Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore Part 11

of bones had been applied the previous year, and for the four preceding years 2 cwt. of castor cake and 1 cwt. of bone had been used, but, in the opinion of the manager, the latter application had proved too small. On the other estate one-third of a bushel of cattle manure per tree, and from 7 cwt. to 10 cwt. of bones had been applied once in three years, and composts also had been used to a considerable extent. These were formed first of a layer of vegetable rubbish, then fresh pulp and lime, and lastly a layer of soil. The estate last referred to, on which the cattle manure, bones and compost had been used, belongs to Mr. Mangles--his Coovercolley estate--and is certainly the finest I ever saw, if we take into consideration the state of the soil, the colour of the foliage, and the evident prospect of continuously good crops. So well fed, indeed, was the land with nitrogen, that an application of nitrate of soda produced no perceptible effect on the trees. The land was probably over supplied with phosphoric acid, and an a.n.a.lysis of the soil would be of practical value, for if, as I have good reason to surmise, there is a very large supply of phosphoric acid in the soil, the use of bones might be suspended for some years, and a light application of lime used instead. Ten acres, at any rate, might be tried as an experiment. I was shown one piece of coffee which had been manured, when it was two years old, with cattle manure, and this piece had remained perceptibly superior ever since. On this estate 600 cattle are kept for the sake of their manure. I would suggest that the proprietor might, on say ten acres, discontinue the use of cattle manure, and, as an experiment, apply dressings of jungle top-soil instead, or the red earth alluded to in my chapter on manures, should that be available. The experiment might be valuable to the proprietor and to planters in general. Cattle manure is very expensive, and when 12 to 14 tons per acre--some fairly well rotted and some slightly so--were used in Coorg on one estate the cost was 72 rupees an acre, including cost of application.

In bringing these brief remarks to a close, I may observe that I formed a very high opinion of coffee in Coorg, and I feel confident that if the shade were remodelled on the system recommended in my chapter on that subject, the losses from Borer and leaf disease would be largely diminished, and a great general improvement in the coffee take place. We have experienced such results from improved shade in Mysore, and there can be no doubt that similar results will follow in Coorg. In remodelling the shade system, all light and dry soils should be first attended to and planted up with trees which give an ample and cool shade. The treatment of other parts of plantations may be postponed.

As regards the profits that may reasonably be expected from well managed and well situated estates in Coorg, I am happy to say that I have obtained from a friend the returns from his estates for the last ten years, and as his properties are of large extent, the return may be regarded as a very reliable one, more especially as the prices for three years of the period were very low. The average yield per acre was 4 cwt. 1 qr. 7 lbs.; the expenses, 9 4s. 2d., and the profits per acre 7 8s. 6d.

I only wish that, in conclusion, I could give as favourable an account of the prospects of sport in Coorg as I can of its coffee. Twenty-five years ago there was good big game shooting, but the absence of game laws, and the indiscriminate destruction of does, fawns, and cow bisons by the natives, at every season of the year, have changed all that, and it is with a melancholy smile that one reads in the "Coorg Gazetteer" that the Coorgs are such ardent sportsmen that they have hardly left a head of game in the country. But the first sign of advanced civilization--the intelligent preservation of wild animals--has begun, or will shortly be begun, in the enlightened state of Mysore, and I trust that its good example may soon be followed in Coorg, and all parts of India. With the aid of preservation game will soon increase in the more remote forests into which it has been driven back, and from thence spread into other parts of the country.

FOOTNOTES:

[48] "Manual of Coorg," compiled by Rev. G. Richter, Princ.i.p.al, Government Central College, Mercara. Mangalore, 1870.

[49] The late Mr. William Pringle, who, after leaving Coorg, wrote in 1891, for the "Madras Mail," some interesting and suggestive papers on the cultivation of coffee.

[50] I make this statement on the authority of Mr. Meynell (_vide_ preface), and it is, no doubt, the result of his experience in the Bamboo district, but his estimate could hardly, I should say, apply to the estates I visited in North Coorg.

CHAPTER X.

COFFEE PLANTING IN MYSORE.

