ing' recently, on my way up fi*om the western eoast, is in a very flour- 

 ishing condition, and has every promise of turning out most success* 

 folly. In its neighbourhood are tracts of virgin forest land of immense 

 extent, stretching away over the innumerable spurs and valleys into 

 which the Koondahs are broken as they slope downwards towards the 

 Ponany river, all eminently suitable for coffee planting, having the 

 proper elevation, a good and rich soil, and enjoying a climate particular- 

 ly favorable to the nourishment of this pecuUar shrub. If the success 

 which is looked for crowns the exertions and adventure of the first 

 speculators, there can be little doubt that when the Koondah coffee 

 appears regularly in the market as a production of this district, the 

 attention of capitalists at home will be directed to it, and the western 

 portion of this mountain tract become a source of gi'eat increase to the 

 revenue of the country, while it will afford employment and subsistence 

 to the many indigent people in the neighbouring provinces, who, at 

 the present time, suffer such privations from the want of it, between 

 the seasons of sowing and reaping the crops in the plains, and indeed 

 for more than three quarters of the year. 



The other, or what may be called the old plantations in the other 

 parts of the Hills, but principally on the north-eastern slopes, are 

 insignificant in point of size, but remarkable for the peculiarly fine 

 flavour of the coffee produced, which is considered to be owing to the 

 high elevation at which most of them are situated. Some plantations 

 near Coonoor and Kotergherry are 5,000 feet above the level of the sea, 

 but it seems to me that the advantage derived from this superiority 

 of flavour is more than coimterbalanced by the general want of vigour 

 and luxuriance of the coffee-trees, which evidently do not thrive in this 

 latitude so well at an elevation above 4,500 feet, as between that and 

 3,000 feet. It is not easy to estimate the amount of land at present 

 under actual cultivation for coffee on the Neilgherries, as, in most cases, 

 the coffee-fields are so mixed up with the mulberry-grounds, that it is 

 difficult to arrive at the precise extent of each, but it may be pronounced 

 not to exceed 280 acres on the eastern side, and 300 acres on the 

 western.* The general return of those on the eastern side, which are 

 the only ones at present m bearing, is on an average about 6 to 7 c^vt. 

 per acre ; which is a remunerative rate under the prevaihng circum- 

 stances of cheap labour, but the trees require manure to keep them up 

 to this rate of bearing, and more care in pruning and managing tlian is 

 bestowed upon them. 



* See preceding Note. 



