306 Coffee Planting. 



are told of proprietors who, having taken out specie 

 from the bank in Kandy, to pay the coolies with, 

 engaged in play on arriving at the manager's 

 bungalow, until the whole amount had passed into 

 the pocket of one or other ; payment of the coolies 

 being postponed until a fresh remittance could be 

 obtained. While it is also narrated how Colombo 

 agents have been known to remonstrate with the 

 estate managers for not being sufficiently extrava- 

 gant in their expenditure. 



It would surely, therefore, be rather a matter for 

 wonder than otherwise were all the estates opened 

 in such days as those referred to, to be still under 

 cultivation. 



There seems, as far as I can see, to be no reason 

 to apprehend a limit to the possible permanency of 

 a coffee plantation, under favourable or even suitable 

 conditions. Native plantings are to be found in 

 many parts of Ceylon, Wynaad, Mysore, &c., con- 

 taining trees of an age far beyond the power of the 

 oldest inhabitant to define, and which have very 

 probably been flourishing for generations. 



At the same time, one is forced to admit that 

 there may possibly be much still to learn, as to the 

 conditions best calculated to promote the health 

 and longevity of the plant. We of to-day are 

 reaping the fruits of the painful experience sown 

 by our * predecessors ; and may it not be that our 



