CHAPTER XXI

COFFEE CULTIVATION

Within the last twenty years, a new enterprise has sprung up, which has brought a considerable number of European settlers into the country, and covered the hills in some parts with careful cultivation, and a large, though migratory, native population. Where once the crouching tiger and lordly elephant, the panther and bear, the wild ox, sambhur and spotted deer freely roamed, there are now trim estates, neat bungalows, herds of cattle, and farm buildings, usually kept in first-rate order.

Where formerly a score of Europeans assembled together on state occasions at the capital was a sight to remember, now a hundred may be seen at a public entertainment, or on the annual racecourse at Trevandrum. And though the planting interest is now struggling with serious difficulties and reverses, its influence on the social and economic condition of the country is a remarkable phenomenon of the age, worthy of attentive consideration.

The coffee plant was, perhaps two centuries or more since, introduced on the Western Coast by the Arabs, and in the early part of the present century cultivated in Travancore, some quantity even being exported. In the ‘Description of the Administrative System,’ by V. Kristno Row, we find that the export of this product in M.E. 1 01 8 (A.D 1843), amounted to 155 candies = 910 cwt, on which a duty of 669 rupees was levied.

This coffee would be grown by natives in the low country, and at a small altitude by Messrs. Binny & Co., of Madras, who, however, were unsuccessful with their plantations and afterwards sold them off. Further particulars of that period are not at present available.

Coffee was afresh introduced into Travancore, and extended to the Hills, about the year 1854, by Lt.-General Cullen, then British Resident. Procuring seeds from the Neilgherry Hills, he began a small experimental garden at Velymalei, near Pulpanabapuram, at a height of about 1,8oo feet. Here he cultivated nutmeg, cocoa, cloves, and other valuable plants; this garden still continues, and the acreage of coffee has of late been somewhat extended.

Another small garden, of somewhat over two acres, was planted at Assambu, at a height of about 3,000 feet, which became the nucleus of a large estate, opened by the First Prince and Sir Madava Row, who jointly purchased the General’s garden after his death. Experiments were also made by General Cullen with apples, New Zealand flax, and oranges, all of which failed, either through want of sufficient elevation, or through lack of care. Specimen trees of cypress, cedar, cloves, allspice, and the indigenous Assam tea, however, are now very healthy and flourishing.

This portion of the Assambu Estate, now comprising about 12 acres in extent, is remarkable for the richness of the soil being situated in a kind of basin, in which the soil washed down from the surrounding hills has collected for ages, and it has been known to give the enormous return of a ton per acre. The usual produce of this small plot is seven or eight cwts. per acre. The plants are now, of course, nearly thirty years old; some of the stems 13 inches in circumference.

Nearly fifty years ago a small estate had been commenced in the low country at Valrampuram, near Trevandrum, by an East Indian. He planted his coffee in the shade of jack and other trees, and for many years made a considerable profit. The plantation has now nearly died out. But similar culture of coffee under fruit and garden trees is practised to a large extent in Trevandrum, Quilon, and elsewhere, and the produce is often a considerable help to the income of the native householder.

The first to enter upon the professional culture of coffee in the Travancore Hills was a native Christian, Mr. P. D. Devasagasim, of Assambu. This worthy man had been a teacher in the Mission Seminary at Nagercoil, but wishing to push his way in the world, he emigrated to Ceylon, at the same time generously supporting a teacher in his stead. He became a trustworthy and successful manager, and afterwards resolved to return and invest his savings in his native land.

In 1859 he applied to the Dewan for a grant of 60 acres of forest land, which was granted after two years’ delay and correspondence, demand being made at first for security to pay the taxes, as in the case of rice cultivation. Erecting a shed, in 1861, on a broad platform of rock in the Assambu Pass, he cut down the forest, drove off the wild beasts, and by the Divine blessing on a course of diligence and uprightness, now possesses a well-kept and profitable estate of 60 acres, producing in its earlier stage, before the appearance of leaf disease, about 400 cwt. of coffee, and now usually 160 cwt, half of the returns being net profit. Striking testimony to the worth and prosperity of this native planter was borne by H.H. the First Prince (now Maharajah) in a lecture delivered at Trevandrum : —

“Another example (of successful diligence) is that of Mr. P. D. Devasahayam, of South Travancore. Born of very poor parents, at Nagercoil, and losing his father early, he was placed in the Mission Boarding School by the late Rev. C. Mault, and was there brought up and educated by him. When about eighteen years old, he was attached to the Mission as a catechist, with a monthly pay of five rupees.

