372 COFFEE-CULTIVATION. Chap. XXIT. 



Mr. Mclvor also has a small branch-garden at Kalhutty, 

 about lialf-way down the Seegoor ghaut, leading to the 

 Mysore plains, for raising fruits which require a warmer 

 climate. This garden is self-supporting. A magnificent 

 waterfall descends into a rocky basin close beside it, and the 

 garden contains oranges of many kinds, shaddocks, lemons, 

 limes, citrons, nutmegs, loquats, and plantains. On this spot 

 the delicious chirimoyas, the seeds of which w-e brought from 

 Peru, will hereafter ripen, and enable the people of India to 

 taste the " masterpiece of nature." 



European enterprise on the Neilgherries has hitherto been 

 chiefly directed towards the cultivation of coffee, and there 

 are several fine estates near Coonoor. On the 15th of 

 November we set out from Ootacamund to "\asit them, and 

 rode down the valley of Kaitee, where the house stands which 

 once belonged to Lord Elphinstone, certainly not in a well- 

 selected spot. It was originally chosen for a Government 

 farm, which was given up, and the house was then occupied 

 for a short time by the Governor of Pondicherry. Lord 

 Elphinstone, when Governor of Madras, took a fancy to the 

 place, erected a very substantial house, fm-nished it hand- 

 somely, and frequently resided there. In 1845 the property 

 was bought by Mr. Casamajor of the Civil Service, who 

 established a school there for Badaga children, on the prin- 

 ciple of paying them for coming, at the rate of 1 anna a day. 

 On his death he left it to the Basle Evangelical Missionaries, 

 by whom it is now occupied. They have schools, and labour 

 amongst the Badagas, but as yet with scarcely any success. 



The stream which drains the Kaitee valley forms a very 

 beautiful waterfall down the face of a cliff into the Karteri 

 valley, where there is a small coffee estate worked by a 

 Frenchman ; and, after crossing a range of hills, in parts 

 thickly wooded, and in parts covered with a shi'ubby Justitia 

 with a blue flower, we reached the coffee plantation of 



