Jan.  2,  1893.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
469 
Madras,  of  Mysore,  Oochin  and  Travancore.  But 
while  accurate  figures  cannot  be  obtained,  showing 
the  full  benefit  the  country  has  reaped  from  the 
Planting  industry  in  the  past,  we  miy  shadow  forth 
slightly  the  sum  of  money  that  is  being  spent  annu- 
ally by  the  planting  commuuity.  Taking  Travancore, 
for  instance,  we  find  that  the  number  of  pounds  of 
teas  sold  in  the  Mincing  Lane  Sales’  rcom  last  year 
— a figure  not  altogether  identical  with  the  number 
of  pounds  exported  or  produced — was  1,334,280.  The 
actual  cost  of  a pound  of  tea  f.  o.  b.  in  Travancore 
is  4as.  6p.,  so  that  the  total  oost  of  production  was 
R3,76,500  ; that  is  to  say,  the  actual  sum  of  money 
that  had  to  be  spent  in  this  country  before  this  amount 
of  tea,  could  be  exported  was  over  3|  lakhs.  It  may 
be  taken,  roughly  speaking,  that  a turther  3§  lakbs 
were  realised  by  the  sales  of  the  tea  and  of  this  sum 
we  do  not  suppose  that  a pie  was  spent  out  of  the  coun- 
try, but  was  sunk  in  Dew  dealings,  improved  machi- 
nery, &c.  7J  lakhs  may  thus  be  set  down  as  the 
minimum  that  the  tea  industry  cf  Travancore,  still 
in  its  infanoy,  expended  last  year  in  that  province, 
and  we  should  not  be  surprised  to  learn,  should  a 
statistical  table  be  prepared,  that  the  sum  was  even 
larger.  Tea,  it  should  be  mentioned,  is  only  one  of 
the  products  of  the  Travancore  planting  industry,  both 
coffee  and  cinchona  being  cultivated,  the  latter  largely. 
Turning  to  the  coffee  industry,  we  fiud  from  Messrs. 
Alston  Low  & Co.’s  figures  that  in  1890-91,  78,464  owt. 
of  plantation  coffee  were  shipped  from  the  West 
Coast.  We  choose  this  season  as  it  was  so  abnormally 
bad  that  it  was  a moral  impossibility  for  the  ooffee 
planter  to  spend  a penny  outside  his  estate,  and  on 
many  large  properties  the  sum  realised  by  the 
sale  of  crop  had  to  be  largely  supplemented  from 
other  sources.  Taking  R65  as  the  average  value 
per  owt.  of  plantation  coffee  f,  o.  b.  that  year, 
the  total  sum  realised  by  the  plantation  coffee  ex- 
ported from  the  West  Coast  that  season  was  just 
over  58  lakhs,  and,  as  we  have  pointed  out,  all  ot  this 
money  must  been  spent  in  the  country.  This  is  ouly 
a moiety  of  the  cost  of  the  production  of  the  coffee 
crop  that  season.  No  little  plantation  coffee  from 
Mysore  and  Coorg  is  shipped  from  Madras,  and  also 
no  inconsiderable  sum  of  money  is  realised  by  the 
sales  of  small  crops  and  the  stripped  cherry  coffee 
to  local  native  dealers,  wbieh  is  either  consumed  in 
this  country  or  exported  as  native  ooffee.  During 
the  season  1890-91  the  plantation  coffee  exported  from 
the  West  Coast  totalled  156,827  cwts.  or  a value  f.o.b. 
of  R 1,09,77,890,  taking  R70  as  the  average  value  per 
owt.  Ot  this  sum  if  we  bulk  the  districts,  not  much, 
we  are  convinced,  foun  1 its  way  out  the  country.  The 
number  of  aores  under  coffee  oultivation  in  this 
Presidency  are  returned  at  64,511,  but  as  these 
figures  apparently  include  native  gardens  and  parumba 
cultivation,  it  is  impossible  to  draw  from  them  any 
conclusion  concerning  the  annual  expenditure  for 
cultivation.  The  Dewan  of  Mysore  has  kindly  sent  us 
statement  showing  the  aortage  under  cultivation 
in  that  province,  from  which  we  learn 
that  the  total  number  of  acres  at  present 
under  coffee  cultivation  in  Mysore  is  125,773;  this 
also  includes  the  small  coffee  gardens  of  native  culti- 
vators. The  lust  figures  available  showing  the  acreage 
of  European  plantations  were  compiled  in  1881,  in 
whioh  year  it  was  Bet  down  at  40,262  acres.  Since 
then  the  total  area  under  ooffee  has  increased  in  that 
Province  by  21,200  aores,  of  which  a certain  proportion 
at  any  rate  was  due  to  European  capital.  Iu  Coorg 
32,500  aores  are  the  extent  ot  European  plantations, 
and  the  cost  of  oultivation  is  returned  at  R100  an 
aore,  whioh  proves  that  in  that  Province  alone  32£ 
lakhs  are  spent  annually  by  European  planters.  These 
figures  are  necessarily  incomplete,  but  they  give  some 
idea  of  the  great  importance  of  the  planting  industry 
in  South  India.  Now  we  take  it  that  the  value  of  an 
industry  in  the  eyes  of  Government  depends  not  on 
the  sum  taken  out  of  the  country  but  the  sum  of 
money  annually  spent  within  its  horders.  It  would  be 
very  easy  for  planters  to  put  this  on  record  and  to 
establish  onoe  for  all,  beyond  all  oavil  and  beyond  all 
doubt,  what  the  community  does  expend  annually 
jh  this  oountry,  if  each  man  were  to  oonsent 
to  furnish  the  Honorary  Secretary  of  hia 
Association  with  the  average  amount  that  he  has  spent 
on  this  estate  during,  say,  «ce  past  three  years.  These 
figures  could  be  submitted  privately  to  the  Honorary 
Secretary  of  caoh  Association,  and  no  one  beyond  this 
gentleman  need  be  aware  of  his  neighbours’  annual 
expenditure.  Such  a statement  from  eaoh  district 
would  finally  establish  the  great  benefit  this  country 
derives  annually  from  the  Planting  Industry,  and 
would,  we  trust,  lead  Government  to  do  more  to 
assist  in  the  development  of  this  industry. 
