Sept.  2,  1895.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
CoFFEK  IN  UvA  AND  DUMr.APvA. — This  is  evi- 
dently going  to  be  a great  year  for  what  remains 
of  oollec  in  Haputsle  and  Madulsenia,  and  even 
the  nativ'es  are  beginning  to  look  after  tlieir  old 
trees.  A traveller  the  other  d.ay  from  Lower 
Maturatta  via  Dnmbara  to  Kandy,  found  the 
Sinhalese  busy  clciaring  out  and  manuring  their 
coffee  trees  and  full  of  the  belief  tliat  all  the 
troubles  of  coffee  were  now  over,  and  that  an 
era  of  prosperity  was  to  set  in  ! 
West  Haputale,  August  2nd. — Tea  doing  very  well 
up  here,  one  or  two  of  the  older  places  giving  as 
much  as  600  lb.  an  acne,  though  high  up.  A big 
clearing  has  just  been  burnt  off  on  Meeriatenne, 
belonging  to  Mr.  G.  Anderson,  and  of  which  his 
son  is  in  charge.  There  is  a small  clearing  on 
Yellatenne,  and  there  will  be  more  land  opened  on 
Callander  next  year.  The  road  through  the  Valley 
to  Ohia  is  nearly  completed,  there  only  being  a 
few  more  stones  to  blast,  and  rice  and  tea  find  their 
way  to  the  railway  along  it.  The  four  miles  have 
been  constructed  for  less  than  the  planters’  estimate, 
which  was  so  much  under  Mr.  Harvey's  estimate. 
Ceylon  Plantehs  Bound  for  the  Far  East. — Mr. 
E.  Walker,  of  Galloway  Knowe,  Nilambe  is  in  Co- 
lombo at  present,  and  will  leave  for  Singapore  by 
the  French  steamer  on  Thursday ; his  object  being 
to  go  on  to  Borneo,  to  a place  to  which  he  has 
been  recommended  by  Mr.  W.  D.  Gibbon,  Mr.  Walker 
intending  to  plant  coffee  there  if  he  likes  the  look 
of  the  land  after  inspecting  it.  If  he  decides  to  in- 
vest he  will  remain  in  Borneo,  but  if  he  does  not 
like  the  prospect  he  will  probably  go  on  via  Japan 
and  America  to  England,  in  which  case  he  will  re- 
turn to  Ceylon  later.  In  any  case  he  hopes  to  get 
some  good  shooting  in  Borneo.  His  place  on  Gallo- 
way Knowe  has  been  taken  by  Mr.  C.  C.  Herbert,  of 
Badulla,  who  has  been  working  under  Mr.  Alison. 
Another  Ceylon  planter  bound  for  the  Far  East  is 
Mr.  W.  Greig,  who  will  arrive  in  Colombo  tonight 
or  tomorrow.  Mr.  Greig  has  for  long  worked  on 
Beaumont,  Pussellawa,  but  that  estate  has  lately 
been  taken  over  by  a Limited  Liability  Company, 
and  he  is  going  to  Selangor  to  plant  coffee.  He 
will  leave  by  the  same  steamer  that  takes  Mr. 
Walker.  Mr.  Picken  goes  to  Beaumont  to  join  his 
brother,  the  superintendent,  in  the  working  of  the 
estate. 
Progress  in  Nya,ssaland.— Tlie  British  Con- 
sul (Mr.  idiiarpe)  w'lio  had  just  reached  England 
lias  been  giving  information,  reproduced  in  tlie 
London  Times  of  July  20tli,  respecting  tlie  general 
pro.spects  of  Ny.assaland,  as  follows: — 
“ The  coffee  crop  this  year  is  fully  double  that 
of  last  year,  and  last  year’s  was  double  that  of  the 
previous  12  months.  From  present  indications  the  1896 
crop  will  be  double  that  of  this  year,  so  it  is 
evident  that  enormous  strides  are  being  made.  Al- 
though the  industry  is  only  in  its  infancy,  this  year’s 
crop  will  be  over  200  tons.  The  revenue  is  steadily 
increasing,  and  the  returns  up  to  April  were  con- 
siderably in  excess  of  those  of  1894.  British  Central 
Africa,  with  the  Shire  Highlands,  is  ns  yet  the  solitary 
instance  of  a successful  agricultui’al  colony  within 
tropical  Africa.  The  work  has  not  been  done  by 
borrowed  capital ; it  is  genuine  and  sound  business, 
nearly  all  done  by  Scotchmen  with  their  own  small 
capital,  who  are  now  getting  good  returns.  A great 
point  about  the  country  is  its  cheap  labour,  so  that 
in  the  future  it  will  be  able  to  compete  with  any 
coffee-producing  country.  Another  point  is  the  com- 
parative cheapness  of  transport,  w’hichmnst  speedily 
become  cheaper.  A railway  is  badly  - wanted  from 
the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Shire  to  Blantyre, 
the  centre  of  the  coffee  district,  a distance  of  60 
miles.”  The  protectorate  itself  as  it  stands  is  about 
as  large  as  Great  Britain,  and  it  will  be  a very 
long  time  before  anything  like  the  whole  of  it  can 
be  opened  up.  In  conclusion,  Mr.  Sharpe  said  : — 
“ An  attempt  is  being  made  to  see  if  it  is  not  possible 
to  tame  the  zebra  and  make  him  of  use  for  pur- 
poses of  transport.  If  this  can  be  done  the  tsetse 
fly  will  cease  to  be  a terror  so  far  as  beasts  of 
burden  are  concerned,” 
Elephants  to  the  Rescue.— Not  .-ilono  in 
Madulsima  ami  Hew^a  Eliy.a  are  elephants  desi- 
<lerated  .as  tr.ansport  aids  by  tea  planters.  W^e 
hear  tliat  there  is  room  .also  for  them  in  the 
Kelani  \ alley  .and  we  m.ay  shortly  have  .an  e.v- 
])eriment  of  the  kind  on  a Valley  estate.  A 
docile  working  elephant  to  drag  in  firewood, 
carry  te.a-bo.xes  down  ,aiul  b.ags  of  rice  np,  might 
be  a very  useful  adjunct  to  a big  Tea  Factory. 
