598 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March 1, 1902. 
EEVIEW FOR 1901. 
The year 1901 opened wilh 54,881.219 poiinas of 
tea in warehouse, which qaantity steadily declined 
to 39,.521,551 pounds on Novemher SO, 1901. 
The following table shows the quantity of tea entered 
for consnmption in the Uniteci states including boih 
entries for immediate consumption and withdrawala 
from warehouse for consumption, value and amount 
of duties, for the twelve months ending June .30, 
1900 and 1901: 
Quantity. Value. Duties 
Pounds. Dollars. Dollars. 
1900 .. 80,086,369 10,835,048 8,008,637 
1901 .. 82,693,537 10,008,430 8,259.354 
The imports for eleven months of 1901, ending 
November 30, were as follows : — 
Pounds. 
Chinese Empire ... .. 25 692,503 
Japan ... ... ... 28,159,849 
All other conntries .. .. 6,793,104 
Total . . 60,650,4,'^6 
Sftm« time in 1900 ... ... 89,456,696 
Same time in 1899 ... ... 77,517,386 
The above shows that Japan supplied 46 pec cent. 
and China 42.6 per cent, of the to al imports. 
The light receipts and a slight increase (3 per cent. 
plus) in consumption accounts for a steadily improving 
market during the year. The close was fltm at the 
best fixtures. — American Grocer. 
A RAILWAY TO NYASSALAND. 
After some years of effort, our Nyasaland 
Protectorate is to have <a much-needed rail- 
way. Surveys were made more than four years 
ago with a view to the construction of a nar- 
row-gauge line. The foreign Office however, in- 
sisted thata special survey of its own should he 
made, and for that purpose sent out Sir Charles 
Metcalfe, who spent a year in the Protector- 
ate making a Government survey for a line 
of3feet6 inclies gauge ; and that survey has 
formed the hasis for the concession now granted 
to the Shire Higlilands Railway Company. 
This result was not achieved without some 
opposition on the part of the Crown agents, 
who naturally wished to carry out the un- 
dertaking themselves. Their experiences with 
the Uganda line, and their railway work on 
the West Coast of Africa seem, however, to 
have induced them to hand over the Nyasa- 
land enterprise to the Shire Railway Com- 
pany which will employ its own engineers 
and provide its own material. 
One of the directors of the Shire Highlands 
Railway Company is iMr. Sharrer, who has 
taken a leading part in the negotiations which 
have led to the present concession, and when 
a representative of the British Trade Jour- 
nal called upon him recently, he courteously 
furnislied us with some particulars of 
the railway project and with a map, 
showing the route the line is to take. 
Its total length will be a little more than 200 
miles, and it is to have a 60 lb. rail. The 
southern terminus will be at Chiromo, 
whence the line will run in a northerly 
direction to Blantyre, a distance of about 
eighty-five miles. From Blantyre it will run to 
Zomba, the Residency, and thence almost due 
north to Fort .Johnston to connect with the 
eteani-boat trafiic on Lake Nyasa. 
The primary object of the railway is to do 
away with the land porterage now necessary 
to carry the coflee ;ind other produce of the 
Shire Highlands t.-. Chiromo. wlieiice it is con- 
veyed in the river boats of Shari er's Zambesi 
Traffic Coinpany down to Chinde, on the East 
Coast of Afi ica This system of iand porterage 
is slow, tedious and costly. It has had to be 
resorted to as the only mea..s of trrmsport, the 
rapids and falls on the Shire River between ' 
Chiromo and McPiuihe rendering that section 
of the river impassable for steam boats. 
The new railway will therefore he the in- 
dispensable connecting link in a line of 
communication for goods and passenger 
traffic, which will reach a distance of 900 
miles from Chinde into the heart of Africa. As 
three-fourths of this route will be by steam- 
boat on the Zambesi, the .Shire River, and Lake 
Nyasa, it follows that the least costly 
system for the conveyance of goods will 
be at the service of planters of this i)art of 
Central Africa. The line may eventually 
develop the African Lake districts with their 
abundant native population, which will then 
be easily brought down to work on the planta- 
tions of • Nvasahtnd. Hence Mr, Sharrer 
anticipates a great development in those 
districts, especially in the cultivation of coffee 
and cotton, tobacco and sugar, and other 
products, whose cost has been increased by 
the method of transport hitherto available. 
For cotton, indeed, he anticipates a very im- 
portant devolopmeiit. Hitherto its cultiva- 
tion has been almo.-st entirely given up owing 
to the cost of putting it down at a cheap rate 
in Europe, jet experiments so far made in 
cotton cultivation have been highly success- 
ful, the quality being equal to that of the 
Egyptian variety. 
In a recent report to the Oldham Chamber 
of Commerce entitled, " Cotton Growing 
within the Empire," it is stated by the Secret- 
ary to the British Central African Chamber 
of Agriculture and Commerce, that nearly all 
the conditions favourable to the growing of 
cotton on alai-ge scale exist in Central Africa. 
The plains on the Zambesi and Shire rivers 
are admirably adapted for the cultivation of 
the cotton plant, and in the Shire Highlands 
there are numerous valleys which contain the 
rich bl.ick " cotton " soil so much sought atter 
in India. Every thing is in favour of the grow- 
ing of cotton as regards land and labour, and 
the only question would seem to be the one 
of freight. 
So far the main product of the Protectorate 
has been coffee, though ft considerable area 
is under tobacco and chillies. The future of 
the Protectorate will be largely due to its 
rich virgin soil, so well adapted for cotton 
cultivation, and in which the Protectorate 
abounds. The new line, it should be pointed 
out, will affect the economic development not 
only of the Shire Highlands, but of the vast 
plains which border the West Coast of Lake 
Nyasa, and whose produce will soon have the 
means of being conveyed cheaply from Kam- 
bwe, Bandawe, Kotakota, Livingstone, and 
other places on its shores to Chinde, for ship- 
ment to Europe. Eventuallv, doubtless, a con- 
nection will be made from the north-westward 
to the great trunk line frpm the Cape to Cairo, 
