Feb, 1, 1887,] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



S43 



regular intervals, according to the distance apart his 

 future bushes are to be, he laboriously, day after 

 day, marks out in the still standing forest long parallel 

 lines, puiictuattd at regular ii.tt-rvals with IS-iuch 

 bamboo pegs. In a nngle clearing, if wo are going 

 to have the coffee 5 feet by 4 feet apart, there may 

 be room for 22,000 of these pegs. When this " p. gging" 

 is done comes the " pittmg,' i.e., holes 18 mches 

 •quare being made where every peg stands, and the 

 good top soil of vegetable pjould hidden away from 

 the conflagration that follows. 



Many a long day have we spent in the green 

 arcades of the forest superintending these ant-like 

 labours of our men, or armed with compass and 

 theodolite, enjoyed the broaching of quiet vallejs 

 that no foot but the sdeut sambours had ever trodden 

 before, and the pioneering of shady holiows that had 

 kept their repose unbroken since the beginning. Such 

 a wealth of tree, fern, and pendant deeper swings 

 overhead, and casts a shifting pa rub work of light 

 and shadow on the ground as the light breezes swmg 

 them. But, ala?, our errand was. generally one of 

 destruction. We came not to admire and withdraw, 

 but wage remorselessi war with fire aud steel. A 

 belt having been drawn round the jungle, the work 

 of clearing commences. The first trees cut are along 

 the line of the lowest ground, and then another 

 tier above them is deeply notched, but none of these 

 are cut through completely. Half a clearing will be 

 thus treated on a still and windless day. "When all 

 is ready the first axeman goes above the higbest rank 

 of forest giants, and, with a few vigorous blows, 

 topples over a medium-sized sapling. In its fall it 

 brings two others with it. These are matted to- 

 gether by rattans with others, wbich give way uu- 

 der the sudden strain, and so tier after tier rocks 

 and swings as the stress spreads, the bamboo clumps 

 splinter and crackle like a winter fire, the big trees 

 toss their arms aloft, the great yellow rents fly up 

 the bark of the " Jacks," and you can bear the inner- 

 most sinews of the cedars cracking like pistol shots 

 —and then suddenly, with a mightly ro«r, the hill- 

 side is unlaced, and a thousand years of timber go 

 to perdition with one huge, tar-resounding crash that 

 startles the ruminating sambour to his feet a mile 

 down the glen, aud sends the wild sheep flying over 

 the grass ledges of those blue crags away in the 

 dist-jnce that catch and echo the gigantic disaster ! 

 For six long hot Indian weeks the prone timber 

 lies baking, and then comes a period of animation. 

 Choosing a warm morning, with a steady breeze bloiving, 

 the planter goes to a windward corner, aud striking 

 a match, drops it into a cluster of withered leaves. 

 The first thin blue smoke curls up to the sky in a 

 delicate blue spiral laced with flame, and then, as 

 the wind bends it down, the twigs sparkle and the 

 sparks fly, the flame seething out into the open, gather- 

 ing strength as it goes, and, advancing in line of 

 battle, storms ami carries every log-encumbered hillock, 

 and runs across giant stems that briilge the streams, 

 until the whole "clearing" is a witch< s' caldron, and 

 from the I'eighbour ng heights looks like the fia'y 

 crater of Etna. But, fierce as the conflagration is by 

 day, it is infinitely more startling and grand in the 

 night time, when the standing juuglf — ebony in the 

 shadows and copper where the light catcbf-s clilf 

 and trunk—surruunds such another rocking "pillar of 

 smoke and fire " as that one which rested before 

 the Israelites at " Elim in the dcert." 



