season, there is comparatively little to do, and
the owner of an estate can then leave home for change of air and scene. As
regards the healthiness of Mysore, I can only say that everything depends
on the discretion of the individual. If he chooses to take reasonable care
of himself, experience shows that the climate is a decidedly healthy one,
but if he chooses to expose himself unnecessarily, and fails to take those
precautions as regards food, and against chills which all sensible people
do, then he will be pretty sure to get fever. I may mention that the
elevations of the coffee estates vary from 2,800 to about 4,000 feet above
the level of the sea, which partly accounts for the temperate nature of
the climate, though this of course is, as I have previously pointed out,
very largely controlled and improved by the estates being under the
influence of the charming sea-breezes of the Western Ghauts. And if the
planter wishes to avoid the hot weather altogether, he has only to go to
Ootacamund, 7,000 feet above sea-level, where he will not only come in for
a delightful climate, but for the Ootacamund season. April and May may be
pleasantly spent there, and when the monsoon begins in June, the planter
who desires to avoid it can go to Bangalore, where he will be in time for
the season there, and he can afterwards return to his estate in September.
This is a change I can recommend from practical experience. Or should a
change to England be preferred, the planter should leave India about the
end of April, and return in October. Such changes as these of course are
only to be thought of when the planter has made his way in the world; and
I only allude to them here to show that he may personally see to the
carrying out of all the important operations from October till April, and
either spend the remainder of his time under most agreeable circumstances
in India, or pass the summer and autumn in England. In former days such
changes could not reasonably have been contemplated, owing partly to the
time taken up in travelling, and partly to the cost, but we now have
railways within thirty to sixty miles of the various plantations, and it
is certain that at no very distant date these distances will be halved,
and that we shall then be within seventeen to eighteen days of London--at
present we may be said to be within eighteen to nineteen days of it. In
expense the cost has been halved; a first-class return ticket from Bombay
to London