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
modern Kanarese, the variation in the accent, and the words in common use
in various parts of the country, is generally considered to be the most
difficult in India. And, as will be seen further on, it requires no small
amount of study and observation in order to determine how best to lay out
money in the purchase or manufacture of manures. There is also occasion
for much tact, firmness, and temper, in dealing with the labourers and
overseers on the estates, and also the native population with which nearly
all the estates in Mysore are surrounded. Then much tact and judgment is
required in dealing with the Government officials. Other points might also
be added, but I have probably said enough to caution those who may be
inclined to embark in coffee planting in Mysore, against assuming, as has
hitherto been too often done, that it is a business which may be managed
by people of inferior capacity.

I have said that the occupation is an agreeable one, and may add that,
though the life of a planter involves much attention to his business,
there is no really hard work in the sense that there is hard work in the
colonies, and, from the coffee being in shade, there is no exposure to the
sun, while as all the preparation of the crop is done by agents on the
coast, there is none of that indoor factory work which tea planters have
to undertake. Then the climate, taking it all the year round, is
distinctly an agreeable one,--an exquisitely fine one in the winter, never
disagreeably warm in the hot weather, owing to the coffee districts being
under the influence of breezes from the western sea, only disagreeably wet
in the monsoon, though then the climate is so fresh and healthy, that many
find that season of the year to be by no means unpleasant. Besides, during
the worst part of the wet