The  Oriental  E.st'ate.s  Co. — This  is  one  of 
the  few  (Jomi)auies  connected  wdtli  Ceylon  pl.ant- 
ing,  w'hose  shareholders  c.annot  be  congratulated. 
There  is  no  dividend  to  declare,  although  there 
is  .an  a]jpreciable  balance  on  the  right”  side  to 
carry  on,  in  the  Report  we  print  elsewhere.  But 
then  Ceylon  is  not  at  all  to  blame— the  fault  is 
ith  Mcauritius,  as  the 
following 
Ceylon ; Income . . 
. . £56,827 
„ Expenditure 
. . 39,388 
Profit 
. . £17,439 
Mauritius : Income 
. . £51,732 
,,  Expenditure 
52,753 
Deficit 
..  £ 1,021 
Our  Tea  Shipments  up  to  the  end  of  July  are  in 
excess  of  those  to  the  .same  date  of  last  ye.arlty  over 
9 million  lb.  Even  if  this  e.xcess  were  not  incre,ased 
during  the  rem.aining  five  months,  our  total 
shipments  for  1895  would  be  9.3.1  million  lb.  or  U 
million  in  exce.ss  of  the  offici.al  e.stimate.  Fast  ex"^- 
perience  show's  that  about  55  per  cent  of  the  ye.ar’s 
crop  is  shipped  in  the  first  six  months  aiid  45 
per  cent  in  the  latter  half.  This  year  gave  a 
kot.al  of  51,(i6/,/16  lb.  up  to  .30th  .June  and 
.applying  the  proportion,  w’e  w’onld  get  42,273,651 
lb.  from  July  to  December  or  a total  of  93,941,447 
lb  w'hich  is  very  close  on  our  previous  estimate. 
Ihe  lesson  would  seem  to  be  that  betw'een  this 
date  .and  the  end  of  the  year  Ceylon  is  not  likely 
to  shi])  -at  any  rate  to  the  United  Kingdom — 
niucli  (if  finy)  uioi'c  tea  tliuii  she  did  durui"  the 
same  period  of  last  year.  " 
How  llRiTLSH  Central  a.s  ivell  as  E.ast 
Africa— is  to  be  opened  by  r.ailway  and  steamers 
IS  -well  show'n  in  the  latest  Contcriiporanj.  If  the 
following  plan  is  adopted,  it  will  be  a good  thin f-- 
for  the  Nyassaland  planters  : — ” 
The  Contemporaiji  contains  a plea  by  Mr.  G F 
Scott  Elliot  for  making  our  route  into  Uganda  not 
a Mombassa  railway,  but  a highway,  half  to  r.ailways 
and  half  of  rivers  and  lakes  via  Nyassaland.  He 
would  make  the  merchant  and  his  bales  on  the  way 
to  Uganda,  go  first  by  steamer  up  the  Zambesi  and 
Shird  Rivers  to  the  Shire  highlands.  Thence,  by  a 
railway  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  long  to  be 
constructed  to  Matopc,  from  which  point  the  upper 
Shire  is  navigable,  and  goods  can  be  carried  to  the 
north  end  of  Lake  Nyassa.  Here  another  railwa-y 
(two  hundred  and  forty  miles)  would  lead  to  Lake 
ianganyika  Tanganyika  gives  a clear  waterway  of 
four  hundred  miles  to  its  northern  end.  Then  another 
r.ailway  to  the  Karega  River,  and  finally,  down  the 
Karega  River  to  the  Victoria  Nyanza.  In  favour  of 
this  route  Mr.  Scott  Elliot  urges  two  tilings.  It  would 
cost  about  half-a-million  less  than  the  Mombassa 
railway,  and  it  would  kill  two  birds  with  one  stone, 
that  is,  w'hile  opening  up  Uganda,  it  would  also  open 
up  the  already  flourishing  settlements  of  British 
Central  Africa,  and  make  a beginning  of  the  Cape- 
to-Cairo  route.  The  proposal  is  a fascinating  one, 
and  will  no  doubt  be  carried  out  some  day;  but 
whether  it  ought  to  be  done  instead  of — not  as  well 
as— the  Mombassa  railw’ay,  we  cannot  profess  to 
decide.  That  is  a matter  not  for  us,  but  forexpertij 
like  Captain  Lugard  and  Colonel  Colville. 
