CuAP. VI.] COFFEE PLANTING. 233 



estate is now tended like a garden, and the soil enriched 

 artificially in proportion to the produce it bears. Expen- 

 diture has been reduced within the bounds of discretion ; 

 an acre of forest-land can be brought under crop in 

 1857 for one tenth what it cost in 1844 ; and although 

 the extravagant prices, and still more extravagant expec- 

 tations, of that period, have been dissipated, coffee-plant- 

 ing at the present day, under carefid supervision, promises 

 to be as sound an investment as moderate enterprise can 

 hope for. 



But whatever may be the ascertained advantages of 

 Ceylon in point of soil, temperature, and moisture ; and 

 however bountiful may be the jield of the plants, the 

 speculation must always be estimated in connection 

 with the cost and vicissitudes with which it is un- 

 happily associated. Anxiety must be inseparable- from 

 an undertaking exclusively dependent on immigrant 

 labom* ; and hable to be affected at the most critical 

 moment by its capricious fluctuations. JSTo temptation 

 of wages, and no prospect of advantage, has liitherto 

 availed to overcome the repugnance of the Singhalese 

 and Kandyans to engage in any work on estates, except 

 the first process of felhng the forests. Eveiy subsequent 

 operation must be carried on by coolies from Malabar and 

 the Coromandel coast, whose arrival is uncertain, and 

 whose departiu-e being influenced by causes arising in 

 India, may be precipitated by the most unforeseen oc- 

 currences.' These labourers have to be remunerated 

 at high rates in the silver currency of India, the value 

 of which fluctuates with the exchanges ; and fed on rice 

 imported for their exclusive consumption, burtliened 

 with all the charges of freight, duty, and carriage to 

 the hills. The crop, when saved on the estate, has either 

 to encounter the risks incident to transport by hand, 

 through mountains as yet un-opened by roads ; or the 



1 In 1858 the nunibor of Tamil I 9G,000. The nuiiiber takiu<j their 

 labourers arriving in Ceylon was | depai-tiu-e from the island was 50,000. 



