VI INTRODUCTION. 
NOTE ON ESTATE ROADS. 
I have always considered this a matter of import- 
ance in opening a coffee plantation. I would make 
a mile of road to every twenty-five to thirty acres, 
and, wherever possible, without incurring an expense 
out of proportion to the advantages to be gained, I 
would trace them, so that they might ultimately be 
made to bear carts, at least the small single bullock- 
boxes, must suitable for estate work. The finish. 
ing of the roads may extend over years, but, if possi- 
ble, the traces shouldgbe run, and cleared, and the 
path formed, however slightly, before planting. If this 
ean be done, the cost will be soon recouped, in sav- 
ing the time of the coolies, on their way to work, 
as any one will admit who has seen a string of them 
in Indian file getting over half a mile of steep ground 
strewed with charred logs. The roads of an estate 
should be asystem, all radiating from the site of the 
store, and accommodating the bungalow, so that, 
departing by one line, the superintendent may be 
able to return by another, after having seen every 
part of the plantation, without leaving the roads, 
unless he should be called on to make a closer in- 
Spection of any particular spot. 
An estate on which the roads are not traced the 
first season ig never likely to be a well roaded pro- 
perty. There will be always a reluctance to destroy 
or remove well-grounded plants of any size, and we 
may fairly expect, that where this work has been 
deferred till the coffeeisin bearing the reads will be 
few and bad; I would therefore recommend, that, if 
nothing more be possible the first season, the traces 
should be laid and left unplanted. 
I have never had to do with a place where a good 
system of roads could be traced on an arbitrary gradi- 
ent with an instrument, unless I had been pre- 
pared (which I never was) to expend a good deal of 
gunpowder. Where rocks are to be dodged, and 
easy crossing places to be caught in rough ravines, 
the eye is the best instrument when the tracer has 
studied his ground well and made a map of it on 
his sensorium; he will find no serious difficulty in 
~evoiding abrupt dips, unless the ground be too full 
