222 COFFEE I ITS CULTIVATION AND PROFIT. 



of some six per cent, or more ; and though the 

 rupee is nominally worth 2S. sterling, it has for a 

 long time only represented is. yd. to is. iod., is. 8d. 

 being about the actual value it can be relied upon 

 as indicating. Nor has anything been allowed 

 for the interest of the money invested, while of 

 course there are the personal expenses to be added 

 of living, clothing, &c. ; and lastly, but not least, 

 we have the initial cost of land. 



It should be noted that in " the jungles " 

 there are rarely concise and definite boundaries, 

 consequently more land is taken up than is ever 

 cultivated, or even cultivatable. Rupees 50 and 

 100 are by no means rare prices for land as we 

 have seen. In the Wynaad, little can be got 

 under Rs. 30 per acre. But if we give as little 

 as Rs. 5, this will be on, perhaps, 400 acres 

 Rs. 2,000. Very cheap land and very incon- 

 venient with poor transport facilities and a scanty 

 labour market, is always dear at any price, unless 

 the soil is so genuinely good that it must be well 

 and quickly patronized, and thus civilization over- 

 take the pioneer in the midst of his struggles. 

 It is wiser for a young man to purchase a small 

 holding, one well covered by the limits of his 

 capital, say allotting ^20 to every acre he is 

 going to open in three years, than to burden 

 himself with wide, barren domains, where his 

 money will be absorbed like water on the desert 

 sands, and with as little result. The same thing 



