Mr. McIvor also has a small branch-garden at Kalhutty, about half-way down the Seegoor ghaut, leading to the Mysore plains, for raising fruits which require a warmer climate. This garden is self-supporting. A magnificent waterfall descends into a rocky basin close beside it, and the garden contains oranges of many kinds, shaddocks, lemons, limes, citrons, nutmegs, loquats, and plantains. On this spot the delicious chirimoyas, the seeds of which we brought from Peru, will hereafter ripen, and enable the people of India to taste the "masterpiece of nature." European enterprise on the Neilgherries has hitherto been chiefly directed towards the cultivation of coffee, and there are several fine estates near Coonoor. On the 15th of November we set out from Ootacamund to visit them, and rode down the valley of Kaitee, where the house stands which once belonged to Lord Elphinstone, certainly not in a well-selected spot. It was originally chosen for a Government farm, which was given up, and the house was then occupied for a short time by the Governor of Pondicherry. Lord Elphinstone, when Governor of Madras, took a fancy to the place, erected a very substantial house, finished it handsomely, and frequently resided there. In 1845 the property was bought by Mr. Casamajor of the Civil Service, who established a school there for Badaga children, on the principle of paying them for coming, at the rate of 1 anna a day. On his death he left it to the Basle Evangelical Missionaries, by whom it is now occupied. They have schools, and labour amongst the Badagas, but as yet with scarcely any success. The stream which drains the Kaitee valley forms a very beautiful waterfall down the face of a cliff into the Karteri valley, where there is a small coffee estate worked by a Frenchman; and, after crossing a range of hills, in parts thickly wooded, and in parts covered with a shrubby _Justitia_ with a blue flower, we reached the coffee plantation of Hoolicul,[412] owned by Mr. Stainbank. The highest part of his estate is 5700 feet above the sea,[413] and here he has twenty-five acres planted in rather poor soil. Below his house there are about forty-five more acres planted, down the steep slopes of the hill, some of the bushes in very good bearing. They are thick, as he is against pruning the branches, saying that when covered by leafy branches the fruit ripens by degrees, and consequently requires less labour in picking. The estate has passed through several hands, and the oldest trees were planted seventeen years ago. Mr. Stainbank expects eventually to get fifty tons of coffee off this estate, in the year. An acre will occasionally yield twenty-five hundredweight. The view from the house is very fine. The plantation slopes away by a very steep descent, and in the distance are the Lambton's Peak range of mountains, and the wide plains of Coimbatore.