After a long and attentive observation of the various occupations of life, I have no hesitation in saying that, for one who has to earn his bread somewhere, the life of a planter in Mysore, if not the very pleasantest and most interesting (and as far as my own experience goes it is both) in the world, is a.s.suredly one of the most agreeable occupations that anyone of intelligence, industry, and active habits, and fond of sport and an independent and open-air life, could betake himself to. It will be observed that I place intelligence in the van, and I do so because, though there is some truth in the native proverb which declares that, "with plenty of manure even an idiot may be a successful agriculturist," I know of no occupation that calls for a greater degree of intelligence and steady application than that of a planter in Mysore, or any district where shade trees are required. For where the planter has only to deal, as he has in Ceylon, with the coffee on his land and nothing else, the business, though even then of course requiring considerable skill and intelligence, is comparatively speaking a simple one. But in Mysore the necessity of providing shade for the coffee gives us at once an additional and highly complicated business in the planting and management of the shade trees, and their selection and distribution to suit the various soils, aspects and gradients we have to deal with. Then the fact of having shade trees, which of course take up much of the manure intended for the coffee, makes the application of the manure, and especially the quant.i.ty to be put down at a time, a matter of constant doubt, for on the one hand, how much do the shade trees not rob us of, and on the other hand, how much do they not return to the land by their fallen leaves? Then should we not manure and cultivate in a different manner and degree the coffee under the direct shade of the trees, and the coffee in the open s.p.a.ces between them? Such are some of the numerous points connected with coffee planting under shade, to which I briefly allude at the outset in order to show those who wish to plant coffee that a high degree of intelligence, and power of observation, are required to make a successful planter. Then it must be considered further that a colloquial knowledge of the Kanarese language must be acquired--a language which, from its admixture of ancient and modern Kanarese, the variation in the accent, and the words in common use in various parts of the country, is generally considered to be the most difficult in India. And, as will be seen further on, it requires no small amount of study and observation in order to determine how best to lay out money in the purchase or manufacture of manures. There is also occasion for much tact, firmness, and temper, in dealing with the labourers and overseers on the estates, and also the native population with which nearly all the estates in Mysore are surrounded. Then much tact and judgment is required in dealing with the Government officials. Other points might also be added, but I have probably said enough to caution those who may be inclined to embark in coffee planting in Mysore, against a.s.suming, as has. .h.i.therto been too often done, that it is a business which may be managed by people of inferior capacity.

I have said that the occupation is an agreeable one, and may add that, though the life of a planter involves much attention to his business, there is no really hard work in the sense that there is hard work in the colonies, and, from the coffee being in shade, there is no exposure to the sun, while as all the preparation of the crop is done by agents on the coast, there is none of that indoor factory work which tea planters have to undertake. Then the climate, taking it all the year round, is distinctly an agreeable one,--an exquisitely fine one in the winter, never disagreeably warm in the hot weather, owing to the coffee districts being under the influence of breezes from the western sea, only disagreeably wet in the monsoon, though then the climate is so fresh and healthy, that many find that season of the year to be by no means unpleasant. Besides, during the worst part of the wet season, there is comparatively little to do, and the owner of an estate can then leave home for change of air and scene. As regards the healthiness of Mysore, I can only say that everything depends on the discretion of the individual. If he chooses to take reasonable care of himself, experience shows that the climate is a decidedly healthy one, but if he chooses to expose himself unnecessarily, and fails to take those precautions as regards food, and against chills which all sensible people do, then he will be pretty sure to get fever. I may mention that the elevations of the coffee estates vary from 2,800 to about 4,000 feet above the level of the sea, which partly accounts for the temperate nature of the climate, though this of course is, as I have previously pointed out, very largely controlled and improved by the estates being under the influence of the charming sea-breezes of the Western Ghauts. And if the planter wishes to avoid the hot weather altogether, he has only to go to Ootacamund, 7,000 feet above sea-level, where he will not only come in for a delightful climate, but for the Ootacamund season. April and May may be pleasantly spent there, and when the monsoon begins in June, the planter who desires to avoid it can go to Bangalore, where he will be in time for the season there, and he can afterwards return to his estate in September.

This is a change I can recommend from practical experience. Or should a change to England be preferred, the planter should leave India about the end of April, and return in October. Such changes as these of course are only to be thought of when the planter has made his way in the world; and I only allude to them here to show that he may personally see to the carrying out of all the important operations from October till April, and either spend the remainder of his time under most agreeable circ.u.mstances in India, or pa.s.s the summer and autumn in England. In former days such changes could not reasonably have been contemplated, owing partly to the time taken up in travelling, and partly to the cost, but we now have railways within thirty to sixty miles of the various plantations, and it is certain that at no very distant date these distances will be halved, and that we shall then be within seventeen to eighteen days of London--at present we may be said to be within eighteen to nineteen days of it. In expense the cost has been halved; a first-cla.s.s return ticket from Bombay to London may now be had for 90, and on other lines of steamers the rates are lower. But it is now time to turn from matters of detail to consider the advantages of coffee in Mysore, as a good, safe, and permanent investment, and in order to show that the two last mentioned statements are well founded, I have obtained some details which will show the probable profits of coffee in Mysore. For obvious reasons I withhold the names of the estates. I have said that the investment is a permanent one, and by this I mean that, unless ruined by profound and incredible stupidity, a well shaded coffee estate in Mysore will last as long as the world will, or at any rate as long as the inhabitants of it choose to drink coffee, and in confirmation of this opinion, I may mention that one of the most flouris.h.i.+ng pieces of coffee I have ever seen in Mysore was planted on land first opened about ninety-five years ago, and which was replanted about seventy years after it was first opened. I can also point to land opened in 1857, and which has in recent years been replanted with the new variety of coffee imported from Coorg, and, as the owner of it said to me last year when we were going round the property, "The estate is now looking better than you have ever seen it." But all the old estates in Mysore that were planted in the proper coffee zone are in existence now, and many of them look better than they ever did. The durability of coffee property in Mysore, then, is, as we have seen, not a subject of speculation, but an ascertained fact, and I now proceed to show that it is as profitable as it is durable.

