Nov.  a,  1896,] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
349 
restricted  area  of  the  Shin;  Highlands.  A little  is 
done  in  Angoniland  (Upper  Shiib  and  South  Nyasa 
districts),  and  a very  little  in  the  Marimba  district. 
Coffee  planting  has  also  been  started  by  the  Livings- 
tonia  Mission  in  the  North  Nyasa  district,  but  at 
present  without  any  results  to  be  chronicled. 
Messrs.  Buchanan  Brothers  have  under  cultiva- 
tion about  900  acres  of  coffee  on  their  v.irioiis 
plantations,  situated  between  Zomba  on  the  north 
and  the  River  Ruo  on  the  South.  They  have  in 
their  employ  nine  Europeans  in  various  capacities 
looiiing  after  the  coffee.  Ttiey  expect  to  export  this 
year  nearly  100  tons. 
Mr.  E.  0.  A.  Shax'rer  is  the  largest  owner  of  es- 
tates in  all  the  Protectorate,  as  is  shown  by  the 
accompanying  map.  These  amount  to  an  approxi- 
mate 365,000  acres,  of  which  only  about  900  are  at 
present  under  cultivation  with  coffee.  He  employs 
about  nineteen  European  assistants  to  look  after 
these  estates,  and  cotton  is  grown  as  well  as  coffee. 
His  plantations  being  very  much  j'ouuger  than  those 
of  Buchanan  Brothers,  his  export  is  comparatively 
little  at  present,  but  I believe  he  will  send  home 
about  20  to  30  tons  of  the  present  year’s  crop. 
Mr.  Hugh  Bloomfield  Bradshaw  formerly  an  officer 
in  a cavalry  regiment,  has  some  large  estates  in 
the  Mlanje  district.  His  approximate  area  und,er 
cultivation  is  300  aci-es,  and  he  expects  to  export 
about  20  tons  of  coffee  this  year. 
Messrs.  Petitt  Br-others,  who  came  out  originally  to 
hunt,  took  to  planting  coffee  four  years  ago.  They 
own  about  50,000  acres,  of  which  about  300  acres  are 
planted  out.  Their  out-turn  this  year  is  expected  to 
reach  20  tons.  They  employ  five  European  assistants. 
Mr.  John  W.  Moir,  for  many  years  joint  manager  of 
the  African  Lakes  Company, has  about  230  acres  planted 
with  coffee  in  the  Mlanje  district  and  will  pro- 
bably export  a little  over  10  tons  in  the  course  of  the 
present  year.  Mr.  Moir  employs  three  European 
assistants. 
Mr.  Henry  Brown  also  formerly  in  the  service  of  the 
African  Lakes  Company,  a planter  on  Mlanje,  will 
export  about  10  tons  this  year. 
Mr.  Kasimir  Steblecki,  an  Austrian  Pole,  has  about 
200  acres  under  cultivation,  and  may  export  as  much 
this  year  as  12  tons. 
So  far  as  I am  aware,  no  other  planter  expects 
his  year’s  output  to  reach  10  tons,  as  the  other 
plantations  are  scarcely  old  enough  to  bear  more 
than  “maiden”  crops.  The  total  export  of  coffee  anti- 
cipated during  the  year  1896  is  expected  to  reach  a 
total  of  350  tons. 
It  is  worthy  of  note  that  a great  interest  has  been 
taken  lately  by  Ceylon  planters  in  the  prospects  of 
successful  coffee  cultivation  in  British  Central  Africa. 
There  is  one  Company  already  established  in  Ceylon, 
the  Nyasaland  Coffee  Company,  which  has  acquired 
valuable  estates  in  the  Mlanje  disti  i>;t,  and  is  placing 
a large  area  under  cultivation.  I believe,  in  addition, 
one  or  two  Englishmen  have  come  here  from  Ceylon, 
and  are  starting  coffee  planting  on  theii  ' .wr  account. 
