10 COFFEE PLANTERS’ MANUAL. 
medium elevation sometimes does very well: while 
at a low elevation I would always prefer it; and for 
this reason that at a low elevation the sun pours out. 
his rays in too great force,—‘‘from early morn to 
dewy eve” drying up the soil, and evaporating too 
soon the moisture that settles on the tree during the 
night. On such lands, therefore, I would rather see 
the sun touch them all over about eight or nine 
o'clock in the morning, than immediately he appears 
above the horizon. For high lands, however, where 
there is no danger of too much sun, I would always 
prefer the eastern exposure. 
5th.—Not devastated by wind. Avoid a windy lo- 
cality where you can. This is not always so easy 
however as one would iwagine. The course of the 
wind is very deceptive. I know one estate at whose 
back is a large high precipice, and whose front gently 
declines, facing the rising sun, and at an inclination 
which makes a difference between the higher and 
the lower portions of the land, of probably one thou- 
sand feet. The precipice at its back faces the South- 
West, the violence of whose monsoon one would 
naturally think would break there and disperse. 
Not so, however, It strikes there certainly—then 
comes round the corner at the lower end of the 
estate and rushes over its surface with a fury which 
nothing can withstand—shaking the very house in 
which the manager dwells, unroofing frequently the 
store and other buildings, and tearing and mutilat- 
ing the trees in a frightful manner. Yet to haye 
looked at the lay, aspect, and exposure of that piece 
of land before it was opened into an estate, one 
would have thought it a most choice lot. I know 
another estate also in a windy district, but so ap- 
parently sheltered,—lying in a valley surrounded by 
high hills—that one would at once select it after a 
mere bird’s eye view, from whatever point, as a 
most eligible and desirable site. It has fine soil, 
and grows coffee magnificently, during the interval 
between the monsoons. The North-East does not bother 
it much; but the South-West—oh havoc !—comes 
howling in at a gap as the lower end, and goes 
roaring out at another gap at the top, carrying wreck 
and devastation along its route—stripping the trees. 
of every green thing, and leaving nothing but bare 
sticks, where was a fine healthy green field of coffee. 
The store, unless unusually well secured, gets un- 
roofed: the iron sheets whirling about like birds in 
the air. The door of the bungalow even gets some- 
times unhinged, and flung across the room, by the 
violence of the gale, and an amount of damage is 
done, which would be almost incredible to those 
