rut THbliteAL AQRieULTOIffSt 
THE PLANTING INDUSTRY IN 
WYNAAD, 
A brief disenssion haa recently been held in these 
oolamni between oui? Wynaad correspondent and our 
contributor of plantio); notes, " St. Louis," conoerning 
the state of the planting enterprise, and more ospe= 
eially Arabinn OofPee, in Wynaad, Wynaad is that 
traot of upland country whioh lies betwepn t!i«? Nil. 
ffiri plateau and the Western Gblts, at the extreme 
southern end of these before they fall away and form 
what is commonly known as the Palf^hat gap. The 
elevation varies from 2,000 feet at Manintoddy, North 
Wynaad, to over 4,000 feet at Nellaootta in South-Baat 
Wrnaad. The rainfall along the gh^ts runs as bi!?h as 
200 inohes in the year, while in the districts remote 
from them 70 inches may be stated to be the annual 
average. Wynaad obtained a notoriety in the London 
financial markers early last decade by the reokless and 
prodigal manner in whioh Gold Mining Companies 
were floated, and in the ma|ority of eases nothing was 
ever done to justify their existence. These Companies 
still exist, and own large tracts of land in South- 
East Wynaad, After most of their capital had been 
squandered in the parohase of worthless machinery, 
m the erection of extravagant buildings and the con- 
struction of anneoesaary roads, in the remunerations 
of directors and the upkeep of a large establishment 
in London, and after the cultivation had been per- 
mitted to go to rack and ruin for several years, they 
suddenly turned their attention to this, and devoted 
the residue of their capital to irregular and perfunctory 
operations in the field. The natural consequence has 
been that the cultivation has hardly paid its way, 
and where a profit has been made which was not 
entirely swamped by London charges, it has been so 
dwarfed by the gigantic original capital as to appear 
next to nil. It is no wonder that the British in- 
vestor should come to look on Wynaad as a veri- 
table "Dismal Sw«mp" in which no one except a 
Mark Tapley could be happy. He has been told that 
it is the land of Ophir, but disoovers that gold is con- 
spicuous by its absence. It is p 'inted out to him as 
a second 0»naan, a land flowing with milk and honey, 
or, to be exact, rich in coffee and quinine, but so far as 
his balance at his bankers is concerned, it might be a 
howling Sahara. These Companies are doing much to 
retard the planting industry. It would be a fortunate 
day when an inflaentiiil Company with a small capital 
was started to take over these blocks of land and to 
elevatfons, make one district better suited for one 
product and one for another ; so that we find at Vayitri 
that tea, cinchona and pepper thrive best ; at MenpadI, 
coffee, oinchona and pepper; at Sultan's Battery, coffee 
and pepper; at Oheramhadi, cinchona ; at Devala. tea ; 
and at Npllaeotta, coffee and cinchona. Sultan's 
Battery and Nellaootta have the beat reputation for 
coffee phntine at the present day. The latter is 
a comparatively new district which has attracted 
♦he attention of successful oo£fee growers in other 
parts of Wynaad and in Ooorg. but there are 
some old estates there wbioh have given splendid 
results for many seasons in snecession. In Dovala 
tea has latply been opened ont with the most satis, 
factory results, and it will in everv probabilitv do 
equally well at Cherambadi, now slmplv a cinchona 
produomg oonntry; and as these two districts have 
a large supply of local Uhmr, Corumburs and jnnple 
tribes which live in Wynand all the year round 
there should never be a want of hands for pluck- 
ing leaf. Meppadi is a district in which every pro. 
dnot appears to thrive equally. Vayitri may be said 
to be the last erhat district In which coffee has lingered 
Last year leaf disease swent through with terrible 
virulence, and much land hnd to he abandoned. Here 
are some of the finest field? of cinohonn. more esnecii^l- 
ly Ledger, that are to be seen in Wynaad. Pepper 
flourishes and crops well, and tea hng been proved to 
pay in this district. North Wynaad is the healthiest 
part of the country, and contains the only town of any 
Hze. Maninfoddi. There is but little eultivntion left 
here, tfiough fea should grow well on the hills all round 
the town, and there would never be any want of 
labour. Pepper cultivation should also n'oi^e a re- 
munerative enterprise. On the Bramagherriedj some 
twenty miles north of Manintoddi and bordering on 
Coorg, there are one or two coffee estates which pro- 
open out cultivation on a sensible and ecoiioinica' p!>ai. 
