HOW TO MAKE AN ESTATE PAY, AND THE ORDER OF THE WORK.
The first step towards making a plantation pay is to eliminate all sources
of loss, and the first point claiming attention relates to the
advisability of abandoning all the spots on an estate which are difficult
to keep up, sometimes from defects of soil, sometimes of aspect, and more
often of both. At present you often find, just as you do in the case of
farmers in Scotland, that planters often make money on the good land to
throw much of it away on the bad, and the people who thus act simply do so
from want of strength of mind; for everyone knows that it costs more to
keep up inferior coffee than it does to keep up the best, and that the
latter yields good and certain crops, while the former yields poor and
uncertain crops. And it is equally well known that highly manured and well
situated coffee on good land can always be relied on to give a paying
crop, even in the very worst season, while coffee on poor land with a bad
aspect is simply at the mercy of the season. And one of the oldest
planters in Mysore told me that, some thirty years ago, when his land was,
comparatively speaking, unexhausted, if the blossom showers were
favourable he got a good crop all over the estate, but that if they were
unfavourable, the best situated coffee on the best land still gave a fair
crop, while the rest of the plantation produced very little. The maximum
of high and safe profits, then, will be obtained where the land kept up is
all good, well situated, and well manured. There are, of course,
occasional spots of half an acre or so in the very best lands which must
by no means be abandoned. On the contrary, they should be kept up at any
cost, as they would be the means of spreading weeds into the surrounding
land, and the places that should be abandoned are continuous pieces or
blocks on the outside of the coffee to be kept up. I may remind the reader
here that where an outside block can, as it were, be sliced off one side
of the estate, an application can be made to the Government to have it
measured and classed in future as land thrown out of cultivation, which is
liable to a reduced rate of taxation, but the Government will make no
reduction in the case of pieces of land, which are in the plantation,
being thrown out of cultivation. I have said that the pieces of inferior
land which may be occasionally found in the good coffee should certainly
be kept up; but there are, in the case of steep lands, sometimes pieces of
land at the heads of slopes, and next to the fence, where, from
injudicious management, the soil has gradually worked down the hill, and
in such cases a strip of the barest land near the head of the slope may
with advantage be thrown out of cultivation, and the abandoned land should
be thickly planted with trees, the leaves of which will be shed downwards
amongst the coffee. And in planting such abandoned strips with trees an
addition will be made to the value of the estate, as wood, as elsewhere
pointed out, soon becomes scarce in any country that is taken up for
coffee.
The next source of loss which calls for observation is that arising from
the system of giving advances to labourers and to maistries--the name for
a class of men who take large sums to advance to coolies, and are paid a
commission on the number they bring in. The planters have lost large sums
from this pernicious and troublesome system, and in the remarks previously
made on planters' grievances, the reader will find allusions to the
existing legislation on the subject, and the need for fresh legislation to
grapple with the evils arising out of giving advances for labour.
Sometimes the coolies die, and the money is lost altogether; sometimes,
and not unfrequently, they abscond, and in the latter case it is such a
difficult matter to trace them that the planter simply resigns himself to
the loss of the money. Then as regards money advanced to maistries to
bring coolies, somewhat similar difficulties occur. The maistry may die,
he may abscond, and sometimes he advances to coolies who decamp and take
advances from another planter or his maistry. In short, whether the
planter advances directly to coolies, or to maistries to bring coolies, he
finds himself involved in a mixture of losses and worries and uncertainty
as to getting through his various works at the proper time.
Now nearly every human system is calculated to serve some purpose, and
arises out of a greater or lesser degree of necessity. But it sometimes
happens that the original causes for the system have either disappeared or
very largely vanished, and that the system goes on by the force of
custom--very strong in all countries, and especially so in the East. And
thus it is with the advance system. When labour was as low as 2 rupees 4
annas a month (which was the rate I paid at first), it was quite
impossible that a man could, within any reasonable time, save enough money
to pay the expenses of a marriage; thus borrowing became a necessity, and
the labourer therefore mortgaged his future labour, the sole security he
had to offer. The lender was, of course, always a man who wanted work
done, and by lending the required money obtained a certain command over
the labourer. In the early days of planting the local labourers were
always in debt to some native employer, and when they wanted to come to a
European plantation the owner of it had to pay off the sum owed by the
labourers, and when these labourers' sons wanted to marry it was customary
to advance enough for the purpose, and sums of from 20 to 40 rupees a head
were thus advanced, and, in the end, many thousands of rupees were thus
lent to the labourers, and led to the losses I have described. But in
these days, when labour has risen to 7 rupees a month, and the labourer
can live on about 2 rupees a month, he can save in a single year nearly
enough for his marriage, and therefore the old necessity for his getting
into debt no longer exists, and some years ago I began to give up making
advances for marriages, and find that I am still well supplied with local
labour; and I feel sure that if other planters would only follow my
example, the advance system would gradually be reduced within small
limits, and thus one great source of loss on a plantation would be either
abolished or reduced to a minimum.
