THE PLANTER'S BUNGALOW, AND THE AMENITIES OF AN ESTATE.
The best form of bungalow is, in my opinion, one with the rooms in a row
and an open veranda ten feet wide running around three sides of the house.
The veranda at the back should also be ten feet, but there it would
require to be partially inclosed, partly for bathrooms, and partly for a
store-room for household supplies. The advantage of this form of bungalow
is that the wide veranda is a pleasant place to sit in, and walk up and
down in the rainy season, and besides, if an additional room is required,
a temporary partition may be put up, and should a permanent addition to
the accommodation be necessary, a portion of the veranda at the end of the
bungalow may be built up. Such a form of bungalow, too, can easily be
added to in length.
Willesden paper should be put under the tiles, as it prevents leaks, keeps
the wood of the roof largely free from the influence of damp, and the
bungalow, too, in the monsoon months. For bedrooms I should recommend
glazed tiles, and for the dining-rooms and verandas, unglazed square red
tiles, fringed at the edges of the room with two or three rows of glazed
tiles. I do not recommend the latter for any place where there are many
people moving about, as I have found that the glazing soon becomes
injured.
It is generally the custom to have the kitchen at some little distance
from the bungalow, but I do not think that this is a good arrangement,
partly because it is inconvenient in the rainy season, and partly because
the kitchen is apt to be turned into a resort for horsekeepers and
loungers. The plan I have adopted is to have the kitchen and the go downs
in a wing running at right angles to the west end of the bungalow, and
with the kitchen door facing the back veranda. This arrangement is most
convenient for the servants, and enables the master of the house to have
the kitchen under easy observation, so as to see to its cleanliness, and
prevent its being made a place of common resort. The dirt and disorder
usual in an Indian cook room is well known, but there is no reason why it
should not be kept as neat and clean as an English kitchen. The floor
should be paved with square tiles, and I believe it would pay well, for
economy of fuel, and ready supply of hot water, to have a small Wilson
range (227, High Holborn--range No. 11 is a convenient size). Owing to the
shape of the ground it may not be convenient to have the kitchen and go
downs built as a wing of the bungalow, and in that case they should be
opposite the back of the bungalow, and connected with it by a covered way.
No drain should be made out of the kitchen or scullery. I have found it
cheaper, and safer, from a sanitary point of view, to have all the dirty
water used for watering purposes. I have a group of orange trees on a
slope near the kitchen, and above each tree a hole is made. Into this the
dirty water is poured for several days. Then the pit is closed with earth,
and others are used in succession. I thus get rid of a nuisance in a
wholesome way, and at the same time water the orange trees.
The aspect of the bungalow is of great importance. It should front due
north, as the declination of the sun is southerly during the cloudless
season, and the sun is thus entirely off the front veranda, and if the
situation should not be naturally well sheltered from the east, a solid
block of casuarinas should at once be planted on the eastern side, as the
easterly wind is disagreeable, and liable to create drafts, and
consequently cause chills. A line of casuarinas should be planted on the
south and west side of the bungalow, and at such a distance as to cast a
shadow on to the southern and western walls, and also on to the roof, as
this will keep the house much cooler than it would otherwise be. Other
trees might be suggested for this purpose, and trees affording more
coolness, but I have suggested the casuarina as it is a quick grower, very
ornamental, and not at all liable to be blown down. No carriage drive
should be made up to the front of the bungalow, as it is obviously much
pleasanter to look out of the veranda on to a pretty garden without a road
intervening, and carriages should either drive up to the back of the
bungalow, or to one end of it where a wide space may be left for turning.
I have said that a line of casuarinas should be planted on the southern
and western sides of the bungalow so as to shade it from the sun, and I
would suggest that, in order to keep the ground on these aspects cool,
orange trees should be thickly planted, and I may mention that I have done
this with excellent effect on the southern side of my bungalow. When
orange trees are planted for this purpose they should either not be
allowed to bear fruit, or but a very small number of oranges, as the
object of course is to have, for ornamental reasons, fresh looking trees,
and full of foliage, so as to keep the ground near the bungalow as cool as
possible.