"As such he continued for some years; but in 1844, at the instigation of a friend of his, who had just returned from a coffee planter in Ceylon with some little savings, he played the truant, and went over to that island in hope of large gain. At first he was employed as a conductor, on a salary of 20 rupees, under a coffee planter. He continued in Ceylon for about 20 years, during which he served several planters, and by his diligence and sterling honesty gave satisfaction to all.

"During the last few years he was employed in a large plantation, and drew 100 rupees per month. Being allowed a few months’ leave every year, he was able to spend them in his native land, where, with his savings, he invested 2,000 rupees in a good house, and another 2,000 rupees in paddy lands. In 1858, he took it into his head to try coffee planting in the Assambu range of Hills. His hopes were strengthened by the sight of the coffee trees groaning under the weight of scarlet berries in the experimental garden of that keen and unwearied student of nature, the late General Cullen.

"In spite of very strong dissuasion from friends, he applied for land, obtained it, and at once seriously threw himself into the venture. Suffice it to say, that the results exceeded the fondest hopes. I have myself seen the Victoria Estate belonging to Mr. Devasahayam, and I may say that it is one of the best chosen, best managed, best looking, and best paying coffee estates I have ever seen.

"In his neat, picturesque, and comfortable little chalet with a coy little stream of crystal water near it, with every comfort which characterises a contented and cheerful homestead, with a bracing climate, with congenial and invigorating exercise in connection with his property, with the fruits of honest labour around him, with the sweet pleasure of having, ever and anon, silently contributed to a thousand little charities; without begging of any one, or crossing any one, and above all, with a clean conscience, Mr. Devasahayam presents a model of life every way worthy of imitation in principle. I may add that myself and my partner have the good fortune of having secured Mr. Devasahayam’s agency to look after our property.”

The pioneer of coffee culture on a large scale was the late Mr. John Grant, formerly of Ceylon, a gentleman in whom characteristic Scottish caution and kindliness were united with enterprise and indefatigable industry, and whose memory has been perpetuated by a hospital on the Hills, erected by public subscription; he was aided by two of his brothers. Mr. Grant received from the Sirkar a free grant of 500 acres of forest at Mahindragerry, north of Assambu; the planting of this estate was commenced in 1864, after a fourth of Mr. Devasagaim’s estate had begun to bear.

A total of nearly 800 acres was planted, and excellent pulping machinery, driven by a water wheel, introduced. Large crops have often been yielded by this estate — as much as 15 cwt. per acre on some plots of ten, twenty, or even fifty acres in extent. But, unfortunately, a fourth of the estate has had, of late years, to be abandoned, partly on account of the alarming spread and destructive ravages of leaf disease, but still more through fierce monsoon winds in the early part of the year blowing off the blossoms and preventing the growth of the tree. Another fourth seems to be slowly dying out through a disease affecting the roots, which has appeared both at Peermade and Assambu, and causes the whole tree to die off. Tea, cocoa, cinchona, and other products are now being introduced, and promise in time to prove remunerative.

On the Peermade range of Hills the first openings for coffee were made by Messrs. Baker and Munro, and General Stevenson, who obtained grants of forest land from the Sirkar for the experiment. Mr. Baker received a free grant of 500 acres, of which, however, 200 were grass land not available for coffee. The estate has been carefully managed, and is now of great value and giving good returns. Other estates also have prospered, but of late the ravages of leaf disease have been very trying. Tea is, therefore, being largely planted as a second resource, and so far, is doing well. From three to five cwts. of coffee has been the usual rate of produce per acre.

A planter who settled at Peermade with but small capital, but abundant energy and close application, accumulated within ten years a property of 250 acres of coffee planted land, worth Say £10,000. From 20 acres of this estate he once gathered, in the second year, 18 cwt, and in the third year 120 cwt. of coffee; and from 150 acres, in 1876, about 400 cwt.

