LI I'. U A U V 



UNIVKKS1TY ol 



OALIFOitNlA. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



Durability of coffee property Question one to be faced 

 Age of estates in Ceylon Planting fifty years ago The 

 legacy of pioneers Native coffee gardens Difficulties 

 Dangers to permanency Diseases, &c. Conditions 

 of durability Climate Soil Culture The Author's 

 opinion. 



THE question of the permanency or durability of 

 coffee property is one which has long been agi- 

 tating the minds of not a few of the Ceylon and 

 South Indian planters, and I am inclined to be- 

 lieve it is one upon which, if truth were told, many 

 of them entertain considerable misgivings, and 

 would, consequently, be just as well pleased to defer, 

 if not evade the discussion of. Such a course, 

 however, seems to me a mistake, and moreover one 

 from which nothing can possibly be gained, inas- 

 much as it must inevitably convey to outsiders the 

 impression that the question of permanency as a 

 proposition has been already privately brought up, 

 examined, and dismissed as untenable. Now what 

 are the facts bearing upon this subject ? 



On arriving in Ceylon myself, so long ago as 