The first case I have to give relates to coffee property purchased by a friend of mine with money borrowed at eight per cent. interest, and with his permission I publish an account of his investment, as it not only shows what has been done in Mysore in the face of great difficulties, but ill.u.s.trates the profits that may be expected from a property that is well managed, and well situated as regards soil and climate. In 1876, then, he purchased a native estate of 240 acres of good coffee land, of which 180 acres had been very irregularly planted with "chick" coffee (the original Mysore plant). The total cost amounted to 98,000 rupees, which sum was borrowed at eight per cent. By 1880 the loan was reduced, from the profits of the coffee, by about 30,000 rupees, and my friend then purchased an adjoining native estate of 163 acres, sixty of which were also very irregularly planted with chick coffee. The price was 13,250 rupees, which he also borrowed at eight per cent. The total amount borrowed was thus 111,250 rupees, and the total coffee land was 403 acres. Up to about this time the chick coffee had done fairly well, and by 1880 the loan, as we have seen, was reduced by 30,000 rupees, but soon afterwards this variety of coffee plant began rapidly to deteriorate all over the district, and estates like my friend's, which had hitherto given satisfactory profits, did but little more than pay their working expenses. But, luckily for himself, my friend, directly after the purchase of each estate, began to plant them with the Coorg kind of coffee (afterwards fully alluded to in this chapter) which had been recently introduced, and, as the old chick trees were from six to seven feet high, and had no lower branches, they did not for some time interfere with the progress of the Coorg plants, and yielded enough to pay expenses. As the Coorg plants came into bearing the old chick plants were removed, and in 1887-88 nearly ninety tons of coffee were picked, and by that year the whole debt, princ.i.p.al and interest, was paid off, and a considerable balance was left over to my friend's credit.

In 1889-90 the property gave him a clear profit of 3,350, and it has done well ever since. Thus with all these tremendous difficulties to contend with, and in the face of the loss of all the old coffee, and after having to replant the whole property at great expense, my friend found himself in the possession of an estate, free of all debt, capable of yielding good annual profits. And it must be remembered, further, that this result was obtained, not from virgin forest land exclusively, but from land the greater part of which consisted of old native plantations.

There are, I need hardly say, no means of ascertaining the profits that may be expected from coffee in Mysore, but the following a.n.a.lysis of a Manjarabad estate of 400 acres under cultivation, which has been supplied to me by a friend, will form a fair guide to what may be reasonably expected from a Mysore estate where the management is good. In the case in question, the average crop for the last five years, has been 3-3/4 cwt.

an acre. The expenses were 111-1/2 rupees an acre, and the average profit 111-1/10 rupees per acre per annum, or rather over 7 2s. 6d. an acre. I may add that I consider this a fair average estimate of what may be expected in Mysore on a well managed estate, as a considerable proportion of the land in question is of decidedly inferior quality. I have no special details to give from the northern part of Mysore, but I am informed by a planter of experience, who resides in that part of the country that, from a good estate of 200 acres, a profit of from 1,500 to 2,000 a year may be counted on.

We have seen that the life is attractive, that coffee property is durable and profitable, and the reputation of the coffee is not exceeded by any coffee in the world, and, as I shall show further on, the plant is singularly free, when properly shaded and worked, from risk in any form, or pests of any kind. Nothing, in short, in the world would appear to be more desirable as a source of investment than coffee in Mysore, for those who are prepared to understand and look after it. And with all these alluring advantages, which I have, I believe, most accurately described, it might naturally be supposed that, coffee property in Mysore could be readily disposed of on advantageous terms to the seller. As a matter of fact, it is quite unsalable at any price that would be at all satisfactory to the owners. The explanation of this is very simple. Those who are working their own estates on the spot seldom command enough capital to invest in new estates, or do not care to extend their property, while capitalists at a distance, have, from the absence of information, no means of judging as to whether coffee in Mysore is a good investment or not.