But besides the advances made directly to local labourers by the planter,
there are the advances made by him to maistries to bring in coolies from a
distance. In former days the sums advanced were very small, and amounted
to little more than a retaining fee of a few rupees a head. But from the
competition for labour, or from planters weakly yielding to the demands
made on them, the sums so advanced gradually rose to as much as ten rupees
ahead, and, of course, the risks of the planter increased in proportion.
Now this, of course, is a state of things very difficult to contend
against, but I see no reason why some attempt might not be made to reduce
these advances to about one-half of their present amount; and I feel sure
that if the planters would only agree amongst themselves not to advance
more than five rupees a head, they would obtain as many coolies as they do
now.
I may remark, finally, that the evils connected with this system, and the
great temptation to fraud held out by it, certainly call for the
legislation which I have elsewhere alluded to when treating of planters'
grievances.
The losses arising from not closely supervising the people employed in
minor works; from not having tools sharpened overnight; and from delay in
setting the people to work, I do not touch on here, as I have alluded to
them in my hints to managers: and the mention of tools reminds me that
much loss is often incurred from their careless use, and from neglect in
seeing after them, the result of which, of course, is that they are often
lost or stolen. Then losses often occur from want of attention to the
order in which the various works should be carried out, and which should
be influenced by the aspect and the kinds of soil on the plantation. Even
if all the work of the plantation could be finished with ease and
certainty, it is important to observe the proper order, as to do so is
most beneficial to the coffee, and then it should be considered that,
should labour from some accident run short, it will at least be certain
that the most important parts of the plantation will have been attended
to.
Removing moss or rough bark and cleaning the trees should be begun on all
northern aspects. Then attend to the low-lying eastern aspects which have
the sun off them all the afternoon. Do next the north-western aspects,
then the southern, and lastly the due western and south-western aspects,
which are so much exposed to the sun that the trees there have little moss
on them. The mossing party, it is hardly necessary to mention, should
follow the pruners.
Pruning should be begun in the most luxuriantly wooded part of the estate
first, and the same order as to aspect should be followed as when removing
moss, as it is important to let light as soon as possible into the trees
which are on the darkest aspect, and this order will, of course, suit the
mossing party, which is, as I have said, always to follow the pruners.
Shade should be thinned in the same order as to aspect as that laid down
for the removal of moss, and as soon after crop as possible. The shade
cutters should precede the pruners, as, after pruning, the coffee is of
course more liable to be injured by falling branches.
Dig all the hottest aspects first, as the soil on these hardens soonest
and more severely. Begin with the southern and south-western aspects, then
dig the western aspects, then the eastern, and lastly the northern
aspects. When all the soil is of much the same degree of stiffness, this
order should be followed, but the rule may require to be modified on some
estates, where the soil may be of loose character on a southern slope, and
of stiffer character on another aspect, in which case the stiff soil
aspect should be dug first.
Removing parasites should be done immediately after crop, and at the same
time as removing shade, or at any rate before pruning, as the branches
with the parasites on them would otherwise injure the coffee. It is
important to remove these parasites before they seed, which is about the
beginning of the rains.
Young jack fruit removal should be begun about the last week in February.
Do not remove the fruit when very small, as the tree will in that case at
once blossom again, and the work will then have to be repeated.
Fences should all be in order, and every gap filled up by the time the
rice harvest is over, when the natives either never herd their cattle at
all, or so carelessly that they are liable to be frequently in the
plantation.
As regards weeding, wherever an estate is liable to rot, all the places
that are most liable to it should be weeded first, as it is very important
to keep the ground quite clean, so that there may be a complete
circulation of air across it. Should it be found that any part of an
estate is more liable to leaf disease than other parts, then the weeding
should be carried out first on the portion of the estate most liable to
the disease.