MANUAL OP THE NiLAQIRI DISTRICT. 483 



Colonel Wilks mentions that a garden existed in the Baba CH. XXVIII. 

 Booden Hills/ attached to a mosque ; the seeds are said to have coffee 

 been brought from Mocha. Prior to this, however, in 1801 Cultivation. 

 Dr. Buchanan mentions having seen coffee trees in a very thriving p ff7~^th 

 condition near Tellicherry, but they had not as yet borne fruit. Uaba Booden 



The seed appears to have been introduced into the Waindd from ^'^^^' 

 Anjarakandi by Major Brown in 1828. This was the beginning \vaindtr 

 of the plantations in the neighbourhood of Manantoddi. Not 

 long before this a few Europeans had begun to plant coffee in the 

 Baba Booden Hills, and some years later on the Menzirabad 

 mountain, the home of the celebrated Cannon's coffee. These 

 plantations were practically the pai-ents of coffee in Southern 

 India.^ 



Although coff'ee planting had been begun thus early in Wain4d,it — oe the 

 was not until the year 1839 that the cultivation became an enter- ' ^^''^'^• 

 prise, and about the same time the first gardens wei'e formed on 

 the Nilagiris. The cultivation of the plant on the Shevaroys had 

 preceded its introduction into the Nilagiris, a plantation having 

 been formed on the former hills about 1830. The extension 

 however of the cultivation was rapid in the Waindd and more 

 gradual on the Nilagiris, but in 1847 it had been fully established 

 even in the latter tract, and by the year 1863-64 there were 

 probably forty estates in various parts of the district. 



The following extract from Major Ouchterlony's Memoir in this Major 

 year is deserving of record. Ouchter- 



. lony 8 



Numerous plantations of coffee trees are scattered about the Hills, remarks. 



principally situated on the slopes descending to the plains, where the Coffee. 



elevation suitable for the growth of this shrub can be obtained. Until 



within the last two or three years, coffee plantations were only found 



on the eastern side of the Hills, but representations of the excellent 



quality of the berry, and of the advantages attending its cultivation 



^ "According to tradition the coffee-plant was introduced into Mysore by a 

 Mahommadan pilgrim named Baba Booden, who came and took up his abode 

 in the uninhabited hills in the Naggur Division, named after him, and where he 

 eytablished a college, which still exists, endowed by Government. It is said that 

 ho brought seven coffee berries from Mocha, which he planted near to hia 

 hermitage, about which there are now to be seen some very old coffee trees. The 

 coffee plant has been known there from time immemorial ; but the earliest 

 official account of it is in 1822, when the revenue was under contract." — 

 Druey's Useful Plants of India. See also Colonel Onslow's remarks quoted in 

 Shortt's Coffee-planting. In 1822 the revenue derived in Mysore from coffee was 

 only 4,270 rupees annually ; by 1837 it had risen to 7,472 rupees. The produce 

 taxed in 1843 w as 15,238 maunds of 28 lb. ; in 1849 it had risen to 52,236 maunds ; 

 in 1861, 346,083 maunds. 



^ It will be remembered that Dr. Wallich and Mr. Gordon began coffee 

 planting in Bengal in 1823 (see Chapter XIII), and that their enterprise led to 

 the promulgation of the first code of rules for the sale of wastelands. lu the 

 pi-eceding year the enterprise had been begun in Ceylon by Sir Edward Barnes 

 and Mr. George Bird. 