In 1862, when it appeared likely that this branch of agriculture would prove successful, a set of rules was drawn up by the Sirkar for grants of forest land, reserving valuable timber trees, such as blackwood and teak, and cardamom cultivations, and fixing an annual tax of three quarters of a rupee per acre; besides an export duty of five per cent., this to be remitted for the first five years on condition that a fourth of the land should be cleared and planted within the first three years.

Public attention having been widely attracted to the speculation, and several parties sometimes applying for the same tracts of waste land, indicating some amount of competition, the Sirkar established in 1865 a system of auction sales of the land, at an upset price of one rupee per acre, which continued till the last sale in October, 1874. At first there was little competition; but, in 1874 the upset price was raised to 10 rupees per acre.

The sale of these waste lands brought a considerable sum into the Government treasury. According to the State Administration report for 1874-5, the sales of land had produced over 3 lacs of rupees. Besides this, the annual tax of R. 5 per acre on over 17,000 planted, and ultimately oil the whole of the land taken up for coffee, ought to yield a good revenue. An export duty of S per cent, was imposed on coffee up till 1875, when it was dropped for a year or two, and afterwards re-imposed at 254 per cent, on the tariff valuation of Rs. 20 per cent, at which rate it now remains.

It is impossible to trace year by year the precise area actually under cultivation. From the statistics for 1879, drawn up by the Dewan, it appears that the total extent of land sold amounted to 37,805 acres; and of this amount no less than 20,292 acres, though taken up with a view to coffee cultivation, were not then planted; and most of this is still in the same condition in consequence of want of capital, and the depression produced by leaf disease within the last ten years. The yield of mature plants was approximately estimated at from 336 lbs. down to 64 lbs. per acre, in various districts, the average of the whole being 192 lbs.

The following are the returns of crop exported for a few of the first and of the last years of the enterprise : —

1864 ... 2,979 cwt. value Rs. 59,644

1865 3,965 “ “ 80,221

1867 ... 9,655 “ “ 211,542

1868 ... 14,140 “ “ 243,000

1877 ... 50,000 “ “ 990,058

1878 ... 39,737 “ “ 803,700

1879 ... 18,781 “ “ 374,600

1880 ... 45,700 “ “ 883,100

1881 ... 29,611 “ “ 599,400

The coffee estates in Travancore vary greatly in extent. The largest is Strathmore, comprising 2,800 acres, of which 1,500 are planted; and another is 600 acres, of which 500 are planted; and another 1,100 acres, of which 440 are under cultivation. Two or three hundred acres is a very usual size, and there are many smaller, down to native gardens of a few acres.

In 1879 it was stated that there were 121 regular coffee estates, and it is certain that but little increase has taken place since then, rather the contrary. The greatest proportion of mature plants is found in the southern estates, as the progress of the cultivation has been from the south northwards. The average elevation of the plantations is greater, however, in the north.

The highest estate is in Velavengodu district, at an elevation of 3,900 feet; but there are only two estates there, which comprise unitedly 395 acres, and the out-turn of which for 1877-8 was the largest in the State, viz., 412 lbs. per acre of mature plants. The lowest estate is in Neduvengaud, altitude above the sea about 400 feet; and on this 154 lbs. per acre were gathered. The average produce for the whole in 1877-8 was about 276 lbs. per acre of full-grown plants. Where the cost of cultivation is greatest, the out-turn also is greatest. In the two highest estates, mentioned above, the cost of cultivation was said to be Rs. 111 per acre.

Drought is often complained of in February and March, when rain is wanted to set the fruit. Coffee is a very precarious investment in Travancore, because the crop is entirely dependent upon rain at the blossoming season, and a few showers just at the right time make a difference of thousands of rupees to the planter. Violent and continuous rains in other months sometimes cause great injury to the plants, and carry away valuable soil.

As compared with the estates in Ceylon, those in Travancore are very steep, the difference between top and bottom sometimes being over a thousand feet; they are thus greatly exposed to wash from heavy rains. The soil is, in general, a black or chocolate coloured loam, with a subsoil of red earth and decomposed granite; the quality much the same as in Ceylon — in some places very poor.

