January 6,1887. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
17 
complishment to me had I been let alone, but my superior would not 
unfrequently upset my work and arrangements by giving me to under¬ 
stand that he would have none of my “ new jims ” introduced on any 
plantation under his charge, ordering the overseers and coolies in my 
presence to undo the work I had completed, &c. I worked on patiently, 
however, as much after my own fashion as possible, and had the satis¬ 
faction of rearing a nursery of young Coffee plants containing some 
200,000, which I planted out successfully in the open about twelve months 
later. The Coffee seed is sown without the inner skin or “ parchment ” 
being removed thickly in beds, very lightly covered by fine mould, on the 
top of which a thick coating of leaves is placed. The beds are kept in a 
uniform moist state until the seeds begin to germinate, which happens 
usually about six weeks after sowing. When the seedlings are large 
enough to handle they are pricked out into other prepared beds about 
3 or 4 inches apart each way, kept constantly watered and shaded in 
hot weather until they are fit to be planted out, which is generally about 
fifteen or eighteen months after sowing of the seed. I need hardly say 
that success in the formation of a Coffee plantation depends greatly on 
the stamp of seedling available for planting out, so that the greater the 
care bestowed on the nursery the better will be the future permanent 
prospects of a plantation. At the time of my arrival in the neighbour¬ 
hood it was a common practice to dibble the seedlings into the nurseries 
from the seed beds without trimming the tap roots, which are always of 
great length even in small seed ings, consequently these roots were 
invariably turned, the coolies strongly objecting to the practice of the 
slightest care in the operation of transplanting, firmly believing in the 
quickest and easiest way to the end of any work they undertook. 
These plants, after having reached the proper size, were again ruth¬ 
lessly pulled up and again dibbled into the filled-up pits prepared for 
them on the cleared jungle land. This careless mode of manipulating the 
young Coffee plants was doubtless the cause of the numerous deaths 
which occurred during the ensuing dry season after planting, and the 
unhealthy and stunted appearance of numbers of those plants that 
survived, an examination of the roots invariably revealing the fact of 
their being distorted and twisted in all directions. 
My next work of any importance on the estate was to build a house 
or bungalow. As may be imagined, I considered it safer to leave its 
construction as much as possible in the hands of the coolies or labourers 
on the plantation, who were accustomed to such work, contenting myself 
with giving instructions as to the size of the rooms. At that time, with 
very few exceptions, the houses in the Wynaad were what is called 
“ wattle and daub ” buildings with thatched roofs, bricks-and-mortar or 
timber dwellings being few and far between; and as my supervisor evi¬ 
dently considered a “ wattle and daub ” building quite good enough for 
any “ swell gardener,” I gave the necessary orders to have one built 
accordingly. Saplings with natural forks were cut and squared by the 
axe and collected from the jungle. Two tall ones were planted deep in 
the ground to support the ridge-pole, and the others fixed so as to support 
the wattle and daub walls of the house and the beams (f the verandah. 
The house was divided into five compartments—viz., dining-room, two 
bedrooms, a bath room, and a pantry, the kitchen and servants’ rooms 
being under a separate roof at a little distance. The roof was composed 
of whole Bamboo canes cleverly affixed to the ridge-pole, and overlaid 
with the same material split into laths and tied on with the inner bark 
of jungle saplings. Over this a thick coating of coarse jungle grass 
was laid, which in reality proves the best covering for houses of any 
description in such climates, proving cooler during the hot weather and 
tighter and drier during the heavy rains than any other material avail¬ 
able. The walls were made of Bamboo, split and dressed, and interwoven 
like basket-work. Over this was plastered a coating of wet mud, thrown 
on in handfuls outside and in, which was left to dry and then smoothed 
over with two or three coatings of well-diluted cowdung. The earthen 
floors of the rooms and the verandah were then dug, well soaked with 
water, trodden into puddle, and levelled, receiving as a finishing touch 
the same number of coatings of the above-named liquid, and the building 
was complete. 
I have already stated that the estate was situated further to the east¬ 
ward than any then opened in the district, and in consequence experienced 
a hotter and less moist climate than any other. Indeed, I was told by old 
planters on my first arrival in the country that, in their opinion, a mis¬ 
take had been made in opening land for Coffee so far to the eastward, and 
consequently out of the track of the rain clouds, and time proved the cor¬ 
rectness of that opinion. The early spring showers seemed to shun the 
neighbourhood of this particular plantation, whilst falling plentifully in 
other localities of the district, and the Coffte blossom, instead of expand¬ 
ing during the month of March or April, would not make its appearance 
sometimes till the end of May, when the trees were in such a dried and 
shrivelled condition from the long-continued draught and east winds that 
it seemed as if a match would set fire to the whole plantation. My first 
year proved a moist one, rain falling early, and the few acres then arrived 
at a suitable age, flowered freely, and the fruit set well, but almost 
immediately after the trees were attacked by mealy bug, which smothered 
the bunches of young fruit and clung to them, effectually preventing their 
further development, till the beginning of the south-west rains, which 
cleared the trees of bug and fruit at the same time. The other two 
seasons that I remained on the property proved equally disastrous, though 
in another way. The spring flowers refused to visit the estate till too 
late, or till the flowers were nearly destroyed by the long drought and 
east winds. At the end of this time I determined to obtain another 
situation as soon as possible in a more favoured locality, believing as I 
did that nothing but disaster could result from the cultivation of Coffee 
in a district subject to suoh long droughts, and this belief was verified by 
the dying out of every Coffee tree on the estate a few years later, not¬ 
withstanding every effort being made to prevent it. To be correct, this 
result was perhaps not solely due to the arid nature of the climate, but to 
that mostly, assisted by the attacks of the grub of a beetle called the 
borer in the Coffee districts of India, and of which I shall have something 
to say hereafter. 
