CHAPTER V. 



CULTIVATION IN CEYLON AND INDIA. 



COFFEE appears to have been first introduced into 

 Ceylon by the Dutch, some time about 1690, but it was 

 not until 1824 that coffee planting on a large scale was 

 commenced by Sir Edward Barnes. The great in- 

 crease in planting dates from 1835, since which year, 

 with the exception of a pause owing to commercial 

 depression, from 1847 to 1850, the cultivation has been 

 annually increasing, and at present there are 265,000 

 acres owned by planters, of which about the half are 

 under cultivation. In Ceylon, as in India, the coffee 

 is found to succeed best at an elevation of from 2500 

 to 4500 feet. Below the former the tree suffers from 

 droughts, and requires shade and irrigation, but where 

 this last can be successfully practised the cultivation 

 might be carried on as low as 1500 or 2000 feet. 

 When a higher elevation than 4500 feet is selected, 

 the trees suffer from the cold winds, the crop is late, 

 and does not all ripen, part of it commonly dying on 

 the trees, and the plants become woody and full of 

 twigs, forming numbers of small shoots instead of ex- 

 pending their strength in blossom and fruit. The 

 exports from Ceylon in 1864-5 are upwards of 800,000 

 cwts., and this quantity will probably be largely in- 



