ay 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.

We have seen that the life is attractive, that coffee property is durable
and profitable, and the reputation of the coffee is not exceeded by any
coffee in the world, and, as I shall show further on, the plant is
singularly free, when properly shaded and worked, from risk in any form,
or pests of any kind. Nothing, in short, in the world would appear to be
more desirable as a source of investment than coffee in Mysore, for those
who are prepared to understand and look after it. And with all these
alluring advantages, which I have, I believe, most accurately described,
it might naturally be supposed that, coffee property in Mysore could be
readily disposed of on advantageous terms to the seller. As a matter of
fact, it is quite unsalable at any price that would be at all satisfactory
to the owners. The explanation of this is very simple. Those who are
working their own estates on the spot seldom command enough capital to
invest in new estates, or do not care to extend their property, while
capitalists at a distance, have, from the absence of information, no means
of judging as to whether coffee in Mysore is a good investment or not.
Instead, then, of accurate, or fairly accurate, accounts to rely on, we
have nothing but vague and misleading statements and reports, which often
affect most injuriously industries of sound and thriving character, and,
as an instance in point, I may mention that, from what I had heard of
coffee in Coorg (to which I have devoted a chapter), I should have been
fully prepared, had I not learnt to regard all such reports with
suspicion, to find a district on the high road to ruin. As it was, I was
certainly prepared, and, indeed, expected to find, coffee in Coorg in a
doubtful position. That precisely the reverse proved to be the case was a
most agreeable surprise to me. One of my informants dismissed the whole
matter thus. Coffee in Ceylon, he said, has gone with leaf disease, Wynaad
(the district in the Madras Presidency, south of Coorg) is following,
Coorg will go next, and Mysore last. Ceylon certainly has go