224 COFFEE I ITS CULTIVATION AND PROFIT. 



portant or trivial, and not forgetting the local 

 language. By the end of that time you will be 

 well qualified to judge of whether it is safe to 

 invest your capital in forest, whether it would not 

 be wiser to take over a half-opened garden from 

 a discontented neighbour, or to throw in your lot 

 with some pleasant and clever " chum," and make 

 your fortunes over a joint estate. 



" The first year a learner has a house on the estate but 

 no pay ; the second year they usually get Rs. 100 a-month pay 

 (profits of course, too, if a partner) ; and after that Rs, 150, 

 with a bonus on crop over a certain quantity. As far as my 

 own experience goes, it is easier to get a berth whilst still in 

 England than when actually on the spot. Advertising, as we 

 know it at home, is unknown abroad, and unless he has 

 plenty of friends, the adventurer who goes out on the chance 

 of something to do to India or Ceylon will find himself hope- 

 lessly stranded. In younger countries he will have a slightly 

 better lookout." 



Profits are a vague but pleasant subject, the 

 outcome and dependent of all we have written. 

 One planter appealed to on this subject shakes 

 his head gloomily and declares there are none. 

 Another, with whom we agree, takes, in the columns 

 of the Field, a more hopeful view : 



" People say Coffee does not pay to cultivate, and upon 

 the face of it there is much in support of this contention ; 

 but it would not be difficult to show that Coffee has been 

 made to pay, and pay well, and that under circumstances as 

 adverse, or even more adverse, than those existing at the 

 present moment. Twenty years ago a planter considered 

 himself a fortunate man if he got thirty rupees per cwt. for 