The bungalows in Mysore are usually built on the grass land outside of the
plantation, and where this is practicable it should always be done, as,
from the value of the coffee land, much of it cannot be spared for
planting, whereas in the open, as the land is of little value the planter
can, by planting clumps of casuarinas and other trees, make his residence
so much more agreeable and cheerful. But sometimes it is advisable or even
necessary to have the bungalow in the plantation, and in that case the
most must be made of the situation, and vistas cut here and there through
the shade trees so as to let in the best available views. It should be
remembered, a fact too often forgotten, that, what are called in Scotland
the amenities, are not only agreeable in themselves, but have an important
marketable value, and when people discover that the winter on a Mysore
plantation is one of the pleasantest climates in the world, and have
practically realized the ease with which the journey may now be made, a
plantation will be often regarded (as I regard mine) as a pleasant winter
home. And, whatever it may be regarded as, it is certain that an intending
purchaser of coffee property on which he proposed to reside would
naturally, and perhaps unknown to himself, be influenced by the amenities
of the estate.
As regards the garden in front of the bungalow, it should of course be
limited to such an amount as may be within easy command of the water
available. Roses should be freely used, and violets, mignonette,
geraniums, and phlox, while the edges of the veranda should have some
crotons and ferns in pots. I have given this limited list because it
contains all that is necessary to make a place reasonably presentable, but
many additions may of course be advantageously made.
I need hardly say that it is very desirable to place the bungalow as close
as possible to the points where the near presence of the planter is
advantageous. These are the pulping-house, store, drying-ground, nursery,
vegetable garden, and orchard. I have two estates where this desirable
combination exists, and by the exercise of a little care and time to study
the situation, it may often be carried out; but the best site for the
bungalow cannot sometimes be discovered without a residence of some
duration on the estate, and it is of great advantage in making a new
plantation to defer for some time building a permanent bungalow. For all
practical purposes a house with sun-dried brick walls, and a roof of rough
jungle wood, will answer very well for some years, and during that time a
careful study of the land will generally disclose a much better site than
one might at first be disposed to select. And I speak with personal
experience on this point, as, had I built a permanent house on the site I
at first selected on my head estate, I should certainly have had cause for
regret. At first sight it may seem that the proximity of the bungalow to
the drying-ground is not desirable, but the drying-ground, estate office,
store, and other buildings may, by planting, be completely and quickly
screened off from the dwelling-house. The permanent bungalow should be
built of brick, but all steps should be made of stone, and not of brick,
as is so commonly done, as the stone is so much more suitable in a climate
which is wet for so many months of the year. It is very advisable to keep
a bungalow cool at night, so that you may be able to have a cool house in
the day, and in order to effect this a free admission of air is necessary,
and the doors of the dining-room certainly should have wire gauze doors as
well. The wooden doors may then be left open at night. The bedroom doors
that open into the verandas should have the same too, for, though this is
not quite so necessary, it is a great comfort to have plenty of air, and
yet be able to exclude cats, rats, or snakes.
Building materials should be constantly collected--stones, stone-posts,
the wood-work of native houses which is sometimes for sale; and a careful
eye should also be kept on all the felled wood left in the plantation, as
this is often overlooked till it partially decays, and it is very apt to
be stolen. Trees with a central dark wood, like Jack, may be left unsawn
for some years, but trees which have not, like Neeral or Mango, should be
sawn up as soon as they are dry. Sawn wood should be brought home at once
and stored in a house sheltered from the east wind which dries up the wood
extremely, and a careful list should be kept of it. Wood for rafters is
the better for being put into a tank and left there for four or five
months. I may explain that stone posts (we use the literal translation
from the Kanarese) are blocks of from 8 to 12 feet in length, which are
raised by fire by an ingenious process. The natives first light fires on
the slab of sheet rock they desire to operate on, and then cut small holes
along the segment they wish to split off. They then drive wedges into the
side of the rock, and the segment splits off, giving a stone post of the
length required (they may be raised as long as 20 feet) and about 18
inches wide and 5 inches thick. There are no more useful things to have a
supply of on an estate, and we use short ones for the posts of wire fences
and for stiles. They are particularly useful for supporting verandas.
