484  THK  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST.  [Jan.  i,  1896. 
NYAS8A  : PLANTING  AND  l‘EUSONAL 
NEWS. 
Mr.  Huuter  of  Cholo  hopes  to  have  2UU  acres  under 
coffee  before  the  end  of  the  rains.  Mr.  Mitchell  is 
opening  up  at  the  Namiwawa  stream  near  the  Na- 
madzi. — The  A.  L.  C.  are  starting  a cattle  station 
at  the  north  end  of  Chiradzulu.  Mr.  Lloyd  intends 
going  home  soon.  Mr.  R.  R.  Stark  leaves  for  home 
itDmediatelv. — Mr.  D.  J.  Morkel  is  owning  up  an 
estate  at  Chiradzulo.  It  is  called  the  Fort  Roberts 
Estate  and  consists  of  about  GOO  acres.  He  intends 
rearing  stock  and  growing  wheat,  barley,  etc.  Mr. 
J.  P.  Owen  has  left  for  Ceylon  ; after  his  severe  ill- 
ness he  considers  this  a “ no  white  man’s  country. 
We  regret  the  death  of  Mr.  .1.  G.  Innes,  of  the  A. 
Jj.  Corporation,  Ltd.,  who  died  at  Mandala  on  the 
6th  September.  He  was  only  a few  mouths  in  the 
country,  and  what  makes  his  death  the  sadder  was 
his  parents’  unwillingness  that  he  should  come  to 
this  part  of  Africa.  Capt.  Cavendish  and  Mr. 
Gordon  Gumming  have  returned  to  Zomba  ; Corp.  W. 
Fletcher  has  gone  to  carry  on  the  further  making, 
of  the  road.— Capt.  C.  F.  Beeching  has  left  Mikolongo 
and  arrived  at  Blantyre ; he  is  we  understand,  super- 
intending the  construction  of  another  new  ^ road, 
running  from  Sharrer’s  road  towards  Cholo  Ihe  A. 
L.  C.  are  now  issuing  English  money  froin  their 
Banking  and  General  Departments;  the  natives  aie 
rather  dubious  about  accepting  half-crovvns,  or  other 
large  coins,  but  will  no  doubt  learn  in  time,  as  they 
had  to  do  with  the  rupee.— We  are  sorry  to  learn 
that  Mr.  W.  A.  Morman  of  the  A.L.C.  plantation 
Rivi-Rivi  has  had  an  attack  of  Black- \Vaier  heyei , 
assistance  was  immediately  sent  to  him.— Sir  John  Kiik; 
whose  name  is  so  closely  connected  with  this  country, 
has  been  deputed  to  enquire  into  the  recent  troubles 
with  the  Brass  natives.— Coffee  is  said  by  Captain 
Williams  to  grow  almost  wild  at  Uganda  and  on  the 
islands  of  the  Lake  Victoria  Nyasa.  howls  cost  eigh- 
teen-pence each  and  eggs  two-pcncc  each.--rhc  A.L. 
Corporation’s  oil-press  at  Karonga’s  is  now  in  working 
order.  The  yield  at  present  is  about  three  buckets 
— Mr.  TIasting’s  crop  amounted  to  ten  tons.  Mr. 
Steblecki’s  to  four  tons,  and  Mr.  McPherson’s  to  five 
tons.  Mrs.  Watson  of  Mandala  lately  performed  the 
journey  from  Mandala  to  the  Mlanje  Mission  Station 
in  nine  and  a quarter  hours  actual  travelling  with  two 
relays  of  machila  men. — Gcutvcil  Pltiutcv, 
PLANTING  AND  PRODUCE. 
