i66 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sept, i, 1897 . 
ABYSSINIA ; THE WASTE OF A 
WONDROUS LAND. 
COFFEE AND CACAO AND “NUWARA ELIYAS.’’ 
(by g. w. ward.) 
Harrar, May 4. 
Idling here, in the midst of a luxuriant plantation, 
whose groves of coffee, and cocoa, and semi-tropical 
fruit-trees innumerable, separated by acres of sugar- 
cane and maize, pepper, cotton, and tobacco, are sun- 
lit and noisy with a host of birds screaming, trilling, 
belling, cooing — it is easy to understand that I do not 
envy you who read. 
Imagine an undulating region clear of jungle, for 
a long day’s ride in any direction, blessed with a 
perfect soil, innumerable streams, game in just suffi- 
cient abundance, and willing labour at hand ; imagine 
hundreds of square miles of soil capable of growing 
anything from an orange to a cabbage, so friable that 
a cat might draw the plough almost, and needing ten 
aickles where one hoe has been plied ; picture to your- 
■elf such a land, if yon can, and then mourn the fate 
of Harrar province. 
I have spoken of the weary desert that lies between 
here and the Red Sea-coast ; I have outlined the faintly- 
disguised designs of French politicians in jregard to 
Harrar, and the unpardonable policy which led to 
the abandonment of this Eden by England when the 
Sondan was about to be evacuated ; let me now uti- 
lise one of the many long hours that must be spent 
lazily, awaiting Menelik’s passport to the beyond, in 
shortly describing the lost garden-land of north-east 
Africa — the paradise that an Englishman flung away 
fifteen years ago. 
In all there may be thirty plantations around Harrar, 
though that is but a thousandth part of the possibilities. 
All practically were 
CREATED DURING THE IIAI.F-CENTURY 
of Egyptian rule which England interrupted. They 
range in size from 200 to perhaps 2,000 acres. When 
the Abyssinians made the Galla country their eastern- 
most colony — which they did veiy promptly after the 
evacuation — they found Harrar and many of its 
gardens ready-made. Being beef-eating, mead-drink- 
ing warriors, like so many modern Norse men, they 
disdained agriculture, and (slavery being interdicted) 
but sligntly appreciated the new-found treasure. A 
large proportion of the cultivated ground was therefore 
generously presented to the Greek and French 
community during the succeeding ten or twelve years. 
Here where I write, and all as far as I can see from 
this hill side, was so given, by Ras Makonuen, in 
consideration of such valuable services as the dis- 
mounting a mitrailleuse , steady attendance for some 
weeks at his durbar ; submission, uncomplainingly, 
to unjustifiable arrest by over-zealous soldiers ; and 
things of that sort. The result is the extraordinary 
spectacle of almost the entire environs of the eastern 
capital of Abyssinia held by foreigners who mostly 
keep little grog-stores in town, know nothing of 
farming, and use the land chiefly as a place of 
recreation for Sunday outings. The only serious 
attempt at development is being made by a Cretan — 
the only man, too, who possesses title-deeds, and who, 
nevertheless, privately notified me that, if I excited 
the suspicion of the Ras by again applying for leave 
to visit his land, the land would probably be sum- 
marily seized, 
WITHOUT ANY RED-TAPE BOTHER 
about title or improvements. And he has spent ssme 
j 65,000 on the plantation, mind you ! 
The richest soil in all Abyssinia, almost without 
a stone or a weed ; with plentiful water aud all the 
labour one wants at 6 d a day ; with no apparent 
foe or obstacle but wild animals and the long de- 
sert which lies between this and the tea — putting 
aside the insecurity of tenure under Abyssinian 
administration — it is an hourly marvel to me how 
England permitted such a territory to be thrown 
away, needlessly. Why — knowing nothing of plant- 
ing, following primeval methods that an East or 
West Indian colonist would sneer at, the favoured 
landowner I have referred to draws already some 12s 
net from each of his thousands of coffee-plants 
annually, not to speak of the other revenues from the 
great garden. And he hardly knows cotfee when he 
sees it, and his no idea what to do with his cacao! 
His neighbour on each side is a store-k-aeper. On 
the hill opposite is the ground of a watch-maker. 
Fancy — only fancy ! — whit estates producing easily 
their £7 and £20 an acre annually, under the slipshoi 
management of this batch of incompetent, insecure, 
indolent Greek and Armenian traders, mitilit be 
worth in the hands of substantial, energetic, British 
colonists, who could rely on their titles being res- 
pected to an extent wii ich no Levantine can in this 
despotic land. 
I have seen the gardens of the Far East, and few 
could surpass in fertility these which encircle 
Hirrar, given the same care. That this place is 
UNKNOWN AND UNEXPLOITED 
is easily explained : it would have been far less diffi- 
cult to have obtained Ras Makonnen's leave to go a 
hundred miles in any direction, shooting, than to 
spend a few days of leisurely espionage in this Mount 
Pisgah. 
This is not Abyssinia. It is hardly an Abyssinian 
colony. It is a derelict Paradise that Meuelik has 
seized. Ten years ago it was his boundary. Today 
the frontier of Ethiopia is a hundred miles nearer 
the coast, and two hundred southward. The frontier 
is spreading, extending always, in whichever direc- 
tion one looks. Your very latest London maps do not 
show it, by any means, or the believers in the eventual 
partition of Africa among three or fourEuropean 
POWERS WOULD BE ASTOUNDED. 
Even here the present boundaries are not known de- 
finitely. The western side is an enigma — the south 
a puzzle. South-east our sphere of influence is al- 
ready invaded, and north-east Italy is limited once 
more to Erythrea. And Menelik has just ordered 
thirty Krupp cannon and a dozen mitrailleuses through 
a French agent. What does all this iudicate ? 
Have I made the situation clear (to some extent, 
at least) in my later notes from this eastern gate of 
the leading North African independency ? Fertile, 
rich in minerals, healthy, on the one side ; governed 
in a mediaevally barbaric style, with a dash of Thibe- 
tan exclusiveness ; either the likely prey of a rival 
Power whose only interest is a foot of sandy beach at 
Djibouti, but who is avowedly to establish herself 
nearer the Nile sou' ce, or, if Britain misses her oppor- 
tunita, a formidable obstacle against the spread of 
real civilisation beyond Khartoum if left independent — 
Abyssinia must be kept in view by our Foreign Office. 
To make her an ally will be a mistake — even the Little 
Britain party must see that her “ protection” must 
inevitably follow the re-opening of the Soudan. And 
among other things Biitisli influence here will mean a 
dozen Nuwara Eliyas to our ooiuitryinen. — Z>(n7// Mail, 
THE INDIAN TEA ASSOCIATION. 
At the sixteenth annual meeting of tliis 
Association lield at the Bengal Cham- 
ber of Commerce on tlie IGtii June, 
the Chairman (Mr. G. A. Ormi^ton) in 
tlie course of his opening address referred to 
several important matters. One of the first sub- 
jects touched upon was the work tlie Darjee- 
ling and Dooars Sub Committee aud satisfaction 
was expressed with regard to the outcome of repre- 
sentations made in regard to the waste land rules 
and leases. Road communications in tlie Dooars 
do not seem to have advanced, but the Bengal 
Government has sanctioned a comprehensive 
sclieme. Railway extension in that District is 
also mucli needed and Government is giving 
consideration to tlie question. As to the develop- 
ment of Assam it is pointed out that in tliat 
Valley alone it is estimated that the cultivable 
waste land is 6,700,000 acres not including the 
enormous tracts of reserved forests. The area 