To prevent white ants attacking the roofs of buildings I have successfully
used the following mixture. Tar, one pailful; asphalte, 2 lbs.; and castor
oil, one seer. Mix and boil these ingredients. Afterwards add sand. Then
plaster the mixture on the top of the walls to the depth of about two
inches, and on this place the wall plates. This plan was adopted when one
of my bungalows was re-roofed many years ago, and we have not a sign of
white ants, though they are numerous all around the house.
If posts, when put in the ground, are buried in sand, and surrounded with
it up to the level of the floor, white ants will not attack the wood, as
they cannot apparently work in sand. This is important to remember, as
wooden posts are often used for cattle, and other sheds.
Toddy trees past yielding toddy should be cut down, split into convenient
sizes for reapers and other purposes, and should then be smoked to
preserve the wood. As I previously pointed out, the toddy tree (_Caryota
Urens_ palm) is a most useful tree, and the seeds of it should be freely
sown in the fences, waste jungle, and the bottoms of deep ravines, but it
is not a desirable tree to have in the plantation.
Wood for handles should be kept in store, as it is of great importance to
use well seasoned wood. Jack roots are valuable for all short handles.
Lines, or rows of houses for labourers should be made of sun-dried bricks,
and roofed with corrugated iron. For sanitary reasons they should, if
possible, be divided over several sites. The manager should occasionally
visit the lines, and a duffadar be appointed to see after them, and that
no dirty water is thrown down in front of the doors. The houses should be
numbered, and a list of the occupants kept. New arrivals should be at once
reported, as bad characters are often harboured in the lines. A pensioned
sepoy might be advantageously employed to look after the lines, and report
on new arrivals, and also keep an eye on persons who may be suspected of
stealing coffee. The advantage of employing a stranger for such purposes
is obvious, as natives residing permanently in the locality are much
afraid of making enemies, whereas a fresh pensioned sepoy might be got in
from time to time, and he should be changed before he had time to make any
friends on the estate. An application for a sepoy should be made to the
officer in charge of pensioned sepoys in Bangalore. These pensioned sepoys
might also be employed with advantage in the crop season, with the special
object of preventing coffee robbery from the plantations, which are often
surrounded with villages.
As regards coolie lines, it is important to consider aspect, and a slight
slope towards the east, or slightly south, is a good one, as it catches
the first rays of the sun, and so reminds the people of their duties in
coming early to work, and enables them to warm themselves when the
mornings are chilly. Such an aspect is also sheltered from the south-west
monsoon blasts, and, in the hot weather, from the heat of the westering
sun.
When I look at a magnificent row of Casuarinas (_Casuarina Equisetifolia_,
the Tinian pine or Beefwood) which I planted on my property about the year
1859, and which are now about 150 feet high, and consider the value of
this tree, both for timber and firewood, I stand astounded at my own
stupidity in not having planted them on a considerable scale. But it is
thus in all new countries where you are surrounded by trees, and it is
difficult to believe that, under such circumstances, timber and wood can
ever become dear and scarce, and the Englishman rarely plants trees for
timber or fuel,--in fact, I am the only one who has done so as far as I am
aware--and perhaps they do not realize, being born in a land of slow
timber growth, how rapidly some trees shoot up in Mysore. It may encourage
planting if I mention that I took careful measurement by line of one of
the row alluded to. In January, 1882, the height of the tree was 153 feet,
in girth near the ground, 5 feet 8 inches; at 50 feet, 3 feet 8 inches;
and 1 foot 6 inches at 100 feet. In February, 1884, the same tree was in
girth at 4 feet from the ground, 5 feet 3 inches; at 50 feet, 4 feet 5
inches; and at 100 feet, 2 feet 3 inches. In March, 1886, this tree, at 6
feet from the ground, was 5 feet 4 inches in girth; at 77 feet, 3 feet 2
inches; and at 100 feet, 2 feet 3 inches. This tree was again measured in
February, 1893, when its dimensions were found to be as follows. Height,
154 feet. Girth at 3 feet from ground, 6 feet 3 inches; at 6 feet, 5 feet
10 inches; at 77 feet from ground, 2 feet 9 inches; and at about 20 feet
from the top of the tree, 1 foot 2 inches.
