542 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Fbb. i, 1887. 



be h<^ard to crack aalibly. Deep groves of figs are 

 passe 1, where shad -ws are so deuse we caauot see our 

 hor.oes' i-arsor th*- fir^t inau, "ho chants moQotonously 

 as he staggers under our himinock pole, and the t-xit 

 at the end of the aveuue tunnel shines wi'h a 

 dazzling brilliancy, aud then dawn comfS as the foot 

 hills are reached ; the thia curls of aromatic blue 

 smoke go up from the linfeU of wayside huts, parroquets 

 rush tumultuously screeching from palm tope to palm 

 tope, the hum of the nighr-time dront-s into nilence ; 

 and while the sky ov^erhead of laveuder is shot with 

 fiery yellows and crimsous, the day comes, the bee-eaters 

 take up their perches, the great black and crimson 

 swallow-lail butterflies feover amongst the yellow cactus 

 flowers, and the " gorgeous East " i-; awake again. 



The best cuff'-e lands Jie for the most part above 

 the bamboo reg'on, which rings the hiils, and to reach 

 it we have to pass through a waving forest of that 

 giant grass. Zigzaging up the Ghaut road, we 

 come at list to a plateau, three or four thousand 

 feet above the sea ; and here, all around us, in these 

 undulating glens and corries, clothed in dense and 

 gigantic jungle, is the chosen soil and congenial 

 home of the coffee bush. Lonely, indeed, will be the 

 lot for a time of him who goes to a really brand-new 

 region, where the foot of man has never before pene- 

 trated. But, to tell the tru'h, such places are 

 scarce nowadays, and we may safely suppose there is 

 a friendly, though strange, hand to welcome the 

 newcomer to the woods, and give him shelter and food 

 until he shall have had a chance to estahli-,h himself. 

 This previous settler will put the " Griffia " up in 

 the local regulations, aud smoke a cheroot or two over 

 the best spot for a new garden, and the formalities 

 attending its purchase. 



Much the same method of taking up land holds 

 good on all Crown forests. The would-be purch<ser, 

 if he is bent on opening forest for himself, " pros- 

 pects" until be finds what he thinks will be a like'y 

 bit. This is notified to the local authorities, who fix 

 a day and put the hillside up to public auction at a 

 reserve price of from 10s. to 21. per acre. The hardship 

 of this arrangement is that occasi'inally the man who 

 has been to all the trouble of making a selection is 

 outbidilen by some weiltht-ir rival, who carries off 

 the p^ize. But suppo-e it falls to the prospector 

 proper, at a price which will vary infinitely with soil, 

 climate, aspect, accessibility, neiahbourhfiod, &c., but 

 may approsimitely be put at 21. to 3^. per acre; 

 then the owner pays down 10 or 12 per cent, and 

 enters into practi.-al possession. A Government 

 surveyor oraes up and marlfs out the limits of the 

 land by clearing a broad path or "blaz-^" through 

 the forest all round, and for this about 4i (R2.) 

 per acre is char^jed. 



Th'-n the Englishman sets to work. If there is 

 another planter within a mile or two of the jungles 

 which are going to blossom with coffee an arrange- 

 ment is generally male by which the new chum stays 

 with him f . r a time, g»ing to i.nd fro everv day; 

 but if the district is quite unse+t ed. the '-Giiffiu" 