Broken  and  Dust  Teas.— The  following  circular 
has  been  issued  by  the  Indian  Tea  Association 
(London) ; “ With  reference  to  the  packing  of  broken 
and  dust  teas,  it  is  pointed  out  for  the  information 
of  members  that  it  is  desirable,  owing  to  the  weight 
of  these  descriptions  of  teas,  to  pack  them  in  half- 
chests  either  of  metal  or  of  well-made  and  iron- 
hooped  strong  wooden  packages.  The  use  of  canvas 
coverings  is  objectionable.  They  not  only  servo  to 
hide  the  condition  of  the  packages,  but  probably 
less  care  is  taken  in  handling  them  in  transit, 
besides  which  any  tea  which  miglit  escape  into  the 
canvas  would  soon  become  unfit  for  use. 
Indian  Tea  in  America. — Messrs.  Reid,  Murdoch 
& Co.,  of  Chicago,  who  are  well  known  for  their 
enterprise  in  pushing  Indian  tea  in  America,  have 
held  an  interesting  exhibit  of  tea  at  a large  industrial 
exhibition  held  at  Milwaukee.  We  observe  that  the 
Sentinal,  a Sunday  paper  published  at  Milwaukee, 
contains  an  illustration  of  the  exhibit,  and  mention 
is  made  in  the  letterpress  of  the  famous  World’s 
Pair  Indian  .Teas-viz.,  “Light  of.  Asia,”  “ Star  of 
India  ’’  and  “ Lalla  Rookh,  of  which  Messrs.  Reid, 
Murdoch  & Co.  have  exclusive  control. 
Tea  Chests  and  the  Tin  Plate  Trade.— The 
Welsh  tea  dealers  and  grocers  are  very  interested  in 
securing  a more  extensive  use  for  tin  plates  in  the 
manufacture  of  tea  chests,  and  thus  benefiting  their 
local  hi  lustries.  At  a special  meeting  of  the  Swansea 
Groceis’  Association  held  last  week  the  president 
said,  as  though  it  had  quite  hurt  his  fee  ings,  he  had 
recently  received  a consignment  of  chests,  and  he 
was  greatly  surprised  to  find  that  they  were  made  of 
steel  which  was  neither  manufactured  nor  coated 
in  the  neighbourhood.  The  movement,  which 
had  recently  been  initiated  for  utilising  tin  in 
the  manufactiu'e  of  chests  for  tea,  was  one 
which  might  result  in  a great  increase  in  the 
trade  of  the  town,  and  he  hoped  it  would  be 
enthusiastically  taken  up.  Aiiotlicr  speaker,  who  felt 
that  the  tin  plate  trade  of  the  district  was  suffer- 
ing from  neglect  in  the  matter,  said  that  for  a num- 
ber of  years  he  had  been  agitating  for  the  use  of 
till  ill  the  packing  of  tea,  because  he  believed  it 
would  create  au  immense  demand  for  tin  plates, 
which  would  mean  increased  trade  to  the  neigh- 
bourhood in  a number  of  directions.  He  thought  the 
subject  was  one  of  special  importance  to  the  gro- 
cers of  Swansea,  for  it  was  to  their  interest  to  get  a 
chest  that  would  preserve  the  tea  and  g'ive  little 
trouble.  This  result  was  secured  by  the  chests  which 
had  recently  been  supplied  to  Mr.  James  Jones,  Mr. 
Gale,  and  Mr.  lies.  He  had  seen  the  chests,  and,  as  a 
practical  assorter,  he  knew  at  once  that  the  roughly- 
coated  plates  out  of  which  they  were  made  were  not 
manufactured  in  Wales.  He  had  also  seen  and  obtained 
some  information  from  one  of  the  directors  of  the 
company  who  supplied  the  chests.  Feeling  that  the 
matter  was  one  of  importance  to  Hontli  Wales,  Mi'. 