The profits made in the early stage of the coffee speculation, while the soil was unexhausted, the plants young and strong, and expenditure for manure not yet begun, and previous to the appearance of the leaf disease, were so tempting that nearly every one who possessed, or could borrow any capital, embarked in it. The “bumper crops” of 1869-70 and of 1871-2 added to the public eagerness.

Those who had planted and sold out at such times made the most money, while those who just then invested came in for the bad times succeeding. The “coffee fever” spread, until at the last sale of land, in the latter part of 1874, wild competition sent up the price of land to an unprecedented extent.

Hundreds of acres were purchased at rates varying from Rs. 10 to Rs. 57. Several small lots went up to Rs. 70. Two hundred and fifty acres were bought at Rs. 6; and some unfortunate native bid for 50 acres at Rs. 82, though he never got so far as to clear, or even pay for his purchase.

Many of the estates opened by natives were at by far too low an elevation, say from five to eight hundred feet, where there ought to have been two to four thousand feet of altitude, and consequently were subject to drought and premature exhaustion. Much of the land selected was unsuited to the growth and requirements of this plant, and the estates were often left weedy and neglected; the native planters were also generally less punctual and reliable paymasters than the Europeans.

Many of these estates have since had to be abandoned, and great losses thereby incurred. But bad working had as much to do with the failure as the low elevation of the plantations. Native Christians who had saved money as conductors in Ceylon opened such estates, and their friends placing additional capital at their disposal, much loss was incurred. A trial of native probity and reputation was, at the same time, experienced, under which some lamentably sank.

Various entire estates, especially between Agastier and Assambu, and numerous inferior portions of others, have been abandoned as unprofitable, and are now returning to their original waste condition. Several causes of failure operated.

One of the principal was the “leaf disease,” which appears in brown or orange patches of fungus on the leaves, causing them to drop off, and injuring the fruitbearing power of the plant. The fruits also were sometimes found empty of berry, or very light, the pulp only having been developed, while the external appearance led to large estimates of the produce that might be anticipated.

Symptoms of the leaf disease were first noticed in Travancore in November, 1870. It appeared unmistakably in October, 1871, on several estates, but only became general after July, 1872; the other estates were completely stripped of leaves after the crop of that year. The disease first attacked a few individual trees, then patches; and finally the whole field suffered.

Bad management was also often a cause of failure after the time of the pioneers of the enterprise, who worked with a will. Lands were incautiously selected or carelessly planted, and extravagant expenditure incurred. Where a native might perhaps make a good living, an estate would not bear to be loaded with a monthly salary for a European superintendent; and there were instances in which some of these were not a credit to our country.

In various parts of the mountains strong winds, during the north-east monsoon, are the great enemy of the planter, smiting portions of the plantations so fiercely, that the trees could not grow, or are even blown down, and when in blossom the very flowers are blown off”.

Even trees for shade and shelter cannot be brought on in such localities. The wind is worse than in Ceylon, apparently because the Travancore Hills are a narrower range than the mountain region of that island — more like a backbone. If it blows fairly on an estate, the injury caused is less; but if sideways, and rushing through a gorge, it destroys all flower and fruit.

From these and other causes, some estates did not repay the expense of cultivation — in others, the crops were greatly lessened. Times were sadly changed. Where formerly two or three hundredweight of coffee per acre was expected even off two year old plants, or, at least, repayment of all expenses, there are now so many estates producing almost nothing that the whole average produce will not come to two cwts. per acre.

A certain estate which cost Rs. 10,000 for up-keep in 1879, produced only eighty cwts. of coffee, value less than Rs. 4,000. Other estates only repay the annual expenditure. Some are quite abandoned after long and patient waiting and struggling in hope of better times. The total acreage thus abandoned we have not been able to discover; the subject is evidently too painful for free publication.

It is a sad sight to behold a ruined estate on which many thousands of rupees had been spent, and regarding which bright hopes had once been indulged. The plants, no longer pruned and trimmed, throw up thin, rod-like shoots, weeds and creepers flourish apace, and jungle shrubs spread and choke the neglected coffee.

Among these the most conspicuous are ferns, Lobelia gigantea, Knoxia corymbosa, Melastoma, Elephant grass, Mussoenda, Clerodendron, and Moesa Indica, Then jungle trees, as Macaranga, Conocarpus, Ficus, and the Bambu appear; though centuries must elapse ere the land returns to dense forest containing the same kind of trees, and of equal girth to those which had been felled to make room for the coffee.

