THE LURE OF COFFEE 



Reputed cofifee land, in Its virgin state, in districts 

 remote from the railway can be bought in the open 

 market for twenty-five dollars per acre. It might be 

 found a better investment to pay a little more for the 

 land and keep nearer the railway because distance from 

 the railway does not materially affect coffee. This crop 

 is so valuable that it can stand the expense of transporta- 

 tion over a long distance and a small estate man with a 

 capital of $25,000 who does not mind going oflF "into 

 the blue" reaps many advantages by so doing, which are 

 not always apparent on the surface. In the first place, 

 he can procure cheaper labour, therefore his clearing and 

 planting will not cost him so much; that fact may 

 compensate him for the extra cost of transport. Besides, 

 he can live on his gun and dispense with his butcher's 

 bill, and, taken all round, his expenses will be much 

 lower than if he were living within ten miles of the 

 Nairobi clubs. 



Let us suppose that the settler buys one hundred and 

 fifty acres at twenty-five dollars an acre, provides him- 

 self with some stock, a cultivator, cart, plough, imple- 

 ments and tools, clears and plants twenty acres, and 

 constructs temporary buildings; by the end of the first 

 year he will have invested about seventy-five hundred 

 dollars. In the second year he will plant another twenty 

 acres and in other ways spend about one thousand two 

 hundred and fifty dollars on the estate. In the third year 

 he will again plant twenty acres, carry out repairs and 

 renewals in the Plantation, and begin to sec the fruits of 



113 



