COFFEE. 



55 



without nourishment, and during successive seasons of drought these 

 fall an easy prey to the boring insect. 



The Bamboo district, which comprises the third group of estates, 

 lies between the river Cavary and the Mercara trunk road to Veraja- 

 pet, and thence to Attur Tittymutti. Its elevation varies from 3000 

 to 3300 feet. Its annual rainfall amounts to about 65 inches. The 

 nature of the land generally presents undulating slopes, and but few 

 steep hills. The soil is of the richest kind, as the humus from an 

 exuberant vegetation, which annually decays or is consumed by jungle 

 fires, has accumulated for ages without being disturbed by heavy 

 floods. The rainfall is gentle and seasonable, and the growth of 

 coffee throughout the district most luxuriant and productive. On 

 these estates artificial shade is deemed necessary ; the local varieties 

 of the fig tree, with jack and toon, seem to answer best. Some of 

 the oldest trees have given, it is said, fully a ton of coffee per acre. 

 Fears are justly entertained that such an excessive production cannot 

 last — that the trees must kill themselves by over-bearing. 



The coffee grown in the Madras Presidency is brought down the 

 Ghats from the hill districts of Mysore, Coorg, Wynaad, and the Neil- 

 gherries, to be exported from the Malabar ports. Some is also shipped 

 in South Canara and at Tuticorin, as well as from a new port in Tra- 

 vancore. The exports from the Madras Presidency do not show an 

 increase, but much is consumed locally. 



The shipments have been as follows : 



Lbs. 



1871 31,295,195 



1872 52,047,318 



1873 39,781,819 



Lbs. 



1874 40,110,203 



1875 33,738,922 



The coffee fields in Travancore may be divided into the northern, 

 middle, and southern districts. The northern includes the estates at 

 and about Peremade ; the middle, those near and to the north of the 

 Augustan Peak, and in the neighbourhood of Courtallum ; the 

 southern, called also the Assamboo range, includes those between 

 Assamboo in the south, and the Koday river in the north. In the 

 latter districts there are coffee estates covering 10,000 acres, of which 

 5500 acres are planted, and all this has been done since 1863. 



The number of coffee estates owned by Europeans in Travancore 

 in 1870 was fifty, containing in the aggregate about 14,700 acres. 

 This was independent of the estates and gardens owned by natives, 

 both on the hills and plains. Since tjien a good many hundred acres 

 of forest land have been planted with coffee ; but it is even yet in its 

 incipient state of development. 



From the following statistics, it will be seen that within a quarter 

 of a century the total exports of Indian coffee have increased from 

 about 5^ million pounds to an average, in the four years ending 

 1875, of 43,715,000 pounds. 



Lbs. 



1850 5,382,344 



1860 14,345,809 



1870 36,493,106 



1871 .. ., .. 33,816,746 



1872 56,817,153 



1873 42,099,320 



1874 41,019,409 



1875 34,925,063 



