JpNB 1, 1901.] THE TEOPICAL 
AGRICULTUEIST. 
831 
AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS IN 
ZANZIBAR. 
A DIRECTOR, MP. LYNE, ASSISTED BY A CEYLON 
PLANTER, MK. W J ROBERTSON, AND MR. R LESTER. 
Ziiizibfif has so far come into line with the 
progressive States of the world as to have set up 
for itself an Agricultural Department, with a full 
blown Director of Agriculture. Mr. Lyne, who 
iills that useful post, has shown in a recent re- 
port to the first Minister that the Directorship 
is no sinecure, and that Zanzibar will not fall 
behinil for want of energetic endeavours to develop 
Its resources. In African native agriculture there 
is less danger than in India lest exotic attempts 
to improve things should prove to be so many 
essays in the art of teaching one's grandmother 
to suc'k eggs. Indigenous agriculture like in- 
digenous labour is seldom of high quality in that 
part of the world, and an energetic Director of 
Agriculture, who has had tropical experience, may 
be able to introduce many practical improvements. 
In tlie Sultan's nurseries some excellent results 
seem to have been achieved by protecting clove 
seedings by planting rov/s of bracken ferns which 
sheUer them from the sun and from the excessive 
dripping of water. Some successful experiments 
have been carried out iu coffee planting, the 
growth of some Liberian jdants being reported to 
be equal to anything seen in Ceylon, and as the 
soil constituents are said to be highly favourable 
for this culture we may hear more of Zanzibar 
coffee. Tea, too, lins been introduced with satis- 
factory results. But Zanzibar is not destined to be 
a formidable competitor with Ceylon or India, 
notwithstanding that soil and climate seem to 
favour it, as there is not enough suitable land 
to allow tea to be grown on a large scale. The 
most that the Director looks for is tlie growth of 
as much as is required for local consumption, which 
cannot be much. Experiments in rubber planting 
both in Zanzibar and in Pemba have so far not 
yielded promising results. It is probable, however, 
that, until labour problems have solved themselves, 
the physicial conditions with which the Agricul- 
tural Department have to deal will be of secondary 
in)portaiice. Zanzibar and the country adjacent 
are passing through .'i transitional stage in the 
matter ot labour supply. The Arab proprietor, 
instead of cultivating his land with slave labour, 
now deals with treed slaves, who settle on his land 
under agreement, giving him a certain amount of 
labour in return for cultivating rights on a portion 
of the estate. He has not yet brought himself into 
line with Western labour methods, and it, will be 
long before he becomes reconciled to ordinary paid 
labour. His old hands are dying off, and he cannot 
replace them except by enticing people from his 
neighbours' land. Nor do the people themselves 
take kindly to the system of paid labour. So much 
is this the case that tlie Director of Agriculture 
says that, if these labourers were told that they 
would have to work regularly for payment, they 
would think they were hardly used. Labour diffi- 
culties in the Zanzibar and Pemba plantations have 
led to enquiries as to the suitability of the Indian 
cooly, but he is held to be too dear ; for, although 
the Indian is a much more efficient labourer than 
the Swahili, he is not four times as good, as he 
would need to be to make it worth while to employ 
him. Apparently when the Indian coolies have 
finished their work on the Uganda line they will 
not be tempted to settle in Zanzibar. — Times of 
India. April 27th, 
105 
AN EVENING ON ^^^ABETTA- 
(From a correspondent.) 
It was a Sunday afternoon, and the bells of 
St- Stephen's were ringing as I reached the Doda- 
betta saddle. From here to the top of the bill no 
driving road exists, and one must either ride or 
walk. The distance, however, is not more than 
IJ miles. Once having attained the summit, one 
feels amply repaid for the trouble necessitated in 
getting there, and standing on the small crowa 
which tops the 
8,760 FEET, A SUPERB VIEW 
is commanded. To the east lie Coonoorand Wel- 
lington ; beyond Coonoor, and, looking through a 
gorge formed by the picturesque Droog on the one 
hand and another hill on the other, the far dis- 
tant plains can be seen, disagreeably arid and 
low-lying. Gazing around in a circle, and com- 
mencing from the Droog, one sees where the 
horizon rests, comparatively near Kotagiri, be- 
fore stretching away and dipping deep into the 
far-oif Mysore country, with its knolls of hills 
rising haphazard from the dead level of the sur- 
rounding country. Here and there gleams of water 
may be distinguished, indicating the existence of 
tanks, the habitat of w^ld duck and teal. Com- 
ing round the bend, the view is curtailed by Snow- 
don— barely amile away as the crow flies — but leng- 
thens again over Bilicul and in the direction of 
the Segur Ghaut, and thus runs into the Pykara 
and Neddivatcum ranges of hills, and so on to 
the Kundahs, in which latter rises Makoorty 
Peak, to be seen of all men. Coming 
homewards and into the Straight the Kundahs 
are traversed, left behind, and one glances over the 
hills which presumably form the southern bound- 
aries of Kartairy and Kulla Kumby and thus 
back again to the Droog. It was comparatively 
early when I reached the top, and Ootacamund to 
the West, peeping out here and there from 
beneath her mask of blue gums, with Coonoor and 
.Wellington to the East, lay 
BASKING IN THE SUBTLE CALM OF A 
SABBATH EVE. 
Leaving Coonoor bathed in sunshine, one's glance 
travels towards Ootacamund, with her beautiful 
lake and fine Hobart Park, the latter conferring 
additional attraction and the former lending light 
and expression to her natural charms. Her 
various public and other buildings, too, may be 
seen, not arranged in the abhorrent regular maze 
of large cities, but existing in diversified disorder, 
in some places standing out clearly defined, ia 
others indicated only by a glistening house top, 
or the tip of a spire, the rest being buried behind 
a leafy canopy of Mclanoxylon and the ubiquitous 
blue-gum. Taken as a whole, and in conjunction 
with her climate, Ootacamund may surely rightly 
claim to represent the model of a '' blessed 
Arcadie." The air at this elevation is delightful, 
pure and vivific, and one must have lived 
a twelve month in the plains to thoroughly 
appreciate a climate the antithesis to what one 
has been accustomed to. Lying stretched 
out under the shade of a hill-guava clump 
and lost in admiration of the scenery, I had 
well-nigh forgotten that it was growing late, 
and that night was fast approaching. Over the 
distant Kundahs 
The evening sun, descending, 
Seta the olouda on tire with redness, 
Burned the broad sky. like » prairie, 