The  ordinary  procedure  of  an  average  planter  on 
coming  into  this  country  is  to  start  planting  in  the 
following  manner : — 
After  selecting  and  purchasing  his  land,  he  begins 
by  obtaining  labour  (this  should  be  about  the  month 
of  .June;  it  is  advisable  to  commence  at  that  season 
of  the  year),  and  cuts  down  all  the  superfluous  timber 
on  the  land  he  wishes  to  plant,  and  uproots  the  bush 
which,  together  with  the  timber,  he  carefully  burns  and 
mixes  the  arhes  with  the  soil.  The  further  dealing 
of  grass  ttc.,  is  effected  by  hoeing.  The  ground  is  now 
lined  out  in  regular  rows  from  6 feet  to  7 foot  apart, 
and  at  equal  intervals  of  not  less  thjn  6 feet  or  7 feet, 
pits  are  dug  in  these  lines  with  a common  hoe,  18 
inches  wide  and  18  inches  deep.  These  pits  then  are 
left  open  for  as  long  as  possible  (say  until  September) 
to  “ weather,”  then  they  are  filled  up  and  a biunhoo 
stuck  in  the  centre  to  mark  the  place  where  the 
coffee  plant  is  to  be  inserted.  Prior  to  this  tbo 
planter  will  either  have  made  a nursery  for  himself, 
rearing  the  young  plants  from  seed,  or  will  have  made  an 
arrangement  with  some  neighbouring  planter  to  pur- 
chase seedlings  already  grown,  When  the  rains  be- 
gin about  the  latter  end  of  November,  he  proceeds 
to  plant  out  the  seedlings  in  the  aforesaid  pits, 
taking  care  that  sufficient  labour  is  available  at  this 
time  of  year  to  keep  all  the  land  which  he  is  cul- 
tivating free  from  grass  and  weeds.  The  majority 
of  planters  up  to  ihc  present  time  have  contented 
themselves  with  erecting  a wattle  and  daub-Louso 
with  a thatched  roof,  not  caiiiig  to  l.uild  a more 
substantial  or  sanitary  dwelling  until  they  are  sure 
of  smne  leturn  from  their  coffee.  But  tlie  older 
p’auUrs  have  already  built  for  themselves  good  sub- 
stantial brick  houses,  and  some  oi  the  newei.  men, 
realiziug  how  important  it  is  to  health,  start  house- 
building at  the  very  comineucement  on  substautial 
Hues,  i consider  mud  houses  of  one  storey  and 
thatched  roofs  unsanitary.  The  house  is  generally 
damp,  as  the  floor  is  simply  on  the  ground,  and 
the  thatched  roof  rots  with  the  wet,  and  the  rotting 
grass  seems  actually  to  be  the  cause  of  certain 
forms  of  sickness.  The  best  kind  of  house  which 
could  be  put  up  rapidly  smd  with  little  expense 
would  be  with  corrugated  iron  (roof  and  sides), 
having  a timber  lining  to  moderate  the  great 
heat  coming  from  the  iron  dmiug  liie  day- 
time.  Undoubtedly  the  best  kind  ot  house  for 
this  climate  is  one  of  brick  with  a corrugated  iron 
roof  and  timber  ceilings.  The  average  amount  of 
ground  which  a man  is  able  to  open  np  who  has 
at  his  command  sufficient  capital  to  employ  lUO  men  is 
about  60  or  70  acres  of  coffee  a-year.  This  would 
come  into  bearing  with  what  is  called  the  “ maiden 
crop  ” after  three  years. 
The  estimated  total  expense  of  the  planting,  up- 
keep, aud  bringing  into  bearing  of  (say)  100  acres, 
together  with  the  cost  of  the  planter’s  living  iu  a 
reasonably  comfortable  style,  should  not  ani'mnt  to 
more  than  l,000f.  This,  however,  would  not  cover 
the  expense  of  erecting  a brick  ho  ise,  brick  pulp- 
ing vats,  and  importing  machinery  for  pulping.  If, 
after  the  first  year,  the  planter  is  not  desirous  of  in- 
creasing the  area  under  cultivation,  and  merely 
contents  himself  with  keeping  the  plantation  clear 
of  weeds,  draining  it  and  making  roads  through 
it,  he  should  be  very  well  to  keep  within  the 
above  mentioned  expenditure  of  1,000/.  until  his 
coffee  brings  him  some  return.  'The  third  year 
generally  about  the  end  of  June,  the  crep  is  ready 
for  picking.  This  is,  of  course,  one  of  the  busiest 
times  for  the  planter.  The  care  whicl'  s necessary 
for  the  proper  pulping,  and  more  especially  for  the 
preparing  of  the  coffee  for  shipment,  entails  con- 
siderable trouble  in  this  country,  because  even 
during  the  dry  season  we  are  apt  to  be  surprised 
with  occasional  showers  of  rain.  Perhaps  the  best 
time  for  shipping  coffee  from  this  country  is  at  the 
end  of  the  very  dry  montJi  of  October. 
As  regards  pulping:  The  usual  process  adopted  in 
this  country  is  similar  to  that  in  Vogue  elsewhere. 
The  berry  wheu  picked  (it  is  here  spoken  of  as  the" 
“ cherry”)  is  passed  through  a pulper,  all  of  which  in 
this  Protectorate,  with  one  exception,  are  worked  by 
hand  power.  The  beans  are  here*  separated  from  the 
sweet,  fleshy  envelope  which  covers  them,  and  are 
passed  into  a brick  vat  wliere  they  are  left  (accord- 
ing to  the  temperature)  for  iwenty-four  to  thirty-six 
hours  for  fermentation.  They  are  then  passed  onto 
a second  vat,  thoroughly  washed,  taken  out  and 
dried.  The  pulper  iu  general  use  in  this  country  is 
Gordoii’s  cylindrical  pulper,  but  this  season  oue  of 
Walker’s  twin  disc  pulpers  was  impoited  an,:  proved 
a gioat  success.  Some  planters  with  a very  limuM 
maiden  Cl  op  do  not  care  to  go  to  the  expense-  t-i  -.a-- 
chasing  a pulper,  and  their  coffee  when  pi -.Led  is 
generally  pulped  by  hand  and  dried.  Prom  what  I 
can  gather  the  average  out-tuim  of  coffbe  per  acre 
ill  this  Protectorate  is  from  3 cwt.  to  3§  ci.c. ; there 
h-avo  baen  exceptional  cases  where  as  much  as  17 
cwt.  \j  ■ acre  have  been  taken,  bat  this  result 
iu  no  w ly  bo  taken  iu  miking  air  estimate.  In  ne- 
glected gardens  a return  as  poor  as  50  ibs.  to  60  I03. 
per  acre  has  been  realised;  but  it  is  geuerally  con- 
sidered tliat  the  above  estimate  of  34  cwt.  per  acre 
is  oue  which  can  be  relied  on  if  ordinary  care  is  taken 
of  the  plantation. 
