and the total coffee land was 403 acres.  Up to about this time the chick coffee had done fairly well, and by 1880 the loan, as we have seen, was reduced by 30,000 rupees, but soon afterwards this variety of coffee plant began rapidly to deteriorate all over the district, and estates like my friend’s, which had hitherto given satisfactory profits, did but little more than pay their working expenses.  But, luckily for himself, my friend, directly after the purchase of each estate, began to plant them with the Coorg kind of coffee (afterwards fully alluded to in this chapter) which had been recently introduced, and, as the old chick trees were from six to seven feet high, and had no lower branches, they did not for some time interfere with the progress of the Coorg plants, and yielded enough to pay expenses.  As the Coorg plants came into bearing the old chick plants were removed, and in 1887-88 nearly ninety tons of coffee were picked, and by that year the whole debt, principal and interest, was paid off, and a considerable balance was left over to my friend’s credit.  In 1889-90 the property gave him a clear profit of L3,350, and it has done well ever since.  Thus with all these tremendous difficulties to contend with, and in the face of the loss of all the old coffee, and after having to replant the whole property at great expense, my friend found himself in the possession of an estate, free of all debt, capable of yielding good annual profits.  And it must be remembered, further, that this result was obtained, not from virgin forest land exclusively, but from land the greater part of which consisted of old native plantations.

There are, I need hardly say, no means of ascertaining the profits that may be expected from coffee in Mysore, but the following analysis of a Manjarabad estate of 400 acres under cultivation, which has been supplied to me by a friend, will form a fair guide to what may be reasonably expected from a Mysore estate where the management is good.  In the case in question, the average crop for the last five years, has been 3-3/4 cwt. an acre.  The expenses were 111-1/2 rupees an acre, and the average profit 111-1/10 rupees per acre per annum, or rather over L7 2s. 6d. an acre.  I may add that I consider this a fair average estimate of what may be expected in Mysore on a well managed estate, as a considerable proportion of the land in question is of decidedly inferior quality.  I have no special details to give from the northern part of Mysore, but I am informed by a planter of experience, who resides in that part of the country that, from a good estate of 200 acres, a profit of from L1,500 to L2,000 a year may be counted on.