THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sept, i, 1897. 
162 
of rain, and when I was there, early in June, 
everything was iooliing fresh and green. 
soil for the most part seems to be excellent, and 
owinc' to the number of cattle on the hills, and 
the nearness of the plains, manure is easily available, 
and the proximity of the railway makes the supply 
of fish and aitificial manures less expensive than on 
tiie Travancore Hills, isltinure is therefore exten- 
sively used and apparently with excellent lesults, for 
the averaee yield appears to be 5 cwt, an acre, and 
some of tire estates which are 25 to 30 year.s old 
show no signs of being exhausted. Leaf disease ap- 
pears to be unknown or at all events in only a very 
mild form, and the grub gives no trouble. 
FIVE CWT. AN ACRE 
is a very good out-turn and at present prices 
should give a retrrrn of nearly R350 per acre, 
for Shevaroy coffee has a very good name nr the 
market and realises good prices. Brrt most of the 
estates are very small, and it therefore stairas to 
reason that when the proprietor has to make a living 
out of it and maintain a house arrd family, there 
is not much left for the estate. A great many of 
these estates have also been opened out on borrowed 
money, and 10 to 15 per cent, interest ammrug on a 
eroding estate is calculated to saddle it, wherr it 
conies into iiil! bearing, with a load of debt which it 
jnav take > ears to remove, and most likely ruin the 
piopiietor'm the end, It seems doubtful whether a 
system of small proprietors is calculated to properly 
develei) a coffee country, because the cost of supervi- 
bion falls with undue weight on a small estate, Supei;- 
visiori is generally calculated at the rate of Re. 1 
tier acre, and when this charge is distributed ov r 
in estate of from 300 to 500 acres it does not become 
an undue burden, but if the estate is only 50 or bO 
acres in size this rate is not sufficient for the main- 
tenance of the Superintendent. Whatever, therefore, 
is paid to him in excess is so much taken from 
what ought to be spent on the estate itself. Ihis, 
therefore, would seem to account tor the lact that 
with a favourable climate, excellent soil, cheap labour 
(3 as per diem) and the vicinity of a radway, 
Shevarov planters as a rule are not so prosperous as 
as one would expect them to be. Here again the &ov- 
erniiiciit seems to have done very little towards help- 
itif? ill® enterprise. Only now, after more than half 
a c uuiry of planting industry, has it been decided 
TO BUILB A CART ROAD, 
nncl until that is made every ihing has to be 
carried up the ghaut by coolies. The only 
representative of the lavy on the hills is a 
Native Deputy Tahsildar, and ihere is no Rank or 
rovernnient Treasury from wliich the planters can 
draw money to pay their workmen, Ac. In this res- 
<iprf the Travancore Govei'iimeat has been more 
liberal and has appointed a European magistrate 
to exercise iurisdictior over the European planters of 
the Hi'^h Range. 
xVt the time of our visit 
YEECAUD 
was very lull and rooms were not obtainable for kve 
or money, unless ordered lang before. It seems strange 
?hat with this annual influx of visitors so little 
is done to provide them with amusement. A 
ccnnle of tenuis courts and a diminutive reading 
room aie scarcely sufficient. In 'Yercaud itself there 
are few unoccupied building sites available and where 
nnp can be found it fetches from RSOO to R1,000 per 
The great want seems to be water. There 
arrinit few streams which last throughout the year, 
f.rsh-iking contrast to the Travancore Hills, where 
u.inT every valley has its litcle river. The stream 
wh clf felfs^he lake .and flows down to the West, 
Tml another small river, the Viiniuar, which rises 
^ IV the Gv<ien Hills and flows to the bouth, ap- 
the onlv pereuuial streams near lercaud. 
wanlwhicdit is difficult to supply, for it 
• ^1 pasv to sink a well on a hill range. But 
pv^nlace must have its drawbacks and on the whole 
the IdtnUges of Seicaiid far outweigh Us disadvaii- 
The scenery is charming, and the range of 
bills being comparativelv small m extent, almost 
every hill top has a view over a wooded valley, with 
a glimpse of the low country beyond, dotted with 
gleaming tanks and patches of green cultivation. Its 
accessibility is also a great advantage, whilst the 
change ofclimite is not so abrupt as is that of 
Ootacamund. The hills certainly deserve more at- 
tention from the inhabitants of Madras and the ex- 
penditure of more capital in developing their resources. 
— JJ. 3/ail, July 1 
A TIN AND COFFEE COUNTRY. 
THE CONFEDERATED STATES OF MALAYA. 
[In these articles the write.' chiefly descrihe.s Perak, one 
of the ilahiyan States, with its races of -Malays, Chinese, 
ami .Sakais, or aborigines. Tlie island produces tive-eiglitlis 
of the till coiisuiiiptioii of tlie world, ami promises to be a 
fine coffee producing country ] 
Hitherto the industries of Perak might have been 
described by the one word 
“ TIN.” 
This is no longer the case. The extensions of the 
railway and the improvement of communications, 
coupled with other causes, such as the depreciation in 
the value of tin, and appreciation of coconuts, coffee, 
and other tropical products, has brought agriculture 
and the development of the waste forest land very 
much into the foreground. There has been special 
progress in 18%, when the wealthy Chinaman, equally 
with the European, and often conjointly with him, 
began to invest in land, and ouce John has begun 
there is no tellmg when he may stop if tin does not 
rise above what is now considered rather a low price. 
The State at last has come to realise that, while it 
was consuming its capital in tin at a tremendous rate, 
it was doing but little to develop its very extensive 
forest land, exceedingly well suited for the growth 
of all tropical products. 
COCONUT AND SUGAR PLANTATIONS 
have been for many years carried on successfully in 
Province Wellesley, opposite Penang, and other parts 
of the Straits ; and during the last few years the 
planting of coffee (Liberian) has advanced sufficiently 
to show that the soil and climate will produce this 
variety of coffee abundantly and of good quality. In 
Selangor there are already many estates established 
and produciog, but in Perak coffee planting on any 
large scale was not gone into until within the last 
j ear or two, with the exception of two or three estates, 
each in separate districts. One of these, having a 
planted area of 2.50 acres in bearing, between six and 
seven yeais old, gave in 1895 a return of 6.^ cwt. of 
clean coffee for the market, and the extensions of a 
year or two old on .sune estate promise to do still 
better. These are the results in Perak. Other States 
have done as well, and the return is what may be 
ordinarily looked for. The leaf disease which des- 
troyed the Arabian coffee in Ceylon is certainly 
present in Perak ; but in the case of the stronger and 
more vigorous 
LIBERIAN TREE 
it has not hitherto done any damage worth 
speaking of, and it is the general opinion that with 
this variety of coffee the disease is powerless to 
do much harm, and may be discounted. Judging 
by the experience already acquired, and the re- 
sults attained, I see no reason why the Malay 
States should not become extensive growers of the 
Liberian coffee tree, and make up for the million 
cwts. lost to British Colonial produce when the leaf 
disease wiped almost out of existence the Arabian 
variety in Ceylon. 
Not a few of your readers have been, if they are 
not now, interested in coffee, directly or indirectly, 
and those niiiy be curious to know how things are 
done in connection witli coffee planting in Perak, 
where conditions are different from those that pre- 
vailed in Ceylon in the old palmy days. In the 
first place, the Oovernment gives the land on 
PERPETUAL LEASE 
at an annual rental of half-a-dollar (little more 
than one shilling) per acre, and for every acre cleared 
and planted it allows a forest reserve of two acres 