The wood is very strong, and may be used for rafters. It makes excellent
fuel, giving much heat, and little ash.
The _Grevillea Robusta_--Silver Oak--should also be planted, as it affords
excellent firewood.
And _Poinciana Regia_--the gold Mohur, which is also good for making
Charcoal. _Pithecolobium saman_, the rain tree, should also be planted, as
I find that (Report of Government Gardens, Bangalore, for 1888-89) "In
good open soil it grows more rapidly than any introduced trees." I have an
_Eucalyptus Globulus_ (the blue gum) growing fairly well on my property,
and about eight or nine years old, but, as it is unfavourably reported on
for Mysore in the Report previously mentioned, I do not recommend it.
Casuarinas should be planted in holes four feet deep, and certainly not
less than that depth if a safe and rapid growth is desired. I have been
particularly struck with the great difference in the rapidity of growth
where the holes have not been deeply dug. The plants will require a little
water during the dry weather of the first year.
As the most important part of a planter's capital is his health, it is
obvious that great pains should be taken to conserve it, for, though
Mysore will be found to be a very healthy country if ordinary precautions
are taken, the extremes of temperature are very great--often cold in the
morning--very hot in the sun in the middle of the day, and often turning
suddenly cold again at sunset. In England the lowest Mysore temperature
would not be called cold, but relatively to the heat of the day it is so.
Then the east winds, if you get heated to the extent of perspiration, are
apt to produce that chill which is the starting point of illness in most
countries. For a great many years past I have, as a matter of curiosity,
which has since become a matter of habit, always asked when told of the
death of anyone, "Did he not get a chill?" And I have almost invariably
found the answer to be in the affirmative. When, then, a planter comes
in, he should make it a rule always to change his things from head to
foot, and he should avoid sitting in drafts when the wind is from the
east. When he goes out shooting he should take a spare flannel shirt with
him, change his shirt when suitable opportunities occur, and, of course,
dry the one he has taken off in the sun. He should always take a cover
coat with him to put on, when, after a hot day in the sun, he may have to
ride home in the chilled evening air. As a protection against the sun
there is nothing better than a coat padded with cotton all down the back
and front, and with a stand up padded collar. Some people prefer large
solar topees. I dislike them, as they heat and oppress the head, and
always prefer a light topee and an umbrella. It is well known that the
head is affected more through the eyes than in any other way, and smoked
glasses should always be used when going along unshaded roads, and
especially across dried grass lands. Over fatigue should be avoided as
much as possible, and the effects of it done away with immediately. When
tired do not call for brandy or whisky and soda-water, but if you feel
that you require anything to keep up the system, a plateful of soup, made
with one of Brand's beef preparations, will be found to be far preferable.
Then a bath, and an hour in bed will turn you out a fresh man fit for
anything, mentally or bodily, and you will be able to eat a good meal with
appetite and advantage. The best kind of clothing is light tweeds, such as
might be used in England in warm summer weather. Cholera belts, or
cummerbunds, are often recommended, but I much prefer thick, short flannel
drawers coming rather high up over the middle of the body. You thus admit
free ventilation, and at the same time avoid risk of chill about the
loins.
Next to protecting the body from without, or perhaps of equal importance,
is fortifying it from within. Here the first point of importance is to
get a good cook who is a good baker, and supply him with American flour.
Toddy from the sago-palm is an excellent substitute for yeast, and I
imagine it must be better, for I never get better, and very seldom as
good, bread anywhere in the world as I do in my Indian home in the jungle.
