the
opinion of one of our most experienced planters that, to use his own
words, "there would have been an end of coffee planting in Mysore except
in the case of a few elevated tracts on the Bababudan range of hills."
But, most fortunately for the planters, the Government, and the people of
Mysore, Mr. Stanley Jupp--a South Mysore planter--took in 1870 a trip into
Coorg, which lies on the south-west of Mysore, and was so favourably
impressed with the variety of coffee grown there that he recommended that
experiments should be made with it in Mysore, and in 1871 experiments on a
considerable scale were made with carefully selected seed which was
obtained from Coorg by Messrs. R. A. and Graham Anderson, Mr. Brooke
Mockett, and Mr. Arthur Jupp. The experiments turned out to be a
remarkable success, the young plants raised from the imported seed grew
with extraordinary vigour, and it was soon found that the new variety
would grow and crop well, and even on land on which all attempts to
reproduce the "Chick" variety had utterly failed. Then this sinking
industry rose almost as suddenly as it had fallen; old and abandoned
estates, and every available acre of forest, and even scrub, were planted
up, and land which used to change hands at from 5 to 10 rupees an acre was
eagerly bought in at twelve times these amounts. But there was still some
anxiety felt as regards the new variety, or rather the produce of it, for
when we took it to market the brokers at once objected and said, "We are
not going to give you Mysore prices for Coorg coffee." But it was found,
as had been anticipated by many experienced planters, that as the trees
from Coorg seed aged the produce each year assimilated more and more in
appearance and quality to that of the old Mysore plant, which is still
grown on some estates in North Mysore, and some years ago I even obtained
a slightly higher price for my coffee from the new variety than a friend
had obtained for coffee of the old "Chick" kind. The coffee industry of
Mysore is now established on a thoroughly sound basis. We have a plant
which crops more regularly and heavily than the old variety, and which is
in every respect satisfactory, and the produce of it has so improved under
the influence of the soil and climate of Mysore, that, with the exception
of the estates which produce the long-established brand of "Cannon's
Mysore," and perhaps a few other estates on the Bababudans which have
retained the original