burnt or ordinary earth, but if the red earth
(Kemmannu), to which I have alluded in my chapter on manures, can be
obtained, that, I know from experience, would be more cooling, and
moisture-absorbing than cattle manure.

I now turn to a point of great general interest, and one which furnishes
another illustration of what I dwelt upon at some length in my
introductory chapter, the wide-spreading value arising from the
introduction into India of English capital which, as I have shown,
develops the agricultural resources of the country in ever-widening
circles. At first in Coorg the adjacent province of Mysore was the only
source of labour supply, but the increased prosperity of the labourer
consequent upon ample employment and enhanced rates of wages, enabled him
to take up land for the cultivation of cereal crops in the neighbourhood
of his own village, and hence the supply of labour declined, those who
came to work in the plantations came later in the season, and altogether
the labour supply from Mysore became more uncertain every year. Planters
consequently, as they had in Mysore itself, had to go further afield, and
now draw labour to a large extent from the Madras Presidency, the
labourers from which in turn, will now have the means of developing the
agricultural resources of their native villages. This is a point to which
the attention of the Government cannot be too often drawn with the view of
encouraging the opening up, by it, of every means of stimulating the
employment of labour in India.

Coorg is now fairly well off for labour, and the old labour difficulties
which used to be experienced have to a great extent disappeared. The
average cost of Mysore labour--men, women, and children, and including the
commission of the Maistries (as the men who collect and bring the
labourers to the estates are called), is from 3 annas 6 pie to 4 annas a
day (or say 5d. to 6d. a day, calculating the rupee at par, or 2s.).
In quite recent times the maistries, who obtained large sums from the
planters to make advances to the coolies, sometimes absconded with the
money and thereby great losses ensued. But a better class of maistries
have arisen, and Messrs. Matheson and Co. have now, with the aid of their
permanent European labour agent, established a system of private
registration by which the antecedents, status, and resources of the
maistries are duly recorded. And though the services of doubtful maistries
cannot as yet be a