Jan. 1, 1904.1 THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
445 
he fish. He had perhaps thirty to forty oysters in 
his baslist by that time. Bat his time was up — after 
all he could ouly stay down from 50 to 80 seconds, 
while I without inconvenience could stop down for 
half an hour. In an instant he had changed from a 
swimming to a standing position, and;he was rapidly 
hauled up from me towards heaven, his feet being 
the last part to disappear. 
As I gazed up after him something dark came down 
through the water and nearly hit me. It was a stone 
at the end of a rope thrown down for another diver. 
It was a warning that I had wandered from my 
own ship till I was under one of the diver's boats ; 
and I beat a hasty retreat. 
RETURNING TO THE SUBFACE. 
I had but to give a pull at the rope, a signal, and 
I felt myself being pulled rapidly up through the 
water. I went faster than the bubbles of air which 
had been rising from my dress, and was carried up 
through a stream of these bright bubbles. Suddenly 
it was very light, and some big dark broad thing 
covered with bubbles was directly above me, and 
the next moment I hit against it. It was the bottom 
of the launch, and my next task was to guide myself 
till I came to and with difficulty succeeded in 
getting on to the ladder. Then as I stood on ihe 
ladder, while the helmet was unscrewed and taken 
off and the fresh air came, I knew how good fresh 
air is. 
While down on the first occasion or two my nose 
bled rather unpleasantly, but as this never happened 
to me afterwards, I put it down to the fact that on 
those first occasions I had a heavy cold in ray head. 
I was once more back on the Master Atteodanl'a 
barque, moored in the middle of the fleet on which 
the divers were all hurrying up to complete their 
day's load within the given time. 
(To he concluded.) 
PLANTING PHOSPBCTS IN UGANDA. 
AN INDIAN planter's EXPERIENCES. 
The prospects for planters in Uganda and impres- 
sions of a newcomer in the country are given in an 
interesting letter from Mr, George Caine, late of 
Messrs. Begg Dunlop & Co., in our Indian contem- 
porary. It will be read with interest as giving an in- 
sight into this new country being opened up by the 
Uganda Railway, and of use to planters and others 
who may be looking upon the country as a possible 
place for settling in 
Ugandv Railway, via Mombassa. 
LiMORU, 12th November, 1903. 
I have been intending to write to you for some time 
East to give you my impressions of this country for the 
enefit of the readers of your I.P.G., as doubtless 
many of my old friends in I5ehar as well as others will 
be glad to learn what inducement this country offers to 
planters. I cannot at present give any definite opinion 
on the subject, but give yoa the points that strike me 
for what they may be worth. (I don't mean by this to 
hint at a cheque !) I arrived in this country at the end 
of April, and after looking around a little I decided to 
try this part which has a magnificent climate. The 
altitude here is 7,400 feet and the scenery lovely — 
like the hills in India, but with no snowy ranges or so 
many big mountains, and I am Ij miles from the rail- 
way station which again is 25 miles by rail from 
Nairobi. The railway station of Kikayn lies between 
— Nairobi is the con^mencement yoa may say of these 
highlands, and is 5,400 feet elevation and is 530 miles 
by rail from ISJombasa, Kikuyu being 6,400 feet. 
RAINl'ALL AND CLIMATE. 
There is rather more rainfall at Kikayu than 
Kairobi, and more here than at either place. No 
pieteorological records have been kept ia thia country, 
but I gathre there must be about 70 inches here during 
a normal year. It is warmer of course at Nairobi, but 
is not uup leasantly hot there, and here the climate is 
like the Highlands of Scotland but without the winter, 
and with a hotter sun you have to wear a solar topi or 
d ouble terai hat. Being almost under the equator 
ttoere is little variation in climate. December and 
January are the hottest months, and June and July 
the coldest, but you rarely get frost, it being quite 
exceptional, and although the sun is warm enough 
like it is in Darjeeling or Simla, the air is equally cool aa 
in those favoured regions. 
The rainfall in a normal year is well distributed, 
being spread over the months of November and Decem- 
ber and from March or April to end of June with 
showers in the other months, and here we get Scotch 
mists in the rainy weather and also heavy dews at 
nights for about 20 out of every 30 days, but they had 
a failure of the rain and a bad famine three years 
ago. 
As to Ihe future it is hard to speak. There is prac 
tically no local demand for any produce. The country 
is a series of flattish ridges with valleys between, and 
the sides of the ridges are often very steep. There ia 
usually a stream in the valleys and you require to 
build your house near a stream as it is uncertain work 
sinking a well for water. Thatched houses with mud 
walls can be run np very cheaply, but corrugated iron ia 
the best for a roof in this stormy and wet climate, 
CHEAP AND ABUNDANT LABOUR. 
Labour is cheap and plentiful enough for present 
'i'eeds, but if many settlers came it might be necessary 
'o import from Uganda, where there is plenty of 
surplus labour. Present wages are Rs. 4 per mensem. 
The people are strong and light-hearted, they live on 
sweet potatoes and beans, so it says a good deal for the 
climate. 
Women do weeding and carrying loads and get Rs, 4 
per mensem also. Nothing much at present is being 
grown here except potatoes, but there is no local 
market for them, the trade not having expanded 
sufficiently yet to bring the middleman, who is always 
necessary to farmers for disposing of produce, and 
therefore here the farmer has to be an exporter also 
and ships his potatoes to South African ports for sale 
in Johannesburg. Roughly the through rate to 
.Johannesbnrg on potatoes is £19 per ton I am told, and 
the net price to the farmer if the potatoes arrive safely 
and sell well may be £6 per ton. The Uganda Rail- 
way gives a through rate to Durban of Rs. 40 per ton. 
The South African Railway freight to Johannesbnrg 
ia so deadly. As potatoes are a perishable product it 
ia hardly worth the risk to my mind. 
Beans grow readily here, and I am growing them and 
very little of my land is in potatoes. I will grow 
potatoes when a starch factory and-or potato spirit 
distillery is started here. I am also trying Rhea fibre, 
tobacco, and onions. I brought Rhea roots from 
India and they are coming on well. I also brought 
some linseed and mustard, both of whicti have grown 
to seed, but I planted them at the wrong time. Very 
good tobacco has been grown at Kikuyu and some 
excellent cigars made from it, superior in my opinion 
to the Indian cigars, as it must be remembered 
that the latter owe much of their flavour to the. 
Sumatra wrapper with which they are covered 
Hovfever, all these crops are in a more or less ex- 
perimentil stage. I also propose to try tea. 
SPLENDID SOIL. 
The soil here is magnificent, a friable porous loam, 
never water logs. The formation is volcanic and 
there are extinct craters in the country. The coantry 
about me is scrub and bush with forest land two miles 
away. The rainfall doesn't seem heavy enough for tea, 
but I rely on the heavy dews at night to make np for 
the deficiency, also the mists in the rainy weather, but 
it is true the soil here dries very quickly. The life 
is a very lougly oue. There is one settler near Li£aot4 