In other parts of the East Indies, also, this branch of agriculture has suffered. The last crop on the Neilgherry Hills has been disappointing — much less than the estimates. In Ceylon, also, the late crop is complained of. Prices, too, have been considerably lowered of late through the large crops thrown into the market from Brazil, though this has hitherto been partly made up by the gain in exchange in bringing money from England to India.

Yet there are still, of course, some estates fairly prospering in Travancore, as evidenced by the export returns. Some small plots even yet produce nine cwts. per acre, and in one place a few acres give six to seven cwts.

One estate is owned and managed by a gentleman of high intelligence, character, and industry, which was well opened, planted with good plants and in proper time, vacancies well supplied and weeding carefully attended to; in fact, everything done in a businesslike manner and the coffee cultivated to a high degree of perfection; and, accordingly, it was not surprising to find that the best crop in the neighbourhood was gathered there two years ago, amounting to an average of 4 cwts. per acre. Such returns would pay well. Some other estates yield two or three cwts. per acre, which will pay sufficiently well if expenditure be kept at a minimum.

The expense of up-keep varies from Rs. 50 to Rs. 80 per acre per annum; 70 rupees may be regarded as a fair average. A crop of two cwts. per acre would, therefore, give some profit; but if expenses are kept at the very lowest possible point, even one cwt per acre might be made to pay.

So much, however, depends on care and skill in the original selection of land, on shelter from wind, which cannot always be assured beforehand, on good soil, and on personal superintendence, that it does not seem worth while for young men to come out from England at present. Any one of experience on the spot, purchasing cautiously arid judiciously just now, while things are at a low ebb, might do well. Purchasers or investors are not to be found. The strain of bad seasons has been so heavy on the planters that confidence has been lost; and many Europeans are thrown out of employment, some having lost their all.

The Sirkar has heavily handicapped the enterprise, and been unwilling to remit duties in bad seasons, or even, until lately, when urged by the united action of the planters, to provide sufficient roads for the carriage of the produce to the coast — needed especially, as the estates are much detached. The stoppage of sales of land some seven years, ago, effectually checked the opening of fresh lands, thereby, perhaps, incidentally saving other intending investors from ruin. It is feared that the felling of the forests may diminish the rainfall; certainly it would, in such case, run off more rapidly, producing torrents or inundations.

And it is a curious fact that the returns for Trevandrum Observatory, recently made up to date, do show a diminution of the annual rainfall at that station from an average of 68 inches to 62 inches. But the proportion of forest that has been cut for coffee to the whole mountain area is extremely small; and the decrease of rainfall has occurred not only during the last twenty years, while this cultivation has been spreading, but also in the previous twenty years, during all which time enormous additions have been made to the number of fruit and timber trees in the low country, which has everywhere been more or less reclaimed and planted.

Earnest and minute investigations have been made, and experiments conducted with a view to the prevention or cure of leaf disease, but no definite conclusion has yet been arrived at; none of the remedies proposed have yet proved certain, or sufficiently economical for application to extended areas.

Sulphur and burnt lime were applied with some advantage; and Mr. Schrottky, in Ceylon, has tried inoculation and vapourisation with carbolic acid, with apparent success; but whether this can be practically carried out remains to be seen. Leaf disease seems somewhat diminishing in violence in Ceylon, and hopes are entertained that this pest, like some other diseases of widely cultivated plants, may go off by degrees, and the coffee recover itself. But in Travancore, in 1881, after a period of some diminution, the disease was worse than ever; it was widely spread, and crops almost everywhere poor. The past year has been the worst ever known among native planters, and great losses have been sustained. Indeed, the outturn has been a serious failure to all concerned, without exception.

The yearly recurrence of leaf disease during the last decade has nearly ruined this once promising adventure. The misfortune of past seasons culminated last year in the almost total destruction of crops by the excessive rainfall. The coffee market, however, has gone up of late, and hopes are entertained of improvement in the coming year. Leaf disease seems now to be an accepted difficulty to be contended against, with little or no hope of getting rid of it by any “cures.”