Thomas  Phillips,  of  tlie  Tiniilato  Workers’  Union, 
and  liimself  paid  a visit  to  the  works  at  Glasgow- 
last  week,  and  ascertained  from  the  inventor,  who 
was  also  the  manager  of  the  concern,  that  the  coated 
steel  which  formed  the  sides  of  the  chest  was  in  the 
first  instance  supplied  as  black  plate  from  Coatbridge, 
and  coated  by  thn  inventor  himself,  but  that 
arrangements  were  subsequently  made  for  obtainiug 
the  sheets  from  Belgium  and  coating  them  at  Wor- 
cester. It  was  mo.st  uiiuccessary  for  him  to  make 
further  comment,  for  it  inu.st  bo  clear  to  everyone,  from 
what  he  h-ad  already  stated,  that  for  the  want  of 
a little  enterprise  the  trade  which  should  ho 
their  own  was  pre.sentod  ton  foreign  firm.  He  felt 
that  this  was  the  more  to  ho  regretted,  for  there 
should  be  no  difficulty  in  prodiicin.g  a better  and 
cheaper  .sheet  in  the  vicinity  of  Swansea.  But  this 
was  not  all.  They  found  tlie  chest  company  pre- 
paring to  do  their  own  coating,  a \Vol.sli  patent  not 
haying  been  already  set  np.  It  had  occurred  to  Mr. 
Phillips  and  himself  that  if  at  Glasgow  tin  plate  was 
successfully  coated  and  used  up,  with  coals  cheap  and 
a plentiful  supply  of  steel,  this  miglit  be  the  beginning 
of  a competition  between  Wales  and  Scotland  which 
might  prove  more  disastrous  to  the  Welsh  tin-plate 
trade  than  American  competition,  ile  was,  therefore, 
glad  to  attend  that  meeting  of  the  grocers  of  Swansea 
in  order  to  call  early  attention  to  the  matter.  In  con- 
cluding, he  expressed  the  hope  that  Swan.sea  people 
would  take  the  matter  np  with  the  view  of  inducing  the 
chest  company  to  construct  the  work.s  they  were  con- 
templating at  Swansea,  wliich  ongiit,  he  th. night,  to 
be  its  natural  location. — //.  and  (J.  Mail,  Dec.  6. 
COMPARATIVE  HEIGHTS  OF  DIFFERENT 
ESTATES  IN  11.  (’.  AFRICA. 
The  iwriter  of  this  note,  having  during  the  course  of 
busiiess  to  visit  various  estates,  has  jotted  down  the 
different  heights  of  the  pi  icns  named  as  given  bj-  a 
pocket  aneroid.  In  the  following  list  the  Residency, 
Zomba,  is  taken  as  a standard  and  denoted  by  the 
amount  of  rise  being  denoted  by  plus,  and  the  amount 
of  fall  by  — , before  the  figures.  By  combining  these 
figures  with  2,‘)G8  the  height  of  the  Residency,  a rough 
idea  of  the  actual  height  of  any  of  the  places  named  may 
be  obtained.  Needless  to  say  the  figures  given  are 
only  approximations  and  differences  of  wc.itlier  and 
temperature  have  not  been  accurately  discounted  for. 
The  Limbi  Estate  plus  unj  ; tipper  IMudi  Estate  plus 
5.50;  Chipando  FiStatc  plus  000;  Blautvre  7'Istate  pin 
2 111;  Nkawa  (Cholo)  plus  100;  Mwaland'uze  (Cholo)  plus 
50  ; Lunzu  Estate  plus  5!);  Zo  a 0;  Namadzi  Crossing 
0;  Mlanje  Mission  — 2.50  ; Midinia  Uesthou.so—  -llX); 
[Mlanje  Road]— Mr.  Simpson’s  Ilo.—  InO:  Jlombosi 
Crossing  — 5.50;  [Mlanje  Road]  — Soiigaiii  Estate  — 
60C  ; Mr.  Bradshaw's  Ho.  — (1.5U  : Mr.  Moir's  House  — 
6.50;  Mr.  Bradshaw’s  Estate  [lowest]  — 'J.50;  Mr. 
Simpson’s  Estate  [lowest  — 1000  ; l\Ir.  Moir’s  Estate 
(lowest)  — 1000.— ( 'cut ml  African  Planter. 