Instead, then, of accurate, or fairly accurate, accounts to rely on, we have nothing but vague and misleading statements and reports, which often affect most injuriously industries of sound and thriving character, and, as an instance in point, I may mention that, from what I had heard of coffee in Coorg (to which I have devoted a chapter), I should have been fully prepared, had I not learnt to regard all such reports with suspicion, to find a district on the high road to ruin. As it was, I was certainly prepared, and, indeed, expected to find, coffee in Coorg in a doubtful position. That precisely the reverse proved to be the case was a most agreeable surprise to me. One of my informants dismissed the whole matter thus. Coffee in Ceylon, he said, has gone with leaf disease, Wynaad (the district in the Madras Presidency, south of Coorg) is following, Coorg will go next, and Mysore last. Ceylon certainly has gone, Wynaad I will not p.r.o.nounce upon, as I have not visited the estates in that district, but that Coorg and Mysore with their shade grown coffee will go with leaf disease is a mere groundless a.s.sertion, as the reader will, I hope, admit when I come to treat, in its proper place, of leaf disease and the effect of shade in limiting its amount, and controlling its injurious effects. And so far had these reports gone, and so thoroughly do the public at home connect coffee with Ceylon, and Ceylon alone, that a most thriving Mysore planter told me that, when he visited England, he now took good care to conceal his occupation, as he found that when he mentioned he was a coffee planter, people concluded at once that he was ruined. It is, then, most necessary to lay all the facts connected with coffee in Mysore before the public, with the view of placing our industry in its legitimate position, and I therefore make no apology for having gone into this branch of my subject with considerable minuteness. But it is now time to address myself particularly to the history and cultivation of coffee in Mysore, and to other matters in which the planters are directly or indirectly interested, and first of all it may not be uninteresting if I say a few words as to the introduction of the plant into India, or at any rate as to the earliest notices I can find on the subject.

The earliest notice I can find of coffee in India is contained in a Dutch work ent.i.tled "Letters from Malabar," by Jacob Canter Visscher, chaplain at Cochin. This collection of letters has been translated by Major Drury, or rather at his instance, and as the date of the Dutch editor's preface is 1743, it is evident that the coffee plant must have at least been introduced five or six years earlier, but the date of its introduction is not mentioned, and we are merely informed, at page 160, that "the coffee shrub is planted in gardens for pleasure and yields plenty of fruit, which attains a proper degree of ripeness. But it has not the refined taste of the Mocha coffee.... An entire new plantation has been laid out in Ceylon." The plant, however, though introduced at that early period, does not seem to have met with much attention in India, and I can find no other allusion to coffee in Indian books till we come to Heyne's Tracts, which were published in 1800, and we are there merely told that coffee was sold in the bazaars of Bangalore and Seringapatam.

Turning next to the history of coffee in Mysore, we find that there is no official record of either plant or planting further back than the year 1822, which is not very surprising, as it was only placed under British rule in 1831; but tradition in these cases seldom fails to supply some story which is suitable enough, and it may after all be quite true that, as reported, a Mussulman pilgrim, about two hundred years ago, returned from Arabia with seven beans which he planted round his mutt (temple) on the Bababudan hills in the northern part of Mysore, near which some very old trees may still be seen, and that from these beans all the coffee in Mysore has descended. But, though the plant may have been introduced at this early period, I think it improbable that anything in the shape of plantations existed before about the close of the last century. And, though the plant has been known for such a number of years, it is not a little remarkable that coffee has only come into use by the natives who grow it in recent years, and when I first settled in Mysore, in 1856, I was repeatedly asked by the farmers of the country whether we ate the berry, and of what use it could possibly be. And even now, from all that I can learn, coffee is rarely used by the natives in the coffee growing districts, though I am informed that it is so to a considerable extent in the towns of the province.

I have alluded to the tradition of coffee being first introduced into Mysore by a Mussulman pilgrim about two hundred years ago, and the species of coffee that was introduced then, or at some subsequent period, was the only one known in Mysore when I entered the province in 1855. This plant was finally called the "Chick" variety of coffee, and the name was taken, I believe, from the town of Chickmaglur, which lies close to the original Mysore home of the coffee plant. This variety had thriven well and promised to do so for an indefinite period of time, but towards the end of 1866, and during the three succeeding years, we had dry hot seasons, which caused a general attack of the Borer insect, and at about the same time there occurred a general decline in the const.i.tution of the trees, which, though no doubt greatly hastened in the majority of instances by the Borer, of which the reader will find a particular account in a subsequent chapter, has never been explained, and so serious was this decline that, had we been dependent wholly on the original Mysore variety, it is the opinion of one of our most experienced planters that, to use his own words, "there would have been an end of coffee planting in Mysore except in the case of a few elevated tracts on the Bababudan range of hills."