Planting out the tender green cofft-e buabes after the 

 burn, when we hunt for and draw those deposits 

 of leaf mould we have made in the unfelled wood- 

 lands, is pleasant and grateful work, the long lines 

 of greenness winding in our track across the hills, 

 and the weather being at this "planting season " mill 

 and showery. Staking the plants, making roads, open- 

 ing new forests, building bungalows and " lines " for 

 the natives, with elaborate and costly pulping houses, 

 drying sheds, "godowns," and cattle houses, occupy 

 the planter's time very fully, until he has been at 

 work three long years, and his first maiden crop— 

 Ibo earliest reward he can look to for laboitr and money 

 espeudecl— is at hand, 



He wakes up one morning duiiug the third spring 

 to B pleasant sight. From the sreps of his verandah 

 to the sal trees half a mile away, the rows of bushes 

 on which he depends for fortune are loaded with 

 white blossoms, jasmine-like and strongly scented, 

 crowning the bushes with their stars, near by and 

 extending in the distance like long lines of breakers 

 upon a sandy shore. The planter breakfasts at his 

 window, and prays for sunshine. It pU goes well, 

 in a month or two a rich crop of fruit, resembling 

 cherries, has succeeded to the brief floral display, and- 

 he watches them change in the hot sunshine through 

 green and yellow to crimson and purple. 



By the time they have reached the latter stage, 

 the increasing attacks of animals and birds suggest 

 to their owner it would be as well to get them into 

 safety. Big black monkeys come down from the 

 hill tops in organised gangs, under leadership of an 

 experienced white-bearded patriarch ; delicate little 

 squirrels, who still bear the four stripes oa their 

 backs which Vishnu's caressing fingers left, chirrup 

 and scamper down the fallen logs with "cherries" 

 in their mouths; jackals aud sambour deer stroll 

 along the rows under the moonlight, pillaging the 

 ruddy crop while the planter is safely enveloped in 

 his mosquito curtains. Even elephants like, coffee 

 thus au naturel : so for a busy month we put it be- 

 yond their reach, and all day long the encouraging 

 shout of the maistries echoes over the clearings, the 

 white-turb»ned coolies sing as they send down an 

 endless stream of crimson berries to the pulping 

 mills, and at night there goes up with the smoke of 

 their wood fires shouting and laughter, and the clash 

 of wild music as they grow cheerful over their ac- 

 cumulating " extra pay." Two more operations, and 

 that ever memorable and delightful first cheque for 

 " crop received " comes to hand from our agents in 

 the lowlands. The soft fruit we have brought in to 

 our store*— it may be some fifteen or twenty tons 

 for a maiden crop — is soaked in great vats, then 

 "pulped "-i.e., the flesh separated from the kernel 

 by pressure between gigantic revolving niitmeg-grateps 

 —dried again, and finally peeled in a stone mill worked 

 by steam or water, when the parchment, a thin 

 brittle skin, is cracked off, and our merchandise — the 

 uuroasted coffee of our shops— is ready 1 after a final 

 winnowing) for the bags and shipboard. 



If our lonely friend gives a sigh of relief as the 

 long file of white bullocks paces off down the Ghaut 

 road to the plains, it is hardly to be wondered at- 

 He has worked hard enough in all truth for that 

 precious grey freight they carry. Up every morning 

 at (5 a.m., he is off to "the good greenwood " while 

 the shadows are still purple in the hollows, and the 

 lower grounds are hidden in a silver sea of mistj 

 through which rock pinnacle and bamboo stump pierce, 

 like islands in some strange pearly ocean. The forest 

 paths are cool enough while the day is young; jungle 

 fowl crow and scratch in the undergrowth, little hog 

 deer trip timidly home through the long grass, 

 spiders of ex raordinary colours shine amongst the 

 dewdrops and cozen incautious flies, orchids bloom 

 overhead, and ground thrushes in lavender and green, 

 epauletted with sky-blue, chuckle on the stumps. But 

 the sun of the hot w. ather "wipes out " this pleasant 

 morning interlude. By mid-day the planter's world 

 grasps, forbreaib, and breakfast at noon is an effort 

 with "the sky as brass and the earth as iron." The 

 "tub" preceding the meal is a p'easant item, it 

 must be owned; so is the ruining pis'nian, who 

 generally appears jogging down the path as we sit 

 with slippers and lightest coat in the verandah await- 

 ing his arrival and breakfa8\ 



With good health we may do all the hard work— 

 the planning, the overseeing and the conceiving of 

 an estate in its earli r years — without any great dis. 

 comfort. It is when the malaria rises in May or 

 June, and fever lays hold upon us, that we groan 

 at the sultry length of the Indian days ; and as we 

 toss restlessly to and fro on our charpoys, consumed 

 with a purgatorial thirst there is no quenching, aro 

 tempted to curse those giant creepers that ewing 90 

 , nionotnnoiisly from the branch^, and thoift vilUncijf 



