1 Aprin, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 293: 
matter, if well looked after. Pruning should be constantly kept up, and is even 
advisable in the second nursery. I have between thirty and forty men continually 
pruning. After the plants are 3 years old, before bearing, I make pits between 
the rows, one pit between every four trees, and into these pits I throw all the 
weeds, rotten leaves, and decaying vegetable matter as a substitute for manure. 
Then I cover up these pits, and, when the substances decompose, a valuabie 
manure is obtained. I also ‘thatch’ my plantations in bearing—thatis, cover 
the ground between the coffee trees with grass. After picking my crop I 
propose to manure the trees of one part of my plantation in the following 
way :—Dig a hole about 12 inches deep and about 1 foot distant round the 
stem in a half-circle, fill this with cow-dung, coffee-pulp, and ashes, well mixed. 
with soil. Another part of my plantation I intend manuring with sulphate of 
ammonia and phosphates, of which, for an experiment, I have purchased six tons. 
I have now commenced to plant shade trees, and have big nurseries of 
different kinds of Australian trees for this purpose ; Ishall not be able to tell 
fortwo or three years what effect the shade trees will have. Coffee estates 
might be advantageously laid out in gardens of from 5 to 10 acres each. 
When these are numbered and recorded, it is easy to make reference to certain 
plots, and to know what has been spent on them, when weeded, what is produced, 
and the working by task work is easier. In this manner my estate is laid out 
and worked. ‘The following improvements will become necessary for a 
systematically worked plantation :—Large cattle stalls (built near the coffee: 
gardens so as to save carriige of manure), brick houses for collecting ashes 
and manure, and good brick houses for the native labourers (to keep them in 
good health), good stores for drying coffee, for grain, and for general 
merchandise. Well-laid-out vats add to the value of a plantation. I have 
never a scarcity of labour. Labourers are constantly applying for work, and. 
even in the wet season I am always well off. The fact of giving them good 
houses, giving them the option of food or merchandise to buy food with, weekly 
supplies of salt, and medicine when anyone is ailing, adds to a certain repute 
amongst natives. I notice that every tribe has its peculiarities and special 
fitness for certain kinds of work:—The Ajawa for skilled labour, such as 
sawing, pruning, bricklaying, carpentering; the Machinga, a section of Ajawa, 
are a strong set of men, and well suited for building, cutting trees, and similar 
work, where strong muscles are required. ‘The Angoni cannot be beaten for 
pitmaking or careful weeding; and the Atonga, a strong and active race, can 
be made useful for all-round work. The Anguru are not well suited for garden 
work, but are excellent for tenga-tenga work—carrying loads up to 75 lb. _ 
Tf, however, you happen to pity one of these men and pay him something 
extra for carrying a heavy load, he is never satisfied, whereas, if you take no: 
notice, he makes no complaint whatever. ‘ 
Mr. Israel has now been in the country 3 years, and says he has had 
practically noillness. He believes ‘‘a really active life’’ and moderate living to 
be the secret of health in British Central Africa. 
Mr. Israel’s crop just picked is close on 20 tons of parchment from 50 acres. 
Around Blantyre, Mr. T. M. Hastings has an approximate area of 300 
acres under coffee; Buchanan Brothers, at Chiradzulu, 80 acres ; the late Mr. 
Horace Waller, at Naguafui, 50 acres; Buchanan Brothers, at Lunzu, 200 acres ; 
Mr. Keiller, Matope, 60 acres; Kumtaja, 75 acres; Blantyre Mission, 10 acres ; 
Sharrer and Co., a small plot at Blantyre of, say, 20 acres ; Malotta, 20 acres; 
Pettitt Brothers, on their various plantations, more than 500 acres; Lloyd, 30: 
acres ; Lamagna, 200 acres ; Hunter, 100 acres; McLagan, 100 acres; Jona- 
than Duncan, 100 acres; J. Lindsay, 100 acres; African Lakes Co., Mandala,. 
10 acres; Bismarck, 10 acres ; and David Livingstone, 10 acres. 
Last year’s coffee crop in British Central Africa reached nearly 500 tons 
(this was in January, 1897), the quality being excellent. Locusts are unfor- 
tunately very troublesome, and often destroy the blossom as soon as it opens. 
The question of carriage is a serious one to the African planter, and great 
difficulty is experienced in getting the crop to the coast. 