But, most fortunately for the planters, the Government, and the people of Mysore, Mr. Stanley Jupp--a South Mysore planter--took in 1870 a trip into Coorg, which lies on the south-west of Mysore, and was so favourably impressed with the variety of coffee grown there that he recommended that experiments should be made with it in Mysore, and in 1871 experiments on a considerable scale were made with carefully selected seed which was obtained from Coorg by Messrs. R. A. and Graham Anderson, Mr. Brooke Mockett, and Mr. Arthur Jupp. The experiments turned out to be a remarkable success, the young plants raised from the imported seed grew with extraordinary vigour, and it was soon found that the new variety would grow and crop well, and even on land on which all attempts to reproduce the "Chick" variety had utterly failed. Then this sinking industry rose almost as suddenly as it had fallen; old and abandoned estates, and every available acre of forest, and even scrub, were planted up, and land which used to change hands at from 5 to 10 rupees an acre was eagerly bought in at twelve times these amounts. But there was still some anxiety felt as regards the new variety, or rather the produce of it, for when we took it to market the brokers at once objected and said, "We are not going to give you Mysore prices for Coorg coffee." But it was found, as had been antic.i.p.ated by many experienced planters, that as the trees from Coorg seed aged the produce each year a.s.similated more and more in appearance and quality to that of the old Mysore plant, which is still grown on some estates in North Mysore, and some years ago I even obtained a slightly higher price for my coffee from the new variety than a friend had obtained for coffee of the old "Chick" kind. The coffee industry of Mysore is now established on a thoroughly sound basis. We have a plant which crops more regularly and heavily than the old variety, and which is in every respect satisfactory, and the produce of it has so improved under the influence of the soil and climate of Mysore, that, with the exception of the estates which produce the long-established brand of "Cannon's Mysore," and perhaps a few other estates on the Bababudans which have retained the original "Chick" variety of coffee, there is little difference in value between the produce of Coorg plants which have been long established in Mysore and the coffee of the original and now generally discarded variety. I may here add that the coffee of Mysore has always had a high reputation. This high quality has been partly attributed to soil and climate and partly to the coffee being slowly ripened under shade. But, however that may be, a glance at the weekly lists in the "Economist" will show that Mysore coffee of the best quality is commonly valued at from 10s. to 15s. a cwt. above that of any other kind that reaches the London market.

I now propose to give a brief account of our coffee land tenures, and shall then address myself to the intricate question of coffee cultivation in Mysore, and the still more difficult question of the shade trees which shelter the coffee from sun and wind, and the soil from the wash of the tropical rains.

When I entered the province in 1855 anyone who desired to have a given tract of forest land for coffee planting sent an application to the Government for it. An inquiry was then made, and, if no objection existed to the land being made over to the intending settler, or applicant, a puttah or grant, free of any charge for the land or any fee even in connection with the grant, was made out in Kanarese, which mentioned the name of the land and the boundaries of it, and stated that the land was to be planted with coffee within three years' time, and that, if not so planted, it was liable to be resumed by the State. No survey was made of the land, nor was it of any importance to estimate the acreage, there being no land tax, but in its place a tax of 1 rupee per cwt. of clean coffee produced, which was only liable to be demanded when the coffee was exported from the country, and not before. This system may seem to many to have been an objectionable one, and, from one point of view, no doubt it was, because the more highly the planter cultivated, the more highly he paid on each acre of his holding, but, on the other hand, the system enabled the planter to start with a very small capital, as he paid nothing for his land, nor a single s.h.i.+lling to the State till he had produced his crop. For starting and stimulating the industry the system certainly had its merits; but after the industry had obtained a firm footing, it was evidently of advantage to inst.i.tute a taxational system of a different character, and, after much discussion and correspondence on the subject, the existing forms of tenure were finally decided on, and the "Mysore Coffee Land Rules" were formally notified to the public in March, 1885.

There are two forms of grant--Form A, with an a.s.sessment of one rupee and a half an acre, which rate is fixed permanently, and Form B, at one rupee per acre, with liability to revision at the end of each period of thirty years. The a.s.sessment for local purposes stands now at 1 anna an acre (1-1/2d. at 2s. exchange), and that is the only taxation we have. There is not, and never has been, an income-tax in Mysore, nor is it at all probable that there ever will be, as the finances are in a flouris.h.i.+ng condition, and the revenues under several important heads are improving, as may be seen on referring to the chapter on the general history of the province.

Those who desire further and more detailed information regarding the rules in question, may be referred to the notification of March 24th, 1855, and I may mention that they are given in full in the "Mysore and Coorg Directory."[51]

I regret that I have no precise information to give as regards the implanted coffee land in Mysore. With reference to the southern part of the province, I think I am quite safe in saying that all the land suitable for coffee has been taken up, but I am informed by a correspondent who resides in the northern part of the province, that in that part of the country there is much implanted land both in the possession of the Government and in the hands of private individuals. All along the sides of the western pa.s.ses there are indeed large blocks of forest, but these, from the excessive rainfall, are quite unsuitable for coffee, as I am able to testify from an unfortunate practical experience, as I once took up land for coffee on the crests of the Ghauts. After its failure had been completely proved I sold the land to a planter who has since cultivated cardamoms on it, and last year the rainfall registered there was no less than 340 inches, nearly all of which fell between May and the end of October.