 Itmst establish himself. The first nect.ssity is some 

 labourers. To obtain 'hese reccairse is gaierally had 

 to miistr.es or headmen — gangers we call tiieiu hfre 

 in England — wbo are well k. own on the out-kirts of 

 all agricultural districts. They wait upon tiie sa-db, 

 and. W'th much salaaming, hear how many men he 

 want*, and when. For eich man, woman and child 

 they promise to produce by a stipulated date in the 

 future gnrden an advance of three or four rupees has 

 to be male. Much of this goes straight into their 

 own pockets, no d'-ubt, but th'^ rnst enables the coulie 

 labourers to provide a few necessaries for their migr- 

 ation. It. is an eventful dav when they come stream- 

 ing up the roeky hill roads, 50 or 60 of them, perhaps, 

 in Inilian file, carrNmg on their heads and shoulders 

 an infitiite variety of biggage and movable property, 

 with bags of rice j-lung across the backs of bullocks, 

 a choice assortment of little bUck and brown native 

 sheep, and bunches of miserable cock- and hens hung 

 in festoons, heads downwards, from bamb'os. They 

 encamp, and, under the energetic supervision of their 

 maistrisi, set to work erecting long rows of low 



shed-", or lin-s, as they are locally called. These are 

 V'try roughly m ide for the time of strong uprights 

 fixrd in the gr.tun I, walls of matting made of split rattan 

 cane, aud heavy roots comiog low dowu to the ground 

 of lemon-grass or fan-palm leaves. The Englishman's 

 first hut is a few score yards away, and only a little 

 more carefully finished than the natives.' Round it 

 are the stables for his pony, the tool sheds and store 

 houses. The site for s-uch a settlement should be 

 carefully chosen. Hollows must be unconditionally 

 avoided, so should windy gaps too high up. The best 

 place is a spot on the open grass hillside, by the 

 side of a good stream, with natural drainage, and 

 well above the level of the tree tops in the valley 

 below. The planter cannot take too much care of 

 his men, or treat them with too much consideration 

 and justice. They are no more •' niggers" than they 

 are Esquimaux ! And he might remember with ad- 

 vantage how many of them belong to races distin- 

 guished for valor and culture when his own ancestors 

 were still in the barbarism of woad and wolf skins. 

 It is, besides, wise policy to cultivate a good repute 

 with them, for they are great gossips, canvassing their 

 chief's peculiarities an! habits very keenly over their 

 evening fires, and transferring their alliance and labour 

 to other quarters very readily when they are ill-used. 

 Himself and his men hutted, his provisions and his 

 tojls arrived, the Eoglishman commences the inter- 

 esting part of his enterprize — an adventure in which 

 we hardly know whether to say the pleasures or the 

 pains are on the average, in the ascendant, but one 

 certainly wi»h no lack of picturesqueness about it. 



Perhaps it will give a better idea of a coffee garden 

 if we say that as a general rule it may be taken 

 that there is no level ground in a district where the 

 plants flourish ; everywhere the ground undulates with 

 more or less steepness. The typical plantation is one 

 clothing a rugged hidside, where the rich soil lies in 

 pockets between rocks, or the hollows between ridgei, 

 and the plants cover the rise and falls with their 

 glossy leaves, between which show up stones and 

 tho.se scattered logs and stumps one-; forming the 

 primeval forest. Of course, this " jungle '' while it 

 stands, is a considerable obstacle to any sort of culti- 

 vation, and has to be brought down in whole or in 

 part. The great trees — the teak", the sa's, the cedars, 

 or yellow-wooded " Jack " — are by nature sown close 

 together, and consequently reach a great height befort 

 they branch, then making a canopy overhead often 

 almost impenetrable even by an Indian sun. Thfn 

 creepers form festoons from br.anch to branch, and 

 curious orchids, with star-likf- white and yellow flowers 

 blossom, after the rains, far out of reach overtiead. 

 In the nullahs or waterc.iurses wild sago grows in 

 waving beds, and a little higher up the banks white- 

 rooted ginger and the tall sticks of broad-leafed, plea- 

 saot-baiked cmusraon flourish. This is the kind of 

 land to grow coffee and m«ke our fortun'^s ! A good, 

 deep, p-^aty soil of choc date colour, generally charac- 

 terised b.' .such veaeta'ion as the above, and an 

 aspect neither too much exposed to winds or the mid- 

 day sun, are the gre-it desiderata. 



P -rhaps the first 'hing to be done is to make a nursery 

 plot for young p'ants, to be subsequently put out into 

 the open. A nice pi ce of groun I is chosen somewhere 

 about the mid. He of the estate, and w thin a few yards 

 of a perenual water supply. All uu It-rwood and litter 

 is then put back from a space of about an acre or .so, 

 scmie of th-^ trees taken down, aud the ground very care- 

 fully dug up, befoi-e being iliviiled into lo g nnrrow rows 

 parallel with each other. In these we sow, whtn the 

 annual wet weather is expected, the little coffee beans in 

 the parchment or thin silver skn covering them. In a 

 few weeks they are up and raaki g little glossy leaves, 

 but they are not properly ready to plant until their pri- 

 maries or first branches have been formed. Constant 

 watering in dry weather, careful weeding, and artificial 

 protection from a meridian sun, are requisite here, 

 repaying th- active planter by a stock of strong, healthy 

 young plants, which it will be a ple<sure for him to plant 

 out. "while these are growing he has to get his 

 clearings ready. With a compass, a surveyor's theodo- 

 lite, and a long cord divided by coloured rags at 



