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 assuredly 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 quantity 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 spaces 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 assuming, as has
hitherto 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 circumstances
in India, or pass 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-class 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 flourishing 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
illustrates 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, principal 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 analysis 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 pronounce 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 assertion, 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 entitled "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 constitution 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 anticipated by many experienced planters, that as the trees
from Coorg seed aged the produce each year assimilated 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 shilling 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 institute 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 assessment 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 assessment 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 flourishing
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 passes 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 hitherto 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 assurances 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 Assembly 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
cumbrous that it is practically true, as alleged in the petition 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 trespass, I may mention, is not here alluded to because, though it
was at one time a great grievance, a Cattle Trespass Amendment Act
received the assent 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 trespass 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 pass 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 pass 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 hitherto 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
analyze 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 Assembly 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 quantity 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.