CULTIVATION IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
Southern India is becoming as celebrated for its coffee, as Northern
India for its tea. We find that the exports of coffee from Madras have
increased considerably during the last five years, and there is every
reason for supposing that Southern India will shortly become the chief
coffee-producing country of the world. We have no idea of the number of
acres of land under coffee cultivation in the Madras Presidency, but it
must be very large, for after its local wants have been supplied, coffee
to the value of half a million sterling is exported.
In 1858-59 the shipments were 7,288,421 lbs. to foreign ports, and
4,083,917 lbs. to Indian ports. In 1862-63 the shipments were 16,292,238
lbs. to foreign ports, and 3,976,766 lbs. to Indian ports.
Though some parts of India are well adapted to the culture, it is not
yet so extensively cultivated as might have been expected from the
vicinity of its Arabian sites to the Malabar coast. There, however, some
excellent coffee is grown, as well as in the hilly regions of Mysore and
on the slopes of the Neilgherries, and some of these are of such good
quality, and so carefully prepared, as to bring the same price as Mocha
coffee. Some very good specimens of coffee have also been produced in
the interior of India, as in the district of Chota Nagpore, where the
culture might apparently be greatly extended, and be of great benefit
for consumption in that part of the country.
According to local tradition, the coffee-plant was introduced into
Mysore by a Mussulman pilgrim, named Baba Booden, who came from Arabia
about two hundred years ago, and took up his abode as a hermit in the
uninhabited hills in the Nuggur Division named after him, and where he
established a college, which still exists, endowed by government. It is
said that he brought some coffee-berries from Mocha, which he planted
near to his hermitage, about which there are now to be seen some very
old coffee-trees. However this may be, there is no doubt that the
coffee-plant has been known in that neighbourhood from time immemorial,
but the berry has never come into general use among the people for a
beverage. It is only of late years that the coffee trade of these
districts has become of any magnitude, or that planting has been carried
to any important extent. The export of coffee from British India, which
in 1851 was only 3239 tons, had increased in 1861 to 8535 tons; about
one-fourth of this is shipped from Bombay, and nearly all the remainder
from Madras.
More than thirty years ago a few Europeans were engaged in coffee
planting near Chickmoogloor, a few miles from the Bababooden Hills.
About twenty years ago the plantation producing the well-known coffee
called “Cannon’s Mysore,” and others, on the Memzera, or “Bad Mountain,”
was commenced by two enterprising gentlemen. The success of these has
induced many more Europeans to plant coffee there, and the consequence
is that the coffee trade of Mysore bids fair to emulate that of Ceylon.
It has given, also, an example to other parts of India, and the plant
originally taken from the Bababooden Muth is now extending over tens of
thousands of acres in Coorg, the Wynaad district, the Neilgherry Hills,
and along the Western Ghauts, north and south.
In Mysore the number of European coffee-planters has increased to about
thirty, while the number of native planters is estimated at between
three and four thousand.
The average produce per acre in Mysore is probably not half that of
Ceylon. Some attempts have been made to cultivate coffee in the open
country, but without success; it seems to require forest land and
considerable elevation and moisture. “Cannon’s Mysore” is grown on a
range of hills from 3500 to 4000 feet above the sea, having the benefit
of the south-west monsoon, which very seldom fails at all, never
entirely, and of the tail-end of the north-east monsoon. This elevation
gives a pleasant climate, well suited to Europeans.
Several species of the genus Coffea (_C. alpestris_, _C. grumeloides_,
and _C. Wightiana_) are indigenous to the Neilgherry Hills.
A berry, generally one which has itself fallen ripe from the tree, is
put into the ground, usually in a nursery plot, though some planters
prefer to place the seed in the identical hole which is to be its future
situation. The nursery plan is, however, generally adopted, and here the
young plant, which shoots up in about a month after it is sown, is
allowed to remain until about sixteen months old. It, or rather we will
say they, for hundreds and thousands are generally dealt with at once,
are transplanted to holes which have been carefully prepared for them on
the soil which is to be their future location. These holes are generally
two feet cube, and many good planters prefer them even deeper; in this
the plant is carefully placed and covered around, and in eighteen months
from that time, _i.e._ about three years from the time the berry was
first planted, our small coffee-tree begins to bear fruit, the first
crop being of course very scanty.
The berry is picked from November to the end of February, by any number
of men, women, and boys which can be collected, and who are paid by the
quantity they pick, some expert hands earning a good deal.
The berry collected is carried to the house of the estate, and there
having been weighed, is thrown into what is called a cherry loft, a
wooden chamber, alongside of, but a little higher, than the place
containing the pulper. From this cherry loft to the pulper the coffee is
washed by a stream of water, which carries it along a trough so arranged
as to catch and impede any stones or heavier materials from entering the
pulping machine. These heavier materials sink to the bottom of the
trough, and the buoyant coffee-berry, floating on the surface, is borne
to its destination.
The object of the pulper is to remove the fleshy capsule from the berry,
and this being accomplished, the coffee passes on in one direction,
whilst the pulp, by a clever arrangement of the mechanism of the
instrument, is pushed away in another. The berry is now thrown into a
vat and allowed to ferment, until the remaining mucilaginous substance
adherent to the parchment covering is easily washed away by water.
This accomplished, it is thrown on open exposed places, called
barbecues, and allowed to dry in the sun. This takes about twelve days,
when it is packed in gunny (jute) bags, placed upon bullocks, and
despatched to the coast.
There it is what is called garbled, that is, having been once more
exposed to the sun and thoroughly dried, it is placed in circular
troughs, and over it large heavy wheels, shod with iron nails, are made
to revolve. This removes what is called the parchment skin, leaving the
berry now covered only with a beautifully fine coating, the silver skin.
It is then, by a number of women employed for the purpose, carefully
sized; after this, passed through a pea-berry mill, the object being to
separate the round pea-shaped berry from the flatter, the former being
much more prized, and fetching a higher price in the market, though why,
it is difficult to say, as it makes no better coffee than the other; and
as it has to be deprived of its form by roasting and grinding before it
comes to table, the advantage of its pea-shaped figure is, to say the
least of it, somewhat obscure.
There is likewise separated from the rest what is called “triage,” the
broken and otherwise defective beans, which are also packed by
themselves, and which again, we believe, though selling more cheaply,
are found to make quite as good an infusion for a beverage as their more
aristocratic friends the pea-berries. However, pea-berries, flats, and
triage, are all ultimately packed in square wooden boxes and shipped to
England, where it is sold, roasted, ground, and drank.
In Wynaad, in the close of 1863, there were 93 coffee estates, covering
50,000 acres, of which about 15,000 acres were planted; 6100 acres had
trees over two years old on them. There were also about 3600 acres under
culture with coffee by the natives. Wynaad is an elevated plateau,
rising somewhat abruptly from the western or Malabar side, but sloping
more towards the Mysore or easterly side.
The quantity of coffee exported from Tellicherry during the official
year ending April, 1862, was 58,500 cwt., of which about 30,000 cwt. is
supposed to have come from Wynaad, the rest from Coorg. 8 cwt. of coffee
per acre is considered an average yield in Wynaad, 10 cwt. a good crop.