6 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July i, 1S97. 
nearly alike in shape in all their stages, but 
they are scarcely large enough to be seen by the 
naked eye. 
The perfect insect of the corn thrips is blackish, 
but in the first state of larva or grub it is of a 
deep yellow ; in the second it is of a paler yellow, 
with whitish wing-cases. These thrips are to be 
found from June onwards in the growing wheat 
ears, and sometimes in the sheathing leaves of the 
stem. They feed on the corn grain, by piercing 
into it with their sucker-like jaw apparatus, and 
thus draw away the juices and cause the grain to 
shrivel. 
Another kind infests the notato, drawing away 
the juices in the same way as the corn thrips; as 
do also the aphides, scale insects, plant bugs, and 
some others, which we have just noticed, with 
their variously formed sucking apparatus. In the 
case of the potato thrips, dusting with dressings 
of lime arrd soot, or other mixtures, might do 
good ; but for the corn thrips it seems impossible 
to find any application, as any of those used to 
destroy the thrips would hurt the corn. The chief 
means of prevention seems to lie in clearing stubble 
or in deep ploughing to get rid of thrips which may, 
be wintering at the roots of the removed crop, or 
in destroying wild grasses on which the eggs may 
be laid round the fields. 
The knapsack sprayer is a very convenient form, 
and is noted here as being serviceable for distribu- 
tion of washes and sprays for destruction of 
aphides, scale insects, &c . ; as well as for the dis- 
libution of Paris-gieen, mentioned previously. 
— 
A CEYLON PLANTER IN GERMAN EAST 
AFRICA. 
THE CLIMATE— FEVER— I, EAF DISEASE. 
I was tired of Ceylon, and got an offer of a good 
billet in German East Africa, and being told the 
climate and shikar were good, I jumped at it. The 
climate is rather warm in the plains, and delightful 
in the hills ; until you stir up the soil, when it’s 
fearfully feverish : pucca black-water fever. And as 
I came out as a planter, the results were inevita- 
ble. First thing I had to do was to drain out a 
lot of swamps, which was something like cleaning 
out cesspools. The planters are mostly Germans of 
sorts. One was a very decent chap, rest were an 
awful lot of bounders. A brother Englishman made 
me a trifle ashamed of my nationality. I landed at 
Tanga on the coast in October, 1893. Lovely harbour, 
Tanga, land-locked on sides, large enough to float 
ships of 4,000 tons at present. I marched up coun- 
try : took me days in the very long marches of 
20-30 miles a day. 
First thing I did after planting up a ten-acre patch 
was to go down with fever for a fortnight. I got 
better, and the other Englishman on the tote had 
a row with the Javanese labour and left for the coast. 
I couldn’t speak a w'ord of the language, but quickly 
gathered they thirsted for the other man’s blood. 
The plantation was only 90 acres planted, 50 more 
ready to plant, and at the end of the year we got 
it up to 350 planted. The “reserve” was a block 
of 275,000 acres. Lots of room for extension. All 
coffee, except two acres of wretched tea. Grew lots 
of native food, arrow-root and so on for estate cou- 
sumpiion. Leaf disease first appeared some three 
months after I arrived, on the oldest coffee, about 
15 months’ old. Started on one or two trees, and I 
promptly spotted it and reported it to niy boss and in 
fact the whole district. No one believed it at first 
and said I was drivelling. I burnt the affected trees 
at once, and sent specimens of the leaves to Kew 
and Berlin. Before we could -get an answer, the 
pest had increased to such an extent that confir- 
mation of my surmises was no longer needed. On 
making enquiries I find that the seed had been piu'- 
chased in Colombo by the German Consul. It was 
reported that he bought the seed ignorant that it 
was to be used for planting. Ten per cent, at 
least was light. Of the balance only about 30-40 
per cent, came up fairly strong plants. The best 
of these were planted out, with the above result. 
The course of the disease ran curiously. It took 
a strip away from the lines right down a field. 
Then it worked back over a ridge through a break 
in the wind belt to another clearing, where there 
were two very large nurseries. These it played mis- 
chief with. These plants were put out and the 
wEole estate got affected. I left before the full re- 
sults could be seen, but I noticed the only unattacked 
portions were some line coffee and a little bit of 
a shade clearing. Nearly all the rest of the coffee 
was in the open, pucca Ceylon style, barring a few 
odd trees some 40 to 60 feet apart, that were only 
left because they were too big and expensive to cut 
down . — Plantinrj Opinion. 
♦ 
COFFEE PLANTING IN NYASSALAND. 
FROJI AN INTERVIEW' WITH JIR. G. M. CRACRE. 
Mlanji is fifty miles from Blantyre, and is situated 
on a plateau at an elevation which rises to 3,000 
feet, though the Nyassaland Coffee Company’s place 
is only from 1,500 to 1,800 feet high. This plateau 
is overlooked by Mlanji mountain, which rises to 
10,000 feet. The country is undulating, like the Assam 
district, and it has a rainfall of about eighty. The 
temperature is cool and equable, but the place is 
particularly unhealthy from the middle of Novei. her 
to the end of February, which is the planting season. 
The pioneer of Mlanji is Mr. Henry Brown, who 
was formerly an Inspector in the Ceylon Police. 
"When he left here, in 1890 or 1891, he went to Central 
Africa in connection with the work proceeding at 
the Lakes ; but in a short time he took to coffee 
planting. 
Mr. Crabbe said ; “ Well, when I left the Com- 
pany’s property they had 240 acres opened, and last 
year they opened another ten acres, making 250 
acres opened, but another 250 is to be opened this 
year. The jungle which has to be cleared is very 
heavy, but the soil is by a long way the best soil 
that can be found there, and is very dark-red in 
colour. My place has been taken by Mr. Moggridge, 
who was formerly with Mr. Cotton, on Demeiia, 
Passara. He has with him as assistant Mr. Robin, 
who also hails from Ceylon, having been a planter 
with Mr. Metcalfe in Punduloya. They came out 
to me a year ago last May. Robins has suffered 
very badly with fever. Five miles off our place was 
an estate belonging to Mr. Moir, who was formerly 
Manager of the African Lakes Company. He had 
about 180 acres opened in coffee. On the other 
side of us our nearest neighbour was Mr. Henry 
Brown, who had about 200 acres opened. He had 
some coffee in full bearing, and he had also a few 
tea-bushes, but they were not a good jat. .Then 
about ten miles off us Mr. Bradshaw had about 180 
acres. His was a very good place. His oldest coffee 
was about five years of age, and he got a crop of 
30 tons last year. He has just left on a trip home, 
but he has certainly done the best of anybody there. 
Then, there is a small estate of 60 acres belonging 
to a Mr. Simpson, who, in addition to coffee, has 
gone in for a few native products. I think that is 
about all. Of course there are a good many planta- 
tions round about Blantyre ; but with the exception 
of the Buchanans’ property which is managed by 
Mr. Hunter, they are all small holdings. There are 
no factories, and all the pulpers are worked by hand 
with the exception of those at Mr. Moil’s place. 
He has the only water-wheel in the country.” 
But the great thing they have to contend against, 
is the want of good seed. Of coures, the coffee is 
of the Arabian sort, but this want is greatly felt, 
and something will have to be done with regard to 
getting better seed. The Nyassaland Coffee Com- 
pany did try to introduce Brazilian seed, but it 
didn’t answer— it failed to germinate. All the seed 
we had was what we got locally. No coffee seed 
from India or Ceylon, you know, is allowed into 
the country on account of leaf disease, nor is tea 
seed allowed, though so.ne sent by Mr. Carson from 
Ceylon managed to get in and it turned out a failure 
