232 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Oct. 1897. 
SIR (iK.KMH EI.PlUNSTOIsE ON THE 
PLANTINO PROSPECT OF PERAK. 
“ This will he a grand country in 20 years. 
C(jffoe Liherian, coconuts and rubbers ; cattle feed- 
ing also will jiay well. Someliow’ or another one 
always feels in touch with Ceylon here. So many 
of the Civil Servants and Planters have been and 
are associated with Ceylon either by relation- 
ship or business. Then in the lower grades of 
the Civil Service all departments and esiiccially 
in the meilical are recruited from Ceylon. 
“ I never look on this country except as having 
a sort of cousinship with Ceylon and that together 
they will help to supply a large luoportion of the 
world’s requirenient.s. — (jR.eme Elphinstone.” 
PROSPECTS IN NYASALANU. 
INTERVIEW YITH MR. ALEXANDER 
WHYTE. 
Mr. Alexander Whyte, the well known botanist 
and naturalist, formerly head of the Scientilic 
Department in tite Administration of Rritish 
Central iVfriea, has just been in Aberdeen for a 
tew days, on his wav through to Braemar, where 
be Intends spending a well-merited holiday after 
his arduous exploratory and scientilic labours in 
Nyasalaud, of which some account has already 
appeared in these columns. Mr. Whyte is looking 
hale and hearty, and none the worse of his 
ex|jeriences in llritish Central Africa, where in- 
deed during all his stay of six yeais he has 
enjoyed exceiitionaliy good health, having never 
been once down with fever. The collections which 
he has made of the dried plants and of the 
birds and the animals of the country are very 
extensive — among the most extensive made by 
single scientists it is believed —and the authori- 
tiesT at Kew and at the Natural History Museum 
in Cromwell Road are highly pleased with the 
results. The Zoological Society have rewarded 
Mr. Whyte by presenting him with their model 
in regard for the value of his investigations. 
Mr. Whyte speaks in glowing teims of the pro- 
gress made in this Protectorate, now our newest 
Crown Colony. A review of what h.as been done 
during the [last half-dozen years is truly asto- 
nishing, and it would be difficult to poirt to 
such a record of work effected for .anything like 
the same expenditure of money in any other 
country or colony. The very tribes who weie 
the most hostile and the most obstinate to 
submit to British rule and to abandon their 
slaving pro[)cnsities are now furnishing the best 
recruits for the military and police forces. The 
revenue is increasing by rapid strides, and nearly 
all the tribes are willingly paying the tax of 
3s. levied on every household. 
Of the wonderful 
NATURAE CAPABILITIE.S OF BRITISH CENTRAL 
V AFRICA 
Mr. Whyte iSi well qualilied to speak. The most 
serious obstacle to the rapid development of the 
country, he says, is the want of e.asy and cheaper 
means' of transport to and from the coast. For- 
tunately, however, this is to all appearances 
about to be remedied. A r.ailway survey from 
Cldromo, at the junction of the Ruo and Shire 
ri /ers, to Blantyre has been most elliciently com- 
pleted and laid doA-n on a huge scale by Mr. 
Macrone, who is now home in Edinburgh, with 
all the requisite details and information to lay 
before Ids directors. Britain in self-protection 
must push it on, so as to secure for herself the 
most advantageous highway, via the Lakes, into 
and through Central Africa. Between the sea 
and the terminus of the proposed line at the 
Ruo and the Shire rivers, the Zambesi river 
steamers provide a transport, but the railway 
which the Portuguese are making from Quiliniane 
to tlie same point will in a short time provide 
more convenient and quicker communication. 
Of the prospects for 
COFFEE 
—the staple of the country — Mr. Whyte speaks 
in a very hopeful way. The soil and the cli- 
mate are quite suitable. Mistakes have na- 
turally been made tlirouidi the want of ex- 
perience. The coffee bush requires special treat- 
ment, and it does not follow that what suits 
it in one country will be equally successful 
in another. Hitherto the coffee planting in 
Nyasaland has been in a measure pa.s.sing 
through the experimental stage. Now, howe\ er, 
the treatment of the cortee, especially as to 
shade, is better understood, and crops, paying 
very fairly, are being jiicked. The tran.sport 
(luestion once solved, land for coffee planting 
would, Mr. Whyte feels sure, be taken up on 
a large scale. 
Among the other products likely to prove 
remunerative in British Central Africa Mr. 
AVhytc con.siders the next best to coffee to be 
RUBBER, 
which is indigenous in the land, and the de- 
mand for which in the world of commerce is 
continually increasing. The Landolphias, the 
best yielders of rubber, are growing in Nyasa, 
ready to be tapped in the native state. Samples 
of the rubber from this plant Mr. Whyte 
gathered and sent home to this country. His 
idea of how to cultivate the rubber trees 
would be to plant them in forests at the foot 
of other trees, which would .serve as stakes up 
which they could climb. This would be an in- 
expensive method of establishing forests of rub- 
ber, and the only drawback is that it would 
entail the locking up of capital for five or six 
years before yielding a return. The Ceara rub- 
ber also grows freely in the Shire Highlands, 
but it has not been found productive enough 
to pay. Anotlrer product which has al- 
ready been introduced, and which promises 
well in the lower and hotter districts is 
Liberian coffee, while cardamoms, nutmegs, and 
spices might also be grown to ailvantage. Cacao 
Mr. Whyte has tried to introduce on several 
occasions, but without great success. The cacao 
plant is very delicate and difficult of transport, 
Imt Mr. Whyte feels confident that there are 
many suitable localities along the banks of the 
rivers ami in tin- mountain ravines where it would 
do admirably if once started. As to cotton, it 
could be grown to a boundless extent, but the 
cost of conveyance is at present killing to this 
branch of agriculture. Tapioca has been manu- 
factured to a considerable extent by the members 
of the Established Church Mission at Domasi from 
the roots of the manihot or cas.sava plant, and 
has proved of excellent quality, finding a ready' 
sale among the Europeans of the rlistrict. Arrovv- 
root could also be cultivated, and in fact nearly 
all tropical and sub-troi)ical economic plants could 
find suitable habitats in Nyasaland. Stock of all 
sorts thrive well on the plateaux of w'est and 
north Nyasa. Cattle are now plentiful with the 
planters, supplies having been got from Tete, on 
the Zambesi, and from Angoniiand, to the west 
and southwest of Lake Nyasa. Goats and fat- 
