THE SELECTION OF LAND FOR PLANTATIONS, AND THE VALUATION OF COFFEE PROPERTY.
The selection of land for the planting of coffee requires great judgment, and the consideration of many circumstances besides the question as to whether the land is or is not capable of growing good coffee. For, in addition to questions of the age of the forest land, climate, the steepness of the gradients, aspect, and soil, we have to consider the healthiness of the climate, the water supply, the facilities for procuring labour, and the proximity of the land to good means of communication. Then as to the valuing of coffee plantations we have, of course, to consider all these points, as well as many others, to which I shall presently allude when I come to treat of that branch of my subject.
In Mysore, notwithstanding the enormous quantity of forest land stretching along the Western Ghauts, there is, compared to the total area of forest, but comparatively little land, suitable for coffee, to be cleared. In the southern part of the province there is none, that I am aware of, worthy of the attention of Europeans, but one of the planters in the northern part of Mysore tells me that in that part of the country there is still much uncleared land, partly in the hands of the State, and partly the property of individuals. Such uncleared lands (and it is important when valuing a plantation to remember the following classification) may be divided into three classes, (1) the original forest, or, as the natives call it, mother jungle, that has never been touched by man; (2) the forest of secondary growth which has sprung up after the mother forest land has been cleared for grain growing, and abandoned after a crop or two has been taken from the soil; and (3) land on which young forest is growing, and which has never previously had any other forest on it. These three classes of lands are easily recognized by experienced persons, and even at a considerable distance. In the first there are large numbers of trees of great size, and often of timber of good quality. In the second there are no large trees, or perhaps only one or two samples of the original forest—generally mangoe, as they are often used as worshipping places—towering from fifty to sixty feet above the present level of the forest. In the case of the third, or young forest: this class of land may readily be recognized by the number of young Nundy and other deciduous trees. The first-named class of forest is of course by far the most valuable; the second will be more or less valuable according to the time that has elapsed since the mother jungle was felled—in some cases this may be only 40 or 50 years ago, in others from 50 to 100, and perhaps in some instances upwards of 150 years ago. In the last case, of course, the land will approximate in value to the mother jungle, but in the first there is an enormous difference in the value of the land, which will easily be understood when we consider what takes place when forest is cleared, burnt off and cropped. For in the tremendous conflagration that ensues, much of the accumulated wealth of ages is destroyed; and I may remind the reader that an iron peg driven firmly down till its head was level with the ground of a newly-cleared piece of forest, was found to be projecting no less than six inches from the surface after the fire was over. Then a crop is sown which indeed is not an exhaustive one, but it must be remembered that the land is exposed to heavy tropical rains, and perhaps for two years, after which it is abandoned, and allowed to grow up again into forest. So that the injury to the land from the burning of the forest, the removal of one or two crops of grain, and especially the loss from wash, bring about a state of exhaustion which a very long time is required to repair. The value of the land, then, in which this secondary growth of forest has sprung up, will entirely depend upon the time when the forest was cleared and burnt off, and as this is more or less conjectural, it is difficult to give on paper any guide as to the probable time, and the valuer can only form an opinion from the practice he has had in examining forest lands. As regards the third class, i.e., young forest on land that has never had any previous forest growth, the valuer can have little doubt. Such lauds are not desirable, and are as inferior to lands of the second class as these generally are to those of the first, or mother jungles.
