Lastly, we come to the most difficult question of all.  How many years’ purchase is a coffee property worth?  To this question I can give no answer at all, nor is it likely that any answer can ever be given till all the facts connected with the industry become widely known.  And of all these determining facts, the execution of the projected railway line through the southern coffee district to Mangalore will certainly be the most important.  This line, in fact (which will probably be opened in three years’ time), will alter the entire position of coffee, as it will not only provide for the carriage of coffee to the coast and the importation of manure, but will bring the planters within ready touch of the finest sanatorium in the world—­the Nilgiri Hills.

FOOTNOTES: 

[58] My friend Mr. Graham Anderson presented to the Durbar, at the meeting of the Representative Assembly in 1892, an interesting memorandum on rainfall in Mysore, and the influence of trees on the condition of climate, and in this he has given a return of the rainfall for a section of the Manjarabad Talook, stretching inland from the crest of the Ghauts to about the termination of the forest tract—­a parallelogram of fifteen miles in length from west to east, and about four miles from north to south.  This section shows, from April to end of August, a rainfall of 291.53 inches on the extreme west, as compared with 44.21 inches on the extreme east.  But it is remarkable that this variation of no less than 247.32 inches occurred on the northern side of the tract, the variation on the southern side being only from 232.46 inches to 72.42 inches, or a difference of only 160.04 inches.  This shows an extraordinary, and at present unaccountable, deflecting of the South-West Monsoon current.  Mr. Anderson remarks that, though in heavy weather and with favourable winds, the Monsoon rain is often carried to a considerable distance to the east of the termination of the forest tract, it is of common occurrence to find an almost total cessation of continuous rain a few miles beyond the forest zone.

In the memorandum in question Mr. Anderson also remarks on the well known and interesting fact that the clearing away of certain descriptions of trees, and the substitution of others improves the supply of water in the springs.  But the whole memorandum is both interesting and practical, and its presentation at the meeting of the Representative Assembly is an additional illustration of the value of that institution in pressing matters of importance on the attention of the Government.  The returns of the rainfall were obtained from various planters on the section of country investigated by Mr. Anderson.

CHAPTER XVI.

HOW TO MAKE AN ESTATE PAY, AND THE ORDER OF THE WORK.