28 Cff ee Planting. 



their slopes about the year 1820, by a Mr. Cockburn. 

 Its cultivation has not, however, made great pro- 

 gress so far, nor is the yield large. Possibly these 

 hills may be situated too far from the sea-coast, 

 the climate being thus too dry for the successful 

 prosecution of coffee cultivation ; but I am inclined 

 to think that by the judicious use of shade, such, 

 for instance, as that of the jack-tree, this difficulty 

 might be overcome. Dr. Shortt, one of the 

 residents of Yercaud on the Shervaroy Hills, in- 

 forms us, in his work, that there are 5000 acres 

 under cultivation. 



The town of Salem, containing some 40,000 

 inhabitants, is situated at the foot of these hills, 

 and as the Madras and Beypoor railway passes the 

 town, great advantages in connexion with the 

 supply of labour as well as transit are afforded to 

 the district. 



In a paper read some time ago before the 

 Society of Arts, by Mr. W. Branson, on the present 

 condition of the growth of coffee, he reviews the 

 prospects of South India and Ceylon as coffee- 

 producing countries, as compared with those of 

 Brazil, Java, &c. Mr. Branson lays it down as a 

 fixed principle, that the total extinction of slavery 

 and forced labour in whatever part of the world is 

 only a question of time, and that the freed African 



