It Is Perennial, But Requires Replanting Once In Three
Years.
A considerable amount of this variety is grown in the Upper
and Lower Shire valleys.
Every family of any importance owns a
cotton patch which, from the entire absence of weeds, seemed to be
carefully cultivated. Most were small, none seen on this journey
exceeding half an acre; but on the former trip some were observed of
more than twice that size.
The "tonje cadja," or indigenous cotton, is of shorter staple, and
feels in the hand like wool. This kind has to be planted every
season in the highlands; yet, because it makes stronger cloth, many
of the people prefer it to the foreign cotton; the third variety is
not found here. It was remarked to a number of men near the Shire
Lakelet, a little further on towards Nyassa, "You should plant plenty
of cotton, and probably the English will come and buy it." "Truly,"
replied a far-travelled Babisa trader to his fellows, "the country is
full of cotton, and if these people come to buy they will enrich us."
Our own observation on the cotton cultivated convinced us that this
was no empty flourish, but a fact. Everywhere we met with it, and
scarcely ever entered a village without finding a number of men
cleaning, spinning, and weaving. It is first carefully separated
from the seed by the fingers, or by an iron roller, on a little block
of wood, and rove out into long soft bands without twist.
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