containing inquiries to be 
answered, and I must express my thanks to so many 
correspondents who so willingly placed all the infor- 
mation they possessed at my disposal. One hundred 
and sixty-two Europeans answered these questions. 
Out of this total the small number of 
twenty-three stated that their health had suffered 
no deterioration, and that they were probably as 
well out here as they would be in England. To tbia 
number I desire to add my own name, thus increas- 
ing the number to twenty-four out of 162, By far 
the greater number of those consulted confessed to 
having suffered rather frequently from fever, though 
not to any serious extent, and without the fever ever 
having taken a dangerous form. Out of all the 
number consulted only eleven suffered from any other 
disease than fever, aud these quoted dysentery as 
the alternative malady. The only diseases which 
were recorded by these correspondents were fever 
in its two forms of simple African fever, and of the 
dreaded bilious or black-water fever, dysentry, aud 
sunstroke, or sickness of a not very serious nature 
caused by over-exposure to the sun. In all these 
replies no other disease is mentioned, but I happen 
to know that a death has recently taken place from 
pneumonia, caused by a severe wetting and exposure. 
The conclusion, therefore, at which we may 
arrive is this, that the only malady to be really 
dreaded is black-water fever. Here practically we 
have no typhoid, no enteric, no cholera, no yellow 
fever of the infectious type, no typhus, no scarlet 
fever, very few of the diseases which cause morta- 
lity in other countries. To a great extent, how- 
ever, this relative immunity is counter-balanced b3' 
* My statistics as to the number of European 
settlers, though quoted as for March, are really based 
on Beports written in the month of February. — H.H.J. 
f Say in all 6 per cent, of the white population died 
in one year. The average death-rate in Great Britain 
is about 2 per cent. 