From what has. .h.i.therto been written as regards our taxation, I need hardly say that the planters are well satisfied with the terms granted to them by the Government. With the roads, post, telegraphs, railways, dispensaries, and other facilities at their command, and the prospect of a further important development of communications, they have also every reason to be satisfied. In short, the progressive character of the Government would seem to leave nothing to be desired. There is, however, always a "but" in life, and in our case there are two "buts." The first of these relates to the state of the law as regards advances given to labourers to be worked off by them, and to contractors to bring labourers; and the second to extradition. To these may be added three wants--I can hardly call them grievances--the want of a Wild Birds' Protection Act, a Game Act, and an agricultural chemist. On these five points I now propose briefly to remark.

The practice of giving money advances to labourers to be gradually worked off by them, and to contractors who undertake to supply labourers, has been productive of great loss and annoyance to employers, a great temptation to natives to commit fraud, and a source of constant worry to the officers of the Government. The Government sought by Act XIII. of 1859 to check these evils, not by preventive, but purely by punitive legislation. Since then there has been a constant demand by employers of labour for more punitive legislation in the shape of amendments to the Act of 1859, and from recent a.s.surances made by the Viceroy when he visited Mysore in 1892, it seems probable that something further will be done on the same lines. And something may of course be done to insure that the defaulter shall be severely dealt with--when he is caught. When he is caught. Yes, therein lies the whole difficulty, one which seems to have been as completely ignored by the Government as it has been by the planters in the legislation adopted with a view to check the evils connected with advances. In order to prove the necessity for further legislation an old planter once printed an account of a case which he took up against a defaulting coolie. His description of the hunt, and the wiles of the defaulting labourer in moving from one part of the country to another, was positively amusing, and showed conclusively that it did not pay to attempt to catch a defaulting labourer. What, then, can be the use of an Act which after all only punishes the coolie when he is caught, if the trouble and expense involved in catching him be so great, as to make the game not worth the candle? Is it not evident that the only thing which can help the planter is legislation which will make it very difficult for the labourer to obtain money from one employer and then run away and take an advance from another, and which will make it a comparatively easy matter to trace a defaulter? Now, after conferring with experienced planters and some leading native officials, I came to the conclusion that a system of registration could alone mitigate the serious evils of the advance system, and in conjunction with them I drew up a draft of a proposed Act which I laid on the table for the consideration of the Mysore Government when I attended the Representative a.s.sembly in 1891, and I may mention that the draft in question has been printed in the Government Report of the Proceedings. It would be tedious to give an account of the provisions in the Bill, and it is sufficient to say that its two chief features were the registration of advances and the limitation of their amount. The registration was to be effected by its being made compulsory that when an advance was given three tickets on a Government form should be issued, one of which was to be held by the employer, the second by the labourer, and the third by the registrar of the talook. On each ticket was to be entered the name and address of the advancee, and the sum advanced, and as this was paid off the amounts so discharged were to be entered by the employer on the ticket retained by the labourer. When the whole amount was repaid, the ticket retained by the employer was to be handed to the registrar, who was then to erase the name of the labourer from the register of coolies under advances, and before any advance was handed to the labourer the registry was of course to be effected. The amount of advance was to be limited to ten rupees, and this was to be worked off in five months unless in the case of sickness. The object of limiting advances is as much in the interest of the labourer as of the employer, as it has been found that native employers of labour often give large advances to labourers and charge heavy interest on them when the coolie does not come to work, and thus so effectually get him into debt that he is reduced to the position of a slave. This system of registration would no doubt be troublesome, but it is the only way of checking the present evil system of giving advances which, now that labour is so well paid, is not really necessary, and that it is not so is evidenced by the fact that the large bodies of labourers employed in the gold mines receive no advances whatever. I may here mention that a private system of registration with reference to labour contractors has been started by the firm of Messrs. Matheson and Co., in connection with their extensive estates in Coorg, and that it has been found most useful. The system I have proposed would be valuable to the contractors, who themselves are often swindled by labourers to whom they have advanced money.

I now turn to the subject of extradition, the law relating to which has much aggravated the evils connected with giving advances to labourers. The want of legislation on this subject has been brought to the notice of the Viceroy, and it is to be hoped that there may soon be complete reciprocity between native States and the British Government as regards warrants. At present a defaulter flying from Mysore to British territory can only be arrested by calling in the interposition of the Resident, a process so c.u.mbrous that it is practically true, as alleged in the pet.i.tion of the planters of Southern India, that "Planters or contractors residing in Mysore cannot obtain warrants against defaulters in British territory, though planters in British territory can obtain warrants against defaulters in Mysore." This is a grievance which requires redress, not only for the sake of the planters, but also of all other employers of labourers, or those who may have made contracts of any kind.

Cattle trespa.s.s, I may mention, is not here alluded to because, though it was at one time a great grievance, a Cattle Trespa.s.s Amendment Act received the a.s.sent of His Highness the Maharajah in December, 1892. By this, where it is proved to the satisfaction of Government that in any given local area cattle are habitually allowed to trespa.s.s on land and damage crops, the fines will be doubled, and the owner of the land has besides the right to bring an action for compensation for any damage done to his land or crops.

