84 Coffee Planting* 



desertion of the entire gang, the planter often to the 

 last remaining in entire ignorance of the real cause. 

 In the Wynaad, it is at times a matter of no 

 small difficulty to obtain adequate supplies of 

 suitable food for natives imported from the rice- 

 growing districts. What they require is " boiled 

 rice," i. e. rice that has been soaked and dried before 

 separation from the husk ; this is not generally 

 used in the Wynaad and adjoining districts, the 

 inhabitants of which live principally on raggee, 

 with a certain proportion of "raw rice," (i. e. rice 

 which has simply been separated from the husk 

 without the process above referred to). The latter 

 appears to agree with natives who do not make 

 it their staple food, but with those who do, it has a 

 tendency to produce dysentery, &c. In the event 

 of any systematic importation of labour from such 

 districts as Ganjam or the South Indian plains, it 

 will be essential to import rice from Bengal, 

 Ganjam, Chittagong or elsewhere, as is done in 

 Ceylon. This could be landed at Tellicherry, 

 Cannanore, or Calicut, or at Madras, and thence 

 sent by rail to Bangalore, and by bullock-cart to 

 Mysore and Manantoddy. This want, however, 

 would very soon be supplied by the various enter- 

 prizing agency firms established on the Malabar 

 coast. 



