54 COFFEE : ITS CULTIVATION AND PROFIT. 



very high rate when what planters pay in other 

 districts is considered. The Peermaad planters, 

 however, have some quid pro quo for the highest 

 rate they pay by having good roads all over the 

 district, and there is scarcely an estate that could 

 not be reached by cart. I believe the last sale of 

 land was long ago ; since then no grant has been 

 given, and it is the present intention of the Travan- 

 core Government to dispose of no more forest land. 

 Perhaps it is a wise decision, as in one of the most 

 flourishing districts in the Province estates have in 

 some cases been abandoned, and the Government 

 is loser to the extent of the land tax, while the land 

 probably never returns to forest again. There is an 

 assessment also of one rupee per acre after four 

 years, and two rupees, after nine. 



The estate surveyor, who has been mentioned 

 once or twice above, is a useful personage. Often 

 a Government official, and perhaps a half-caste, he 

 comes up with his theodolites, note-books, and half- 

 dozen bill-men, establishing himself in your newly- 

 erected and very modest " prospecting*' hut in the 

 jungles. The next day he takes you half-a-mile, a 

 mile, or even two miles it may be, up the stream, 

 destined to work future pulping mills. That is your 

 boundary on the west, perhaps. Thence his bill- 

 men clear him a path and " blaze " the trees, 

 measuring as they go to the foot of some solitary 

 peak, henceforth the corner-post of your estate in 

 that direction. In a few days, more or less accord- 