Having alluded to our grievances, I now pa.s.s on to consider lastly what may be called our wants as regards wild birds' protection, game preservation, and a Government agricultural chemist.

A Wild Birds' Protection Act exists in British India, but as its provisions have not as yet been extended to our province, I would suggest that Mysore, in consequence of its numerous plantations where coffee and other plants and trees are liable to be attacked by insects, probably requires such an Act even more than any other part of India, and I may at the same time take the opportunity of suggesting that all the native States should be communicated with so that an Act for the Protection of Wild Birds may be provided for every part of India. It would be superfluous to adduce here the numerous and evident advantages that would arise from the protection of wild birds, as their value is now so universally recognized, and I therefore pa.s.s on to offer a few brief remarks on game preservation, or, to speak more exactly, of the preservation of those wild birds and harmless animals which are useful as food.

The neglect of game preservation in India has not only been a cause of great loss to the country owing to the reckless waste of the sources of valuable supplies of food, but has severely injured the farmers in jungly tracts in a way that seems. .h.i.therto to have escaped notice. I allude to the fact that, in consequence of the wanton destruction of game in the western forests, tigers are compelled to inflict much greater losses on the herds of the natives. This is a fact to which I can personally testify, and which has since the middle of 1892 become steadily more apparent; for, when game was more plentiful in the forests along the crests, and at the foot of the Ghauts, the tigers lived largely upon game and rarely attacked cattle; indeed, so much was this the case that, about thirty years ago, a native who had the most outlying farm on the crests of the Ghauts told me that though tigers were constantly about they had never attacked his cattle. And as I was at the time living near his house, and clearing land for planting, and never got a shot at a tiger when residing there, I am sure that his statement was correct. But since that time English guns have become common, and the destruction of game of all kinds and of any age has gone on apace, and the result is that the tigers, which used to confine themselves mainly to preying on wild animals in the forests, have been forced to fall upon the village cattle, and I have never known tigers to be more destructive than they are now. On a single day this year no less than seven cattle were killed by tigers at one village, and an old planter of more than thirty years' standing, a near neighbour of mine, alluding to the subject in a recent letter, said, "Yes, there have been more tigers about this year than I have ever known." But it is not only on account of the supply of food from game, and for the sake of the cattle of the natives that a Game Preservation Act is urgently required, it is also urgently needed in order to check the abominable cruelties committed by the native hunters. Writing to me with reference to this subject, Colonel J. P. Grant, the head of the Survey and Settlement Service, observes as follows:

"Gunning and especially netting, in the most reckless and improvident manner, are on the increase. Antelope are fast disappearing, and in the jungle tracts night shooting is clearing out spotted deer especially. As for cruelty nothing can exceed the indifference of net-workers to any pain they may cause their captures. Snipe are caught and their legs and wings broken, and in this condition they are kept alive and carried to market.

The wounding, necessarily reckless during night shooting, is horribly cruel. Pea fowl, jungle fowl, or anything fairly big, have their eyes sewn up. I have often seen this. In the case of hares the tying is very cruel, the thong cutting down to the bone; and the same is the case with any deer they may catch alive."

The rapid destruction of game of all kinds has been as melancholy as it has been remarkable, and I confess I never could have believed how complete, especially as regards small game, the deadly work has been had I not had occasion in recent years to drive, by easy stages, and early in the morning, along the whole of the western frontier of Mysore, and also much of the adjacent district of Coorg. In the old days, when riding, we always went at a walk and took our guns with us for shots at pea fowl, jungle fowl, pigeons, and other small game. But now you can neither see nor hear anything to shoot. And yet one of the favourite accusations of the Indian Congress against the Indian Government is that in consequence of the Arms Act the natives are unable to obtain guns and ammunition in order to defend themselves and their crops from the attacks of wild animals, though the scarcity of large game, and, in many cases, its absolute extinction, is notorious to sportsmen all over India. But the Mysore Government, I am happy to say, has at last directed its attention to the subject, and I have every reason to believe that a Game Act will soon be introduced in Mysore.

The last want I have to allude to is that of a Government agricultural chemist, who should be empowered at a rate of fees, fixed by the State, to a.n.a.lyze soils and manures for private individuals, and to consult with planters and others as to the requirements of their soils and the best way of supplying them with manure. Such an officer would be very useful in searching for coprolites and new manurial resources. My life-long experience in agriculture on a large scale both in Scotland and Mysore has shown me more and more the great value of an agricultural chemist for discovering new manurial resources, and perhaps more especially economizing those that already exist; and the great want of such an officer was brought to the notice of Government by me when I was a member of the Representative a.s.sembly in 1891.

