Chap. VI.] COFFEE PLANTING. 235 



labour required on each during crop-time.^ The general 

 result is, that on 404 estates (irrespective of large tracts 

 of unfelled forest, reserved for future extension), the area 

 jdelding coffee was 63,771 acres, and that planted, but not 

 yet bearing, 17,179. The number of Malabar coohes cm- 

 ployed, estimating them at two to each acre in crop-time, 

 was 129,200, and the produce on an average of the two 

 previous years, 347,100 cwt. of coffee.^ 



This is, of course, exclusive of the quantity grown by 

 the natives around their villages and detached dwelhngs, 

 of which in the same year 100,000 cwt. were exported, 

 besides the quantity retained for home consumption. Esti- 

 mating the area, therefore, by the produce, and taking 

 the latter at the average of 5^ cwt. to each acre, it would 

 appear that not less than 130,000 acres of land were 

 yielding coffee in 1857, of which 50,000 at least were 

 held by natives of Ceylon. 



As to the future prospect of the colony, Mr. Ferguson 

 calculates that suitable lands yet to be brought under 

 cultivation may add treble to the present acreage, and 

 the produce, by improved processes, may be increased 

 at least twenty-five per cent. Should prices in Europe 

 continue such as to encourage enterprise in Ceylon, and 

 no unforeseen occurrences obstruct the influx of inuni- 

 grant labour from India, ]\Ii\ Ferguson looks forward 

 to the day when a quarter of a miUion of cultivated 

 acres, together with the native crops, may furnish two 

 million cwt. of coffee as the annual production of the 

 island.^ 



However large this estimate may seem, it must be 

 borne in mind that tlie actual expansion of the trade 

 has hitherto justified every previous conjecture as to 

 the capabihties of the colony : within twenty years, the 



^ This table is so valuable as an , showing the locality of each estate, 

 historic record, that I have appended [ ^ Tliis, it will be observed, is at 

 it to the present chapter, together ' the rate of but 5| cwt. per acre. 

 with a map, by Mr. iiiTOWsmith^ I ^ Colombo Observer, 1857, 



