1848.] 



The Neilgherry Mountains. 



27 



cows kept for nothing but 5 shillings a month for a herdsman, with 

 a per centage to cover interest on outlay and casualties, it cannot be 

 doubted that the meat cured in this climate would both prove of ex- 

 cellent quality, and return, by its sale at Bombay or other shipping 

 ports, a considerable profit to the breeder and Salter. Under any 

 circumstances larger profits must be realized than those returned 

 from the same market to the exporter from Europe, who has to breed 

 his stock under all the disadvantages of dear food and labour, and 

 cost of freight to its destined port of sale. 



Amongst the productions of the Neilgherries 

 may be enumerated hides, both of the buffalo 

 and ox, the former of which are especially prized in the low country 

 for making soles of shoes, traces and other articles requiring a strong 

 and durable leather. The hide of the bull buffalo is considered far 

 superior in value to that of the cow. I have not been able to ascer- 

 tain what quantity of hides are annually collected and cured here for 

 export, but it cannot at present be very considerable, as it will be 

 seen by the returns in the appendix that the total number of buflfa- 

 loes and bullocks herded on these Hills is, comparatively speaking, 

 by no means large. 



Opium is produced on the Neilgherries to a 

 small extent, and it appears that the Burghers 

 who cultivate the poppy pay more attention to the collection of the 

 seed (which fetches a very remunerative price as an article of food 

 in the bazaars) than to the extraction of the drug from the capsules 

 of the plant. The total quantity produced last year was under 

 200 lbs. avoirdupois, but I have no doubt it could be increased very 

 greatly if other cultivators could be introduced on the Hills ; as 

 the Burghers, slaves to habit, prejudice, and the love of ease, op- 

 pose themselves to any change or improvement which involves addi- 

 tional trouble or personal labour. 



Poppy fields require some care both in preparing and well manur- 

 ing the ground before sowing, and in hoeing and irrigating it whilst 

 the plants are young. Hence this kind of cultivation is only carried 

 on in the immediate vicinity of their villages, where the fields can be 

 attended to by the women and children, and where manure, such as 

 it is, is more readily, and with less trouble, collected. 



Neilgherry opium of ^^^^ opium extracted by the Burghers from 

 very fine quality. poppies appears to be of exceedingly fine 



