38 



COFFEE. 



which planting operations have been carried on throughout the great 

 forest reserve occupied by the younger and more flourishing coffee 

 districts, Dimboola, Dickoya, and Maskelyia. 



Messrs. Ferguson, in their ' Ceylon Directory and Almanac,' fur- 

 nish the following later and more complete statistics : 



" About 15,000 acres of new land have been planted, or felled for 

 planting, since May 1874. In round numbers, the following is con- 

 sidered a close approximate estimate for the position of the coffee, tea, 

 and cinchona industries. Half a million acres of land, chiefly forest 

 land, but including patna or grazing land, are held by estate pro- 

 prietors, of which one-half is now under cultivation, divided into 

 1215 plantations, managed by over 1000 resident superintendents, of 

 whom about 950 are Europeans. Of tea, about 1100 acres are planted, 

 or felled for planting ; of cinchona, 3000 acres ; and, deducting grass 

 lands, 210,000 acres at least are put down for coffee ; while in the 

 young districts between Great Western and Adam's Peak, over 7000 

 acres have been added to the cultivated area since last year, averaging 

 sixty new coffee plantations annually since 1869, equalling 111: square 

 miles, and costing in the conversion at least one and a half million 

 pounds. There is a large extent of young coffee not yet yielding a 

 first good crop, estimated at 54,000 acres of coffee under four years of 

 age, or very nearly equal to the total in bearing in 1856. 



Coffee land planted under 1 year 12,000 acres. 



2 years 29,500 „ 



4 „ 54,000 „ 



6 „ 73,000 „ 



The statistics previous to 1869 being imperfect, it is estimated that 

 about 170,000 acres of the coffee land in cultivation are under twenty 

 years of age, while probably two-thirds of the remainder, or 50,000 

 acres, are well under thirty years. 



" As to labour, authentic returns show that not more than 170,000 

 coolies were employed during the height of crops in 1871, and immi- 

 gration returns state that the number of coolies in the island on 

 1st January, 1875, was about 200,000, and for the next four years it 

 is estimated that about 40,000 more than the above will be required. 



" The importations of manures, almost entirely for coffee plantations, 

 are also interesting: 



£ 



1847 10 



1850 2,585 



1857 2,320 



1860 .. .. 4,050 



1863 20,280 



1865 29,265 



1866 16.776 



1867 25,289 



1868 33,188 



1869 46,603 



1870 73,866 



1871 65,239 



1872 19,042 



1873 33,197 



1874 61,256 



" In the valuation of coffee properties the usual allowance in full 

 bearing is 40Z. per acre, and though a great deal of the 196,000 acres 

 put down would not realise so much, yet if we take into account that 

 so much as 1101. per acre has been paid in one of the favourite and 

 younger districts, Uva, and counting buildings, machinery, and tools, 



