4O Coffee Planting. 



scurity, and saturating vegetation with moisture. 

 The temperature here will probably seldom rise 

 above 70 in the shade, at other times falling as low 

 as 50. The general result is, that although the 

 trees have a gloriously healthy appearance, they 

 bear hardly any crop. 



Turn from this picture to the Wynaad, say to 

 an estate some few miles inland from the Ghauts, 

 with an aspect facing eastward towards the My- 

 sore plateau, and at an elevation of something less 

 than 3000 feet. Here will be found a climate pos- 

 sessing great heat, and entirely deprived of rain- 

 fall during a considerable part of the year. True, 

 there are showers in the spring months, while a 

 perfect deluge may be looked for while the monsoon 

 lasts, during the months from June to August 

 inclusive, but it is strictly correct to say that there 

 are several months every year during which not a 

 drop of rain falls droughts of four or even five 

 months being not unusual. Day after day the sun 

 blazes forth ; to use the powerful language of Scrip- 

 ture, " the heavens are as brass and the earth as 

 iron ;" the soil opens in fissures, the jungles become 

 parched and bare, and all nature seems to gasp for 

 moisture. The effect of this ordeal upon the coffee 

 is at once apparent ; the plant, although not by 

 nature deciduous, beginning first to droop, and 

 finally losing nearly all or much of its foliage year 



