Oct. 1, 1901.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
231 
am of opinion that tea will grow and flash well in 
Zanzibar, wherever there is a fair depth of soil. 
There is a great similarity of climate between 
Zanzibar ana low country ,5 Ceylon, where tea gives 
a yieid of from 60ii to 800 lb. an acre. There is 
also a good proporcion L^f iron in the soii about 
here, a most important mineral cousti'uent of tea. 
Tea can never be a large industry in Zanzibar 
as there is not sufficient suitable land, but there 
is eaough to g-ow what is required for local con- 
sumption and this I believe would pay handsomely. 
But in any case our experimental clearing will be 
able to test this in a year or so. A maund (80 ib.) 
of seed is on order from HoragaUa Estate, Ceylon, 
and this should give enough plants, when put out 
in the nursery, to supply vacancies in season 1901, 
and extend the area 6 acres. This will give a 
total area of nearly 13 acres and be sufficient to 
thoroughly determine if tea will grow and pay to 
g'cow here. A careful account of all expenditure 
under tea will be kept. 
Cocoa. — An acre of Oocoa was planted in Novem- 
ber, 1808, but as the N. E., monsoon was a failui-e, 
hot dry weather set in, and we lost about 40 o/o 
of the plants. These were supplied in April last 
and the clearing has now a good cover. Another 
7 acres of land was opened and planted up Inst 
April. The dist mces of the plants were 14 ft. x 14 ft., 
which give 222 to the a^re, Holes 18 in. s 18 in. 
were dug for these. The plants were brought up 
from seed in bamboo pots and were all fiue 
sturdy plants over a foot high when planted out. 
The pot being planted out in the hole the roots 
were in no way disturbed, a most essential point 
with cocoa, as the slightest damage to the root 
would cause the death of a plant. The clearing 
has a good cover and the plants are looking most 
promising. Cocoa is a most disheartening product 
to grow. It is the most delicate of all the 
common economics and has to be carefully dealt 
with from seed to planting. Nearly every insect 
attacks it and the plants are from time to time 
bared of their leaves and hang, many of them dy- 
ing ont in consequence. They must be kept supplied 
yearly. After a plant is 3 years old it may be 
called set. Cocoa does well down to sea level in 
Ceylon and should do well here. It is a struirgling 
plant and will eventually make a soil for itself. 
It is very hard to get good fresh seed into Zan- 
zibar as it does not keep any time and would 
arrive here in a perished condition if subjected to 
a long sea voyage. The last lot from Seychelles 
did well and we are getting 100 pods more from 
here. This will give enough plants to supply the 
old clearing and extend the area another 5 acres 
n season 1901. 
Cocoa is a product that must have permanent 
shade to thrive well, while young bananas and 
mohogo act as good temporary shude. These we 
hare planted in our clearing and in April will plant 
more permanent shade trees. For this purpose we 
have some plants of Pithecolobium saman coming on 
well at Mpapa nursery. This tree is a rapid 
grower as well as a deep feeder and the particular 
property which it possesses, and which makes it 
80 valuable as a shade tree, is that of closing its 
leaves at night and thereby not interfering in any 
degree with the deposition of dew, whilst in the 
day time the foliage is not so thick as to exclude 
too much light. The jak tree, though it does 
not grow very rapidly, is also a deep feeder and 
its timber is valuable. We have plants of this tree 
coming on which will be planted out in the S. W. 
monsoon and we also intend to try castilloa elastica 
for shade. The bois immortelle has been already- 
planted in the 7-acre clearing and the trees are 
nearly 3 years old. It is the chief and favourite 
shade tree in Ceylon and Trinidad on account of 
its rapid growth but does not seen to thrive well 
in Zanzibar, many of them dying oat after they 
are 2 years old and the growth is very backwards. 
|j^liU$ en th« gubjecli g{ ebi^ds torn I may m^a^ 
tion that I am of opinion that in a hot country 
like Zanzibar where the sun is so fierce and 
droughts are apt to occur, shade trees should be 
planted through all cleavings at the time the pro- 
duct plants are planted, aa in this way they will 
not impede the root growth of the young plants. 
Good deep feeding timber trees should be selected 
as in the event of the cleai-ing proving a failure, 
value can be got out of them afterwards. 
W. J, Robertson. 
Euhher. — -We have not been fortunate with our rubber 
plantations, principally bacause we were tempted to 
put out most of our young Para and cistilloa trees 
in November 1898 in anticipation of the small rains, 
which, however, failed. During the subsequent hot 
weather many of the trees died. Those that 
survived are doing well, especially the castilloa, 
the few remaining trees of which look extremely 
healthy. Two of the Para rubber trees that were 
planted at Dunga in 1897 have shot up to ovsr 
15 ft., but others, contemporary with these two, 
seem to hang. The Para rubber trees that ware 
planted at Pemba in one of the rice flats of 
Tundaua, and which I spoke of last year as having 
surpassed our Dunga trees, have received a check 
which I attribute to s'agnant water at the roots 
remaining over from the rains. It was -fter the 
rains that they began to fail. These trees may re- 
cover though some of them have been killed, but 
in any case it is instructive to note that the young 
Para trees which were planted in a fairly typical 
Pemba rice flat — a low moist forcing valley, swampy 
as all Pemba valleys are — in the wet season, have 
not up to now been a success. We have not pro- 
ceeded with the planting of Ceara on the coral. 
The trees do not thrive there and their stunted 
growth makes them an easy prey to parasitic attacks. 
There is not a good vigorous tree from the one 
thousand we put out two years ago. By contrast 
there are a few Ceara trees in the deep soil round 
the house which have grown to fifteen feet in the 
same number of months and are now bearing seed. 
The soil of the coral is too shallow for the proper 
support of this plant. We may sum up our ex- 
perience in rubber planting as being on the whole so 
far uiifavourtible both in Zanzibar and Pemba. We 
still intend, however, to continue the experiments 
as individual trees of all the species represented 
grow well, These are Ilevea hrazilienns, Castilloa 
elastica, 31anihot glaziouii and Ficus elastica. We 
purpose, however, to oonfine our attention principally 
to improving the natural forests of Pemba, work 
in which is now proceeding. 
Vanilla. — We have increased the cultivation of 
vanilla to 3,000 vines. All the new plantations were 
set out in small patches of natural forest dotted 
about the estate. Lines of mbono were laid out 
inside as live supports and the vanilla trained along 
these. The first plantation in 1897 was planted with 
mbono as the only shade, and we have had much 
trouble in keeping the vanilla protected from the 
sun's rays during the cold season when the mbono 
sheds its leaves, as well as during the hot months. 
Planting in forest shade relieves all anxiety upon 
this point, though it remains to be seen whether 
the vines bear so well, as the cover may prove too 
thick. The plantations look well. This year we 
may expect the old plantation to flower and frnit, 
China Grass ( Ba'hmeria nivea). — Two cuttinga have 
been made from the small plot of China grass, the 
first on April 7th. Seven roots yielded 70 stalks, 
i inch thick and 5 to 6 feet long, the total crrosa 
weight, including leaves, being 25X lbs. The ribandi 
had a good length but were not considered good 
enough to send home. The canes had 2 feet of 
young growth at the top, the ribands from which 
had not matured and easily broke. The cane* 
have always this young growth at the top which 
materially diminishes the fibre-bearing length. 
The plants have been allowed ^o grow without 
watering ia otim tbat thtU grgwth wighl ba obsej^Te^: 