With work carried on systematically and regularly and 
tbe cultivation of several products undertaken on a 
paying scale, there is but little doubt that such a Com- 
pany would be able, in the course of a few years, to 
return handsome dividends to its shareholders. 
Ihe first fact that particularly impresbos itself 
on the mind ot the Planter travelling through 
Wynaad for the first time is that it is essentially 
not a one product district. Coffee, bulb Arabian 
and Liberian, tea, cinchona and pepper all grow 
vigorously and crop well, and if we are beside 
the mark when we say that money was made out of 
all these products last year, a disastrously bad season ; 
yet if we except Liberian coffee, which has just 
begun to be planted up, we are well within tbe truth 
when we state that during the past quiquennium, 
coffee, cinchona, tea and pepper have all yi-tlded a 
handsome profit in one or other district of Wyiaad. 
Wjnaad is split into three divisions, known as North, 
South, and Sonth-East. The first two are in the 
colleotorate of Malabar, the last in that of the Nilgiris. 
These divisions, with the exception of North Wyuaad, 
are sub-divided into planting districts, the South 
into Vayitri, Meppadi and Sultan's Battery ; the 
South-East into Nellaootta, Devitia and Oheriiubidi. 
Vavitri, Devala and Cherambadi are situated on the 
ghats, but where tbe ghats at Vayitri face the 
west, at Devala and Cherambadi they face the south. 
Meppadi lies close to the Ghats, but is protected by 
the Vellera Mulla range of hills. Sultan's Battery and 
Nellaootta are inhud ; and their rainfall only averages 
from 60 to 70 inches in the year. The varioii.i situalione 
of thOj diBtriot|, with— rtielr diffeient la.afall aad 
duce a bean that in boldness, weight and colour is not 
surpassed by any oofifee in Southern India. 
In every district of Wynaad more land is being 
opened out this monaoon under one or other product. 
13 estimated that a thooaand aoi es of coffe^i Ara- 
biea, und five hundred acres of Lihprian coflee will 
be planted up.* A large aoreage will be opened with 
tea, and Ledger cinchonas and lakhs of pepper cut- 
tiners will be put ont. The labour supply is ade- 
quate, bo there will he no delay in pushing' on 
with the work, and the last acconnta to hand speak of 
perfect planting weather. The planting indnstry is 
evidently in a healthy and expansive state. We should 
like to see more capital brought into t^io conntrv and 
there is no reason why there should not be, if 'only 
Wynaad could get rid of that had name which the gold 
fever Icff behind it and for whioh the desultory onlti- 
vation to which we have already alluded, haa since 
been _ largely responsible. With five snch staples as 
Arabian coffee, Liberian coffee, cinchona, tea and pepper 
all growing luxuriantly and cropping heavily when 
seasons are at all favourable; the country should attract 
the attention of capitalists both large and small. 
There are very few corners of *.he world where a 
yonng fellow with a love of outdoor life and a little 
money at his back is more likely to get a handsome 
return on his capital and at the same time to lead a 
more healthy and happy life, in a good climate with 
lotsot shooting, both big game and small game, at his 
door and plenty of pleasant neighbours. The large 
capitalist ought also to find a good investment for hia 
money here, provided that he does not put all his 
eggs into one basket but cultivates all the various 
products, not experiraenfally, but on a large remun- 
erative scale, and .-pfns out land in various distrirta 
simultaneously. Coffee has recovered wonderfully 
after last season's had attack of leaf disease; cin- 
chona if only rich in qninine, still pays in spite of 
the low unit, and (his wave of influenza that has 
swept over England shows what a little thing is needed 
to send the price up ; tea is in a transition state, but 
it is generally thought that the increased aonsump. 
tion of Indian and Ooylon kinds will keep pace with 
increased production ; the pepper market is depressed 
* Thnn, .surely , the leaf 
coui])ai-atively iuuoouoiw ?- 
fungna has 
•Bd. t, a. 
disappeared , 