To give some idea of the effects of this long-continued dry weather, I 
may mention that it was impossible for a cooly to dig more than fifteen 
Coffee pits per diem 18 inches cube, even with the assistance of a pick 
and crowbar; this was their allotted task, and nothing would induce them 
to do more, to such an extent had the fierce sun hardened the ground. 
Another reason which induced me to leave the neighbourhood was the 
prevalence of jungle fever. The Bamboo district is notoriously fever , 
and there is no instance of an European escaping it for long, even with 
the greatest care. Good water is not to be had, and this, according to 
native opinion, is the sole cause of ague and fever. My experience leads 
me to believe that, although drinking bad water may not be exactly the 
sole cause of jungle fever, it has a great deal to do with it. If malaria 
from decayed vegetable matter were the only cause, then the forest 
jungles would unquestionably be the most unhealthy, and the Bamboo 
districts, where the annual jungle fires effectually get rid of all 
decayed vegetable matter over the whole surface of the land would be 
the moBt healthy, but the reverse is the case. The forest district, where 
streams abound and the water is excellent, but where the fires, in the way 
of scavengers, never reach, is comparatively healthy, Europeans escaping 
fever sometimes for years whilst in the Bamboo districts, where the 
greater part of the decayed vegetation is annually destroyed, but where 
the water is bad and scarce fever is always rampant, extremely 
weakening to the European, and deadly to the native. It would not 
perhaps have such a deadly effect upon the native were he in a position 
to obtain proper nourishment after each attack of the fever, but as the 
food available is the same in sickness and in health, he quickly succumbs 
to repeated attacks of the fever. It may be different now, but at the time 
of which I write the ccolies on the estates were only willing to accept, at 
the hands of their employers, one medicine, and that medicine was 
quinine. This was accepted and taken willingly, and in many instances 
craved for, but with regard to other medicines for other diseases, if they 
took them at all it was invariably under compulsion. 
The bulk of the labour employed on the Coffee plantations at that 
time was drafted from Mysore, which, as is well known, is mostly an 
open table land, and comparatively free from such fevers as prevail in the 
more wooded districts of the Madras Presidency. The labourers on first 
arrival on the estates were strong and healthy, but a shoit residence began 
to tell on their health, and it was no uncommon thing to have on one 
estate, out of a gang of from 100 to 150 men and women, fifty or sixty 
laid up with fever and other complaints at one time. A hospital was 
furnished at the chief towns or villages by the different districts, but the 
natives had a deep-seated dislike to take advantage of these institutions, 
preferring even death to being removed to them. It will easily be believed, 
therefore, that the death-rate amongst the imported coolies was, under such 
circumstances, very high indeed, but as no register was kept, the exact 
rate was never known. The whole of the Wynaad is one gigantic ceme¬ 
tery, the price paid by the Mysore coolie for the higher rate of wages he 
received from the English Coffee planter than that obtainable from his 
own countrymen in Mysore. 
I was only some three months in the district before being laid up with 
my first attack of jungle fever, which recurred at intervals during many 
months. I believe I might have escaped for a much longer period had I 
been more careful as to exposure to the sun and as to the kind of water 
I drank ; but as no European seems to feel the strength of the Indian 
sun for a considerable time after his arrival in the country, I scorned the 
idea of remaining under shelter during the hottest part of the day, drink¬ 
ing water from swamps or where I could get it, and paid the penalty of 
my folly in consequence. Sulphate of quinine was considered by 
planters to be the sheet anchor in the treatment of jungle fever, but so 
far as my experience went, and I took large quantities of it during my 
residence in the Bamboo jungles, it is by no means the specific it is 
supposed to be, at least so far as European constitutions are concerned. 
It may, however, be different wi'h regard to the native constitution. 
A supply of quinine is usually kept on each estate, so that I had frequent 
opportunities of marking its effects on those suffering from attacks of 
ague and fever. In some cases it produced no effect whatever, in others 
the effect was rapid and good, a very few doses effectually checking the 
intermittent attacks, and in others, again, it acted as a charm, killing the 
fever at once. It was, however, quite impossible to obtain quinine in 
sufficient quantities to meet every case, and the mortality amongst the 
labourers on the plantations was very great in consequence. 
Other diseases, such as diarrhoea, dysentery, ulcers, &.\, were also pre¬ 
valent, the causes for which might be easily traced in numerous instances 
to the habits of the people which will not bear describing, and any sanitary 
arrangement attempted by the superintendent of a plantation was almost 
certain to be met by a strike amongst the coolies, and very often by a gang 
leaving the estate without even asking for the wages due to them at the 
time. This course of action on the part of the labourers led to great in¬ 
convenience and loss to the planter, labour never being so plentiful at 
any time that the places of absconding coolies could be at once filled ; so 
that, as a rule, the first attempt at sanitation on the pait of the young 
and inexperienced planter was rarely, if ever, followed by a second. Yet, 
strange to say, the insi ’es of their housese were kept scrupulously clean 
and neat. 