The flour usually to be bought in India, made from wheat grown in the
country, is either bad or adulterated, and often has sand in it, and the
bread made from it is of poor quality. As regards food, there is no
difficulty in Mysore, and at a moderate cost as good a table can be kept
as could be desired for purposes of health and comfort. Attention should,
of course, be paid to having a good vegetable garden, in which a good
supply of lettuces and tomatoes should form a principal feature, and
during the wet weather months, when vegetables cannot be procured on the
spot, tinned vegetables should be used. I have found the French tinned
vegetables to be the best. There are now many excellent preparations of
herrings preserved in tins, and these should be used occasionally. Ghee is
commonly used in India for cooking, but for all dishes for which it is
suitable, oil is much cheaper and better. Gingelly oil (_Sesamum
Orientale_) is the best, or, I think, the only oil which is good for this
purpose. It is, I find, by the article on oils in the "Encyclopædia
Britannica," the finest culinary oil in the world, and superior to olive
oil, for which, indeed, it is commonly sold, and large quantities of the
seed go to Southern Europe. The seed should be procured and washed in cold
water to remove the red epidermis, and then a native oil-maker may be got
in to prepare the oil. When ghee, or clarified butter, is required, never
buy that article in the bazaar, but buy the best native butter and have it
made into ghee. Boil the butter, and add to it a small quantity of sugar
and salt, and skim off floatage. If to the clarified butter some fresh
milk is added, it may be used for the table instead of butter, but it is
better, I find now, to use tinned butter.
Cleanliness in the kitchen, and vessels in good order, are points easily
talked about, but cannot be attained without some inspection, and the
kitchen and its utensils should be examined from time to time. People who
are particular have all the pots and pans ranged out ready for inspection
daily, and such inspections are most necessary for health, as the dirty
habits of the native servants are such that persistent vigilance is
requisite. And I may here add that there is no use in telling the servants
a thing once--they must be told again, again, and again. At last they give
in to your persistence, and being, like most people in the world, a good
deal creatures of habit, go on fairly well. It is only fair to the native
servants to mention that, if they do keep things in a dirty state, it is
often because they have not the means that servants have at home. The
water supply at their command is commonly very deficient, and often not
over clean, and they are generally ill supplied with places to wash up in,
and with dusters and glass cloths, and then they are rated, and often
abused, because plates are badly washed and things in general dirty.
Under the heading of health requisites, I, of course, include literature.
This, for a planter of moderate means, is generally a matter of great
difficulty, and must continue to be so till the railway system is extended
to the planting districts. At present novels that cannot be read more than
once are quite out of the question on the score of cost, and, under the
circumstances, the planter should content himself with buying Scott's and
Bulwer's and George Eliot's novels. He should, of course, have a good
Atlas, an Encyclopædia--Chambers' is good and moderate in price, and
Balfour's "Cyclopædia of India," which contains much valuable and
interesting information. He might also buy Lecky's Works, and Sir John
Strachey's "India," and Buckle's "History of Civilization," for, whatever
the faults of the last may be, the writer's style is admirable, and the
book stirs up thought and inquiry in the mind. Addison's "Spectator," as
it is commonly called, Amiel's "Journal," and Locke's "Conduct of the
Understanding," might also be bought. Ville's "Artificial Manures" should
be procured and studied. Then for newspapers, I may certainly recommend
"The Spectator," "The Mail," or tri-weekly edition of the "Times," and
"The Illustrated London News"--not the thin paper edition of it, which is
most unsatisfactory in every way. One of the best, if not the very best of
Indian papers is the "Madras Mail," and that should certainly be taken,
more especially as there is much planting intelligence in it. A note
should be kept of the various books reviewed in "The Spectator," and of
any books the reader might fancy to buy, and Smith's lists of second-hand
books, and also the lists of Messrs. Mudie and Co., should be procured,
and from these booksellers books may often be bought at a very moderate
price. Do not buy cheap editions of novels, but buy the original three
volume editions, which have good paper and print, and which may be bought
second-hand at most moderate prices.
