[48] "Manual of Coorg," compiled by Rev. G. Richter, Principal, Government Central College, Mercara. Mangalore, 1870. [49] The late Mr. William Pringle, who, after leaving Coorg, wrote in 1891, for the "Madras Mail," some interesting and suggestive papers on the cultivation of coffee. [50] I make this statement on the authority of Mr. Meynell (_vide_ preface), and it is, no doubt, the result of his experience in the Bamboo district, but his estimate could hardly, I should say, apply to the estates I visited in North Coorg. CHAPTER X. 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