I may conclude this chapter by alluding to a discovery, or rather, I should say, a probable discovery, of the greatest importance, of a new hybrid coffee plant--a cross between the Liberian and the coffea Arabica.

This has occurred on the property of a friend of mine, but, at his request, I do not publish his name, as he would be inundated with applications for seed. This magnificent hybrid, of which there are only two trees in existence as yet, has enormous bearing powers, and leaves which are apparently absolutely impervious to leaf disease, for I could not discover a trace of it though the hybrid is standing next to a coffee plant which is covered with it. It is of course uncertain as yet whether the new plant can be established as a distinct variety, nor do we know anything of the flavour of the coffee, as the quant.i.ty produced is yet so small that berries are reserved exclusively for seed; but should it be possible to establish the new variety (and I know of no reason why it should not be established), quite a new departure will take place in coffee production in India, and the value of coffee land will be enormous, as, from calculations made, the hybrid can produce at the rate of eight or nine tons an acre, while as many hundredweights an acre would be considered an unusually heavy crop in Mysore.

FOOTNOTES:

[51] "Hayes' Mysore and Coorg Directory," Bangalore. This valuable compilation, which contains no less than 573 pages, gives a most complete account of almost everything relating to Mysore and Coorg.

CHAPTER XI.

SHADE.

I now turn to the greatest of all the points connected with coffee--the question of shade. And I call it the greatest point, because if good shade of the best kind is grown it is absolutely impossible to destroy a plantation in Mysore, even with the worst conceivable management or neglect, and I say this after ample experience, as had it not been for the abundant and excellent shade on a badly-managed property of my own it would have been permanently ruined. But with plenty of good kinds of shade trees on the land you might even close the plantation gates, and abandon the land, and, as long as cattle were kept out, return ten years afterwards, saw down the coffee, grow suckers from the stumps, plant up the land with young plants where vacancies had occurred, and in four or five years the plantation would be as good as ever, and the land even better, for it would not have been exhausted by crop, and the fallen leaves from the shade trees would have enriched the soil. And if the old trees were not in a condition, from old age, to grow suckers that would develop into good trees, the whole land could be advantageously replanted.

But, as the reader will remember, I have said that the trees must be the best kinds of shade trees, a subject that requires great study and observation to master. Before beginning, however, it may be well to point out those general principles which govern the whole subject, and which at once show us the best kinds of trees to select, and what is nearly of as great importance, how to manage them after they have been selected or planted, and I would lay particular stress on the latter point, which has, I may observe, been largely if not entirely misunderstood, simply because the great governing principle has been neglected.

The governing principle, then, as regards shade for coffee is, that you should have on the land the smallest number of boles, because the more you multiply boles the more ground you waste; and the greater the number of large trees there are, the greater, of course, will be the number of large roots in the land, and the greater demand will there be on the resources of the soil; the greater, too, will be the waste of manure put down by the planter for the benefit of his coffee; and last, but by no means least, the smaller will be the amount of leaf deposit. I have seen much shade so managed as to give the greatest amount of boles with the smallest amount, and spread of branches, whereas the object of the planter ought to be to furnish the smallest number of boles with the greatest proportionate amount and spread of branches and foliage. And this unfortunate error, the evil of which will become more and more apparent as time advances, would never have been committed, had the primary principle I have pointed out been grasped at the outset.

Let us then keep firmly in mind that, (1) we require trees that will, from their wide-spreading branches, enable us to do with the smallest number possible on the land, and that (2) if we trim up the lower branches of these trees when the trees are young because we do not like to see them too closely over the coffee, we shall entirely defeat the main object we have in view, because we shall certainly produce a tall tree with a small head, and consequently small spread of branches; and the clear apprehension of the principle first named guides us at once to the selection of the right kind of trees, and their proper treatment. I will now proceed to state the names of the trees that are, in my experience, the most desirable, and, secondly, those which are good for coffee, but which for various reasons are undesirable. After much and close study of this important subject, and a very long experience, I have come to the conclusion that the only trees which are at once easily propagated; free from the risks of attacks from cattle owing to their being grown from long cuttings; little liable to attacks from parasites, and which afford a proper degree of shade, and also admit the largest relative supply of light; which afford a large supply of leaf deposit; and which lastly, but by no means leastly, have very wide spreading branches, are only five in number. I give first the Kanarese and then the botanical name of each.

There are, then, Cub Busree (_Ficus tuberculata_), the Gonee (_Ficus Mysorensis_), the Kurry Busree (_Ficus infectoria_), Eelee Busree (a variety of the last named), and Mitlee.[52]

There are two kinds, Heb Mitlee, and Harl Mitlee--the second is a bad tree. The mitlee grows one fourth quicker than cub busree, and a recent close attention to this tree shows me that it is a much more desirable tree than either others or myself once supposed, for not only is it a quicker grower than the remainder of the most desirable kinds but its foliage lets in much light. It is, therefore, a most desirable tree for northern aspects.