'iSO Information about the Coffet Tru. 



A few of the earlier plantations in Ceylon, were formed on low, 

 flat land, not heavily timbered ; but there they soon ceased to be 

 productive. Experience proved that to ensure a lasting and pro- 

 fitable yield, heavy forests, or the upper ranges of mountain land^ 

 or along the undulating slope situated between the many lofty 

 ranges of hills, should be selected. It is in such positions that 

 the greater portion of the good Ceylon coffee is now grown, and 

 which, in commercial language, is called " Plantation," or " Moun- 

 tain" kind, in contradistinction to the " Native" or inferior sorts 

 gathered by the Singalese villagers from their wild trees, and 

 Bent to market with little, if any, care. 



Wilder or more beautiful scenes can scarcely be found than 

 those amidst which the coffee estates of Ceylon are formed. Vast 

 tracts of land, cleared from huge forest trees, stretching along 

 the steep sides of mountains, with the unfelled monsters of the 

 jungle, waving their broad branches to the cold north winds 

 above ; while below, miles of green " pattena," or prairie-ground, 

 may be seen winding through the valleys, skirted by low tufts of 

 oriental underwood ; and dotted over with herds of wild buffalos, 

 with here and tliere the villagers' cattle quietlj^ grazing. A plan- 

 tation thus situated, when in full bearing, and with all the usual 

 buildings ou it, presents a most pictui-esquc appearance, worthy 

 the pencil of any artist. In its earlier stage, however, it wears a 

 totally different aspect, and the life of a coffee planter, under such 

 circumstances, is far from being either easy or agreeable. 



Manj' of the best plantations arc situated forty or fifty miles 

 from the only town in the interior of the island, and a dozen 

 miles from the smallest native village, with frequently no other 

 estate for a long distance. To commence operations in felling the 

 forest, under such circumstances, requires a man of some energy 

 and resolution. Instances have not been Avanting in which a 

 young planter thus occupied, has been deserted by every one 

 of his coolies, from some offence, or through dislike to the spot, 

 and left unaided in a leaf hut, with nothing but a little dry rice, 

 and no means of cooking it. On first locating in the depths of 

 the jungle, to open a new estate, the care ot the superintendent is 

 to run up a small hut, aboiit eighty feet by six, of boughs, leaves, 

 and jungle grass, upon the most convenient grassy knoll that can 

 be found : this is to form his own dwelling-place during the first 

 six months' operations, and occupies, perhaps, two hours in eirect- 



