378 FOREST CONSEEVANCY. Chap. XXII. 



be left clothed for a distance of half their height from the 

 top, leaving half the slopes and all the valleys for cultiva- 

 tion. Immense tracts of virgin forest in the valleys of the 

 Koondah hills are eminently suited for coifee-cultivation. 

 The clearing should only be allowed from 2500 to 4500 feet, 

 this being the extreme range within which coffee planted on 

 a large scale is found to thrive." 



There are still thousands of acres of uncleared forests, at 

 suitable elevations, well adapted for the growth of coffee, in 

 the cultivation of which the English caj^italist would make 

 large and rapid profits ; yet it is not many years since the 

 first coffee-plants were introduced into these hills. Coffee 

 now forms an important item in the exports from the Madras 

 Presidency. There is every reason to hope that the bark 

 from quinine-yielding chinchona-trees may also become one 

 of the valuable products of the hills ; and in the following 

 chapter I propose to give an account of the selection of the 

 sites for the first experimental plantations. 