A still more serious evil is “root disease,” by which some estates seem to be slowly dying out. Probably the true and only effectual remedy for all present evils would be more generous cultivation, sufficient manure, and careful management of smaller estates than hitherto : the trees should, at the same time, be kept from overbearing year by year, rather than forced to their utmost capacity and prematurely exhausted.

It is strongly felt that planters have erred in relying so much on one special product, as did the Irish agriculturists on the potato before the terrible famine of 1848; and that, instead of restricting their efforts to coffee alone, they ought to have tried a variety sooner, so that they are now casting about for other reliable cultivation. Their researches for gold are not likely to lead to much permanent or solid benefit, but more feasible inquiries are being made after valuable fibres, farinaceous roots, and other vegetable products.

Liberian coffee has been introduced, and grows fairly; though, as yet, it has not been planted to any large extent, and will always best suit a low elevation. In Ceylon, the new species is making rapid way. Numerous plantations, amounting in all to about 5,000 acres, have been formed at a moderate height; the trees are flourishing luxuriantly, and coming well into bearing. Some time ago 93. per cwt. was obtained in the New York market, that is, 12s, above the quotation at the time for middling plantation coffee in London.

Tea, also, has been planted to a considerable extent at Peermade and elsewhere; some “supply” tea where the coffee dies off, as the former is hardier, and requires somewhat less richness of soil for its growth. Cocoa is being tried, in some cases planted among the existing coffee, and in others in separate plots; but seeds are somewhat difficult to procure in quantity, and the young plants very tender of transportation. A large quantity of cinchona seeds from the Neilgherries has been sown in nurseries, from which, it is hoped, some hundreds of acres will soon be planted.

Some of those previously planted are doing well, especially C. succirubra. It is a question, however, how far the cinchona will stand the wind which has destroyed so much coffee. Nutmegs and cloves, and, perhaps, as in Ceylon, cardamoms, if the Sirkar should make the necessary concessions for its cultivation, as it is now a government monopoly; and possibly, in time, the Indiarubber trees, now being introduced, would form a welcome and remunerative addition to the products of the estates.

The influence of this branch of agriculture in Travancore, and the social and economic changes which have taken place in consequence of its introduction, have not been small. Two or three years before this enterprise was commenced, public works began to receive attention, and to provide employment for labour.

Public buildings were erected, new roads opened, and the old policy of isolation by jungles and the absence of roads (still adhered to by the Government of Madagascar), became impracticable and was relinquished. Wages began to increase with the demand for labour, and the price of provisions and other necessaries also naturally rose. In 1859, cooly labour in retired parts of the country was attainable for an anna per day.

The canal works in the South raised this to a little over two annas. The planters, however, were obliged, in entering on their work, to give at least four annas to induce ordinary coolies to brave the dangers of the hills; and eight annas or more were paid to woodcutters. Carpenters’ wages rose from four to six annas, up to eight annas, or even a rupee a day. The labour of the previously enslaved castes, which had hitherto been almost valueless, being remunerated only by a few measures of rice daily, became of as great money value as that of others; caste was nothing in the eyes of the European planter.

Accordingly, Pulayars, Pariahs, Vddars, and other low-castes began to obtain employment and good pay; even their children earned wages for weeding, picking, and other light work, to which they were better suited than adults; and Ilavars and Shanars working with them in the mountains, far from the critical observation of caste neighbours, saw little need to maintain the troublesome restrictions of caste by which they were bound in the plains. The Sudra masters complained of the planters taking away their labourers. But this competition and demand for labour largely ameliorated the condition of the poor.

The native Christians educated by the Mission proved themselves of great service to the new industry, became overseers, confidential clerks, and managers, to European planters; and in time were able to acquire little plantations of their own. Prosperity and social advancement followed. Comfort was introduced into the homes of the people. Good houses were built; more convenient clothing worn; and the social influence and consideration of native Christians largely increased.

