42 Coffee Planting. 



the temperature of the island being also regulated 

 and cooled by the same process. 



The coffee districts of Southern India, on the 

 other hand, having the sea on one side only, and a 

 wide stretch of bare level country on the other, have 

 a less temperate, that is to say, a hotter climate, 

 and are visited by but little rain except at those 

 seasons when the prevailing wind comes from the 

 ocean, namely during the south-west monsoon, 

 which extends over less than half the year. During 

 the north-east monsoon months, the wind passes 

 over hundreds of miles of a country scorched with 

 the rays of a sun at this season nearly vertical, and 

 is thus converted into a furnace blast burning up 

 all before it, and which under the term " land 

 wind " is commonly recognized as injurious alike 

 to animals and vegetation. 



The effect of the difference brought about by 

 these causes between climates of Ceylon and south- 

 western India, is evident enough in the vegetation 

 of the two countries ; it being observable that plants 

 which flourish in Ceylon at an elevation of say 

 3000 feet, are not found on the mountains lining 

 the Indian continent, until we have attained a level 

 of some 4000 or 4500 feet ; and due allowance 

 must always be made for this difference in treating 

 the question of elevation, in connexion with coffee 

 or other cultivation in the respective localities. 