It is of great importance that a planter should have some pursuit which
may be both useful and interesting, such as botany, natural history, or
geology, and drawing, too, would be most valuable. In the old days sport
filled up our leisure hours, but that, in these days, is not always to be
had without going far afield, as, from the number of guns in the hands of
the natives, the game within their reach has been mostly destroyed. It is
of great value, then, to have some pursuit to fill up time when there is
not enough of it to spare to go to a distance from home for sport.
Attending to, and taking an interest in a garden is a great resource, and
indirectly a source of great pleasure, which I am reminded of as I write
these lines, and at the same time listen to the warbling of the Bulbuls in
the flower garden in front of my bungalow. These charming little birds are
very active, and are now (February 28th), collecting materials for
building their nests. There are, too, many charming warblers which are
attracted by a garden so arranged as to attract birds. The beds in the
foreground should consist of a mixture of flowers and standard roses, and
those at the back of various flowering shrubs, and low trees which are
suitable for the birds to nest in. I have no carriage road in front of the
bungalow, and with this arrangement can have the beds quite close to the
foot of the steps of the inclosed veranda. I am much struck with the
persistent loquacity of these Indian birds, and at no time of day--not
even for a minute--is the sound of birds absent, and their notes are to be
heard all through the fine weather.
It is very advisable to take up waste paddy fields, i.e., abandoned rice
terraces, for cattle grazing, and I may point out that this is also of
advantage to the amenities of an estate, by providing snipe shooting close
at hand. It will also be found of advantage for feeding ducks and geese. I
have a stretch of such land on one of my properties, and find it most
useful. The water, I may add, should be carefully conducted to the various
terraces, just as if they were to be cultivated with rice, this, as I need
hardly say, being necessary for the snipe. Amongst these scraps of hints,
which may be useful, I may mention the fact that tealeries were once
common in India. I am told that they are easily established, though I
have, myself, no experience of them. It is sometimes possible to add to
the amenities of an estate by reserving pieces of land for tigers to lie
up in, and this is very important, now that every scrap of land is being
taken up for planting either coffee or cardamoms, and that cover for game
is becoming proportionately scarce. There are two such pieces that I have
reserved on my estate for tigers, but care must be taken beforehand to see
that such reserves are on the exact route by which tigers cross from one
part of the country to another. For instance, the pieces I have reserved
are about three miles apart, and I have never known or heard of a tiger
being between them excepting on one occasion last year, when a royal tiger
inspected a cattle shed of mine about five minutes' walk from the house.
At first sight it seems singular that these animals, like hares, should
have their runs, and still more that the runs should be so regularly
adhered to, though they may be several miles apart.
In concluding this chapter, and my remarks on planting, I have only to
observe that, if a planter chooses to take an interest in everything that
is going on around him, and learns to make himself at home in the country,
he will find the life both interesting and agreeable. In former times
there was, no doubt, a sense of remoteness in the situation, but that, as
we have seen, has been considerably removed by the railway extensions of
recent years; and when the proposed lines, to which I have alluded in my
introductory chapter, are carried out, planters, during the unimportant
seasons of the year, may reside either at Bangalore or on the Nilgiri
hills (the climate of the latter, taking it all the year round, is the
finest in the world), and yet be in full touch with their affairs.
Finally, I may observe that in Mysore we have the great advantage of being
out of reach of the faddists of the House of Commons, who, for the sake of
their votes, have to be humoured, whether the interests of India suffer or
not. There is no chance, for instance, of the opium faddists thrusting a
Commission on the Mysoreans, and then making them pay for part of the
expenses of the inquiry. The progress of India may be checked by the
ignorant or unprincipled action of a party in the House of Commons (and
certainly will be checked if the opium faddists are allowed to have their
way), but Mysore is free from the only danger that threatens India--the
sacrifice of its interests in order to serve party ends in the House of
Commons.