Numbers of the poorest classes of the population were thus removed from the degradation under which they had suffered, and relieved from oppression; while everywhere the landed proprietors were reminded of the necessity of fair and kind treatment to retain the services of their dependants. Some exercise of choice was now open to field labourers. Few, if any, Sudras or Brahmans, nor indeed Syrian Christians, availed themselves of the opening which the coffee enterprise afforded; and their circumstances consequently remained stationary as far as this went. As in the somewhat similar case of the introduction of railways —

“The demand for workmen completely changed the relation of labour to capital. To a person on the spot it seems that the railway’s chief mission in India has not been so much to aggrandize our own race, as to restore the balance between labour and capital among the native population, and to root out slavery from the land.

The higher classes of Hindu Society, by their inbred dislike and contempt for manual industry, disabled themselves from becoming a wealthy or powerful people, and are, at this moment being ousted from many posts of emolument by the despised mixed multitude, who had for ages done the work of the country, and who now, for the first time, are secured by an impartial government in the fruits of their labour.

Even in education, the immemorial monopoly of the Brahmans, the competition of the non-Aryan element is beginning to be felt”(“Annals of Rural Bengal,” pp. 137-255.)

One result of this enterprise not unworthy of mention, is the retirement and limitation of the wild beasts by which so many lives are annually lost in India. Dangerous forests, once filled with elephants, tigers, and wild boars, which sallied forth from time to time for raids upon the population an the cultivation at the foot of the hills, are now cleared and brought under cultivation.

“The first ardent adventurers,” says Sir T. Emerson Tennent, “pioneered the way through pathless woods, and lived for months in log huts, while felling the forest and making their preliminary nurseries preparatory to planting; but within a few years the tracks by which they came were converted into highways, and their cabins replaced by bungalows, which, though rough, were picturesque, and replete with European comforts. The new life in the jungle was full of excitement and romance; the wild elephants and leopards retreated before the axe of the forester; the elk supplied his table with venison, and jungle fowl and game were at hand and abundant.”

Facilities were thus made for the increase and quiet settlement of the population, and their overflow into regions farther and yet farther, inland. Waste lands in the interior, and especially on either side of the roads leading to the hills, are being rapidly reclaimed, and planted with native garden cultivation of roots, fruits, and vegetables, and with rice. As clearing and cultivation progress, the malarious fever, which is so deadly at the foot of the hills, is restrained in its destructive influences.

The large and steady circulation of money from the capital invested in this enterprise and its annual returns, could not but produce a powerful effect on the industrial and commercial status of the country, in the increase of remunerative employment and the dissemination of wealth. The planters calculate that they have expended altogether nearly 90 lacs of rupees on the land, in its clearing, planting, upkeep, and taxes. European push and activity have moved and guided the inert natives. Shops and markets have been opened to supply the workers, contractors, and artificers on the estates, with the rice, tobacco, cloth, arrack, and salt, which they consume. These are transported to the foot of the hills, in numerous bullock carts, which return laden with coffee. European goods are also in due proportion imported.

Products are thus exchanged, and commerce promoted. The export of coffee has revived trade at some of the ancient ports; and gives employment to numerous work-people in its curing, sizing, and packing, at Colachel, Quilon, and Alleppey, and to British ships and seamen for its transport over the seas. The Native Government has enjoyed an increase of revenue, not only directly, but also indirectly from the increased ability of the labouring and agricultural classes to pay their dues.

These facts were briefly represented in the petition of the planters addressed in October 1872, to the Sirkar, pleading for remission of the export duty imposed, in the following terms : —

“This expenditure has gone to pay for labour and supplies; and every rupee of it is now circulating among the people of the country, enabling them to purchase a larger amount of taxable articles, enabling them to pay their land assessment more easily, and thus increasing their contribution to the revenue; preserving also numbers of people from starvation where other resources fail, as has been felt and avowed during the late time of scarcity. We may also notice the benefit to the State by recalling profitable labour which had been diverted to other countries. The British capital which has been introduced into this country by British planters, has indisputably helped to make the country richer, and indirectly to fill the Sirkar Treasury.”

A more intelligent and powerful public opinion is being created by the planters, who are able to plead their own cause, and not afraid to speak out in cases of public neglect or wrong. Hospitals, missions, and schools, commerce, and industry, have all had a share in beneficially affecting the native population.

And, notwithstanding various evils usually inseparable from the spread of civilisation and the increase of wealth, Christianity and the use of the English language are seen to follow from these and other benignant agencies at work upon the native population of India.