44G COFFEE-CULTIVATION. Chap. XXVT. 



peans has since been very remarkable. There are now more 

 than a dozen plantations owned by Europeans, chiefly near 

 the road leading down the ghaut from IVFercara to the port of 

 Mangalore, and several thousand acres are already under cul- 

 tivation. Mr. Mann, the largest proprietor, has upwards of 

 800 acres planted with coffee-trees. The natives too have 

 shown great enterprise in undertaking a cultivation previously 

 unknown to them, and there is now scarcely a hut to be seen 

 without its little coffee-garden. All the plantations on the 

 eastern side of Mercara, excepting one, belong to natives ; and 

 close to the town I observed a small clearing where a Coorg 

 was hard at work building himself a hut, cutting away the 

 jungle, leading a small stream into new channels for purposes 

 of irrigation, and planting the slopes of two hills with coffee. 



An export duty of four annas the maund is levied on coffee 

 in Coorg, which, in 1861, brought in a revenue of 23,000 Ks. 

 In that year 1,29,869 maunds were exported, 1,17,223 by 

 native growers, and 12,645 by Europeans. This dispropor- 

 tion will not exist this year, as the plants on several new 

 estates will now be in bearing for the first time. The main 

 roads in Coorg are excellent, and one at least of the planters, 

 if not more, has displayed great energy in connecting his 

 estates by good roads with the main Government highways. 

 Most of the available land, within reasonable distance of a 

 highway, is already taken up for coffee cultivation. Labour, 

 as is also the case in Wynaad and the Neilgherries, is chiefly 

 procured from Mysore, the coolies coming up after their own 

 work is done. 



It will be seen by the account I have been able to give 

 of the elevation, temperature, and of the periods of drought 

 and moisture in this hill district, that it is not nearly so well 

 adapted for the cultivation of chinchona-plants as Neddi- 

 wuttum, and many other localities on the Neilgherry hills. 

 It may be compared, more appropriately, with the forests 



