October i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



287 



From 1S55 to 18G5 the young fellow who " went into 

 coffee " was usually regarded by his friends as one 

 who was bound, it he exercised but ordinary prud- 

 ence, and lived economically, to make a very neat 

 competency wherewith to return to his native land, 

 and the bosom of his family, long ere the prime 

 of life had been passed. He was, at the same 

 time, regarded with much amiability by Banks, 

 bankers, and the devotees of commerce. But, 

 by a lamentable concatenation of events, for which 

 they are not themselves responsible, the planters, 

 with few exceptions have been reduced from com- 

 parative affluence to approximate poverty. The 

 bankers who were once so ready to advance money 

 to them on mortgage for the extension of estates or 

 in anticipation of crops, now, with one con- 

 sent, refuse to advance a rupee, and are 

 foreclosing in self-defence. The credit of plant 

 planters has thus temporarily gone, and only those 

 planters remain in India who are unable to get 

 away without sacrificing the savings and labours of 

 a lifetime. Estates, when forced on to the market, 

 fetch the most ruinous prices. Coffee is overdone ; 

 cinchona is overdone ; and tea, it is feared, is also 

 in course of being overdone. The gloomy position 

 of coffee in India, Ceylon, Java, Brazil, etc., deters 

 the entrance of new men into the business ; pre- 

 vents the investment of fresh capital ; contracts the 

 area of cultivation (for the estates of some planters 

 who had no funds to go on with, have been 

 abandoned, and have retarned to jungle) ; and must, 

 in the course of time, reduce the supply of the 

 berry to the consumer, and thus bring about a 

 partial remedy for the present state of things. But 

 it will need many good years to restore the con- 

 fidence of capitalists in planting enterprise. All 

 this must contribute to the commercial disadvantage 

 of Southern India. 



There is reason, however, to hope, that what the 

 Presidency may lose by coffee, it may make up by 

 gold, and other minerals. The prospects of gold 

 mining in Mysore are certainly very encouraging. 

 The Mysore Company is said to be whining gold 

 of the value, on an average, of over E8,000 per 

 mensem. It is weighted with a capital of £135,000, 

 ■which is out of all proportion to its wants. £45,000 

 of this went to pay for a square mile of unproved 

 land, and much of the rest was dribbled away. 

 Any profit now being made will afford but a small 

 dividend on the whole capital, but if £30,000 be 

 taken as the fair value of the comparatively smaU 

 piece of land now being worked, and of machinery 

 purchased and mining operations to date, then it 

 will be seen that the Company is doing well. It 

 has convincingly established the existence of gold 

 in paying quantities, within (as compared with 

 Australian mines) a short disttnce from the sur- 

 face. The greatest depth reached, so far, is 235 

 feet, and the deeper the shafts are sunk, the more 

 rich is the stone. Probably the Mysore Company 

 ■will reduce its capital by selling bits of land 

 advantageously. The Nundydroog and Ooregum 

 Companies have actually resumed operations, and the 

 Ballaghat is hard at work, and hopeful. 



The home public having been once bit about 

 Indian Gold Mining, will be shy about further 

 investments in the development of the latent wealth 

 of ■nhat they can but regard as the Land of the 

 (Jolden Fleece. Hut in lHSO-82 the public was 

 grossly misled, and again and again did we protest 

 against the foUy of the hour. Now, however, the 

 case is different. "Kesults" which were vainly 

 craved for in 1880-82, are now before us, so far 

 as Kolar is concerned, and these are handsome 

 enough to encourage further enterprise. Gold is 

 the trj'ing wani of the age, as the supply is far 



below the world's requirements, and prices are being 

 disarranged by the portentous fact. If, then, Madras 

 should eventually become — as seems probable — the 

 outlet for a large and steady supply of the com- 

 modity, her own fortunes will be beneiicially affected. 

 We wish we could add that gold mining prospects 

 are improving in Wynaad, but the industry is 

 believed to be hopeless there, though the revival of 

 interest in the Kolar field may exercise an en- 

 couraging influence upon the Western Coast. The 

 business of gold mining will now, it is fair to 

 believe, be conducted on sound business principles ; 

 and as in Australia, so here, success in a search 

 for gold should stimulate investigation into the iron, 

 copper, and coal resources of the Presidency. — 

 Madras Nail. 



NATjVL: depressed AGRICULTURAL PRO- 

 SPECTS. 



From Sir H. Bulwer's Speech to the Legislative 

 Council : — The past season has been accompanied 

 by a drought of unusual severity, which has entailed, 

 I am sorry to say, considerable losses among the 

 natives living in the thorn districts, and has already 

 caused a rise in the price of produce above average 

 rates ; but although farming has been carried on 

 under somewhat exceptional difficulties, the year has 

 been marked by increased activity on the part of 

 those engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits. 

 The evidences of this are visible in an enlarged 

 area of cultivation, in many improvements in the 

 method of farming, and in the extensive enclosure 

 of land. The variety and excellence of the articles 

 exhibited at the different agricultural shows re- 

 cently held, affords a proof of what can be done 

 in the colony ; and a comparison of the entry lists 

 of the agricultural societies with the list of imported 

 articles affords a further proof that many things 

 now imported can be produced in the colony. 

 The sugar planting industry in this, as in all the 

 other colonies where it is prosecuted, has entered 

 upon a period of serious and anxious depression in 

 consequence of the severe competitive struggle that 

 it has to carry out with the produce of the beet 

 in the home markets. The best way for carrying 

 on this struggle will probably be found in the' im- 

 proved modes of growing the sugar-cane and in the 

 careful prevention of all waste, whether of material 

 or of labour, in the manufacture. It is satisfactory 

 to know that the sugar planters of the coast have 

 not been discouraged by the great reduction in the 

 prices obtained by them, but have on the contrary 

 shown renewed activity, and are steadily adding to 

 the area of land under cane cultivation^ while the 

 recent partial recovery of prices in the home market 

 is a cause for further congratulation. Notwith- 

 standing the leaf-disease and other causes which 

 have led to a falling-off of late years in coffee 

 planting, this industry has now been to some ex- 

 tent resumed with a fair prospect of success. The 

 growth and manvifacture of tea gives promise of de- 

 veloping within a few more years into a profitable 

 enterprise. At ])resent the consumption of these 

 two products is almost exclusively limited to the 

 j colony ; but I trust that it will not be long before they 

 take place amongthe articles of our regular export." 

 From the reply of the Council we quote as 

 follows : — 



" We regret the continued depression which exists 

 in conmiercial circles ; this depression, however, is 

 not peculiar to Natal. No doubt, the decrease in 

 our imports is partly oau.sed by the diminished prices 

 obtained for our eliief articles of export, whereby 

 the purchasing power of the community is reduced. 

 This is beyond our control ; but it will be our 