A PLANTING  MEMBER  OF  THE  MADRAS  COUNCIL. 
We  need  not  refer  here  to  the  advantage  whioh 
a Planting  Member  of  Oounoil  will  be  to  the  com- 
munity, or  to  the  grievances  about  whioh  the  com- 
munity h ive  just  cause  of  oomplaint.  We  will  oonfine 
our  remarks  to  that  question  of  most  vital  importance 
to  this  industry,  the  establishment  of  good  communi- 
cations. It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  in  the 
majority  of  districts,  highways  that  pass  under  the 
name  of  roads  are  little  better  than  the  tracks 
along  which  at  the  beginning  of  the  century 
the  grower  of  jungle  produoe  conveyed  his 
scanty  store  to  market  in  a vehicle  drawn  by 
buffaloes  and  mounted  on  wheels  of  solid  blocks 
of  wood,  once  almost  round.  Bridges  are  con- 
structions that  are  oonspioious  only  by  their 
absence  in  many  districts,  and  in  the  monsoon 
estates  are  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  world  for 
weeks  at  a time.  It  is  ridiculous  to  suppose  that 
any  agricultural  industry  can  be  properly  developed 
without  good  means  of  communication  and  transport. 
An  argument,  at  times  adduced  and  one  not  unknown 
to  the  lips  of  Government  officials,  is  that  the  planter 
oame  to  this  country  of  his  own  free  will  and  with 
tho  iDteut  to  make  money,  and  he  should  therefore 
put  up  with  the  existing  surroundings  and  not  grumble. 
Now,  we  consider  it  may  be  laid  down  as  an  axiom 
that  all  Europeans  come  to  this  country  with  the 
purpose  of  making  money.  How  many  succeed  does 
not  at  present  signify.  He  would  remind  those  who 
bring  forward  this  argument  that  until  the  planter 
came,  the  traots  of  country  in  which  he  sunk  his 
money  were  praetically  unproductive,  and  that  the 
planting  industry  is— private  enterprise.  Lord  Lans- 
downe  at  Mysore  told  the  Planters’  Deputations 
that  if  a railway  to  the  West  Coast  were  to  be 
constructed  in  the  near  futu  e it  would  have  to  be 
by  private  enterprise.  If  His  Excellency  had  been 
cognisant  of  what  his  Government  had  done 
to  encourage  private  enterprise  in  Coorg  as  repre- 
sented by  the  large  planting  community  in  that 
provinoe — and  what  it  is  still  doing  to  enoourage  it 
he  could  hardly  have  supposed  that  any  Coorg  planter 
blest  with  an  ordinary  degree  of  sanity,  or  any 
Associations  whioh  hau  the  least  regard  for  its  probity, 
could  advooate  private  enterprise  expending  money 
on  a railway.  There  is  at  the  present  time  a more 
than  usual  amount  of  vitality  about  the  planting 
industry,  and  we  hope  that  the  combined  deliberations 
of  Lord  Lansdowne  and  Lord  Wenlook  may  result  in 
some  greater  degree  of  official  recognition  being 
extended  to  this  enterprise ; that  in  the  near  future 
those  just  grievances  from  whioh  the  community 
suffers  may  be  removed,  and  that  some  endeavours 
may  be  made  to  assist  in  a greater  degree  than  in 
the  past  the  development  of  this  important  industry. 
If  Government  be  honestly  and  truly  desirous  of 
encouraging  private  enterprbe,  it  can  prove  it  to  the 
world  at  large  with  but  little  trouble  by  its  actions 
in  the  future  towards  the  Planting  Industry  of  South 
India.  Until  it  does  do  so.  it  need  not  expeot  that 
private  capital  will  be  forthcoming  for  other  enterprises 
when  a private  enterprise  that  expends  annually  in 
South  India  a crore  of  rupees  or  more  has  been  up 
to  now,  to  all  intents  and  purposes  ignored. — Madras 
Mail , Nov.  24. 
PLANTING  IN  TRAVANCORE. 
Sir, — My  attention  has  been  drawn  to  articles 
that  have  appeared  in  your  paper  signed  “ Totum  ” 
As  it  is  a pity  that  iuoerreci  information  should  1) 
