50 COFFEE: ITS CULTIVATION AND PROFIT. 



Soil in private hands may be (i) bought in the 

 rough, when particular attention should be paid 

 to sellers' proper proofs of ownership, as many an 

 estate is burdened during its early years with here- 

 ditary legal feuds between the ostensible owner and 

 small proprietors it may even be junglemen, along 

 the borders, who persist in asserting that the English- 

 man's concession has overlapped their marches, and 

 devote whole lives cheerfully to endless litigation 

 for a worthless acre of rock or land. (2) It may 

 be purchased ready planted, a few months estab- 

 lished, in bearing, or practically abandoned as worn 

 out or barren. The first two conditions will save 

 him, of course, a lot of trouble, and he will have 

 to pay proportionally ; and as to the latter 

 well ! a really clever planter may often pick a 

 seemingly valueless estate out of the fire, buy it 

 at a nominal rate, and by scientific pruning and 

 manuring make his garden into a nice little invest- 

 ment. But by the time the " griffin " is able to 

 do this safely he will be past the guidance of any 

 books. 



The following rules used to hold for the acquiring 

 of land in various districts, and they do so still, 

 except where they have been modified by Orders 

 in Council, or any of those numerous local memo- 

 randa which the authorities emit from time to time, 

 to the satisfaction of local attornies and the mysti- 

 fication of the public. 