I have said that a vast quantity of forest along the Western Ghauts is unsuitable for coffee; and it is so because of the excessive and continuous rainfall, and the estates, fortunately very few in number, which were started in the wet mountain regions which fringe the Mysore tableland, have all been abandoned. But on the eastern side of the passes the rainfall gradually diminishes, and at a distance of about six or seven miles from the crests of the Ghauts the coffee zone commences, and stretches inland to varying distances from the Ghauts till the forest region gradually dies away into the wide-spreading plains of the interior of the province. Of the rainfall in this coffee region we have no reliable accounts, and it varies much even within short distances, but it is generally believed to range from 50 inches on the most easterly side of the coffee districts[[58]] to about 120 on the west. Opinions vary much as to the most desirable site for plantations, but I think that most planters are inclined to think that a rainfall of about 70 inches is the most desirable. As regards elevation above sea level, plantations vary from 2,800 feet to upwards of 4,000, and it is generally supposed that the highest elevations yield the best coffee, but it is very difficult to form any precise conclusion on the subject. Cannon's coffee, which is mostly grown at about 4,000 feet, always fetched a high price, but this was owing, I believe, to its long-established good name, for, when I grew coffee at elevations of from, I believe, 3,200 to nearly 3,500 feet, and of the same variety of plant, a large wholesale and retail dealer told me that whether they bought my coffee, Cannon's, or Santawerry (an estate of the best reputation) it was all the same. After looking over many lists of sales in recent years, I am struck with the small differences in the prices obtained for Mysore coffees, with the exception of Cannon's and a few estates which still grow the old original plant of Mysore. But all the estates which grow the Coorg plant obtain prices very similar, though there is a considerable difference in the elevation of the estates, and therefore, so far as the price of the coffee is concerned, I should not, in valuing land for planting, attach much importance to mere elevation, as long as it does not go below 2,000 to 3,000 feet, for below that we have no experience to go by, and are, therefore, unable to say what effect a lower elevation would have on the character of the coffee. We have now considered both climate and elevation, and the values of the various kinds of forest land, and have next to look at, and if possible value, the effects of aspect.
The more I have seen and studied coffee the more am I struck with the value of aspect, and this is of enormous importance in such a climate as Mysore, which is liable to suffer so often from prolonged droughts, and as it is quite a common thing to have five months without a drop of rain, and also during part of that time to have either dry winds or hot desiccating blasts of air coming in from the heated plains of the interior, it can easily be understood that in valuing lands, much consequence should be attached to forest which contains a large proportion of north and north-western aspects. As to the relative value of the various aspects I have fully treated the subject in my remarks on shade, and I must leave it to the personal experience of planters to determine how much more value they would attach to land mainly facing north and north-west as compared with land facing mainly south and south-west. For myself I should consider that the former was at least ten per cent. more valuable than the latter; and that the relative value of the other aspects should be carefully weighed before coming to an opinion as to the price that should be given for forest land.
In the valuation of land the next thing we have to consider is the steepness of the gradients on it. Now after having had much experience of steep land, land on moderate slopes, and land which might almost be called flat, I have no hesitation in giving a decided preference to the moderately sloping land. I object to the steep land, because it is troublesome to work and manure, and because the ridges on it are sure to be poor; and to the flat land, because the soil is apt to become sodden in our heavy monsoons, and because it is soon apt to harden, and thus is troublesome to work. In my opinion, the highest value ought to be attached to the moderately sloping lands, less value to the flat, or nearly flat lands, and less still to steep lands.
As regards the kinds of soil suitable for coffee, there are points on which some difference of opinion exists. All however are, I think, agreed in thinking that the most desirable soils are those of dark chocolate colour, considerable depth, and of easily workable character—what would be described in England as a rather heavy loamy soil. Then, and sometimes touching these soils, there are soils of decidedly whitish appearance, against which a general prejudice exists; but though some of these soils are light and of inferior character, others are capable of growing coffee quite as well as the best of the chocolate soils. Occasionally there are small sections to be found in good coffee lands of soil of a light character and pinkish hue, which few people not familiar with it could suppose to be a good soil, but in this I have found that coffee flourishes remarkably well. There are other classes of soil which are generally considered to be inferior to those above mentioned, lightish, bright rod soils, black soils (though I have seen very good coffee in such), and soils of a whitish and rather sandy character; but it may be laid down as a general rule that all the soils we have, and I think I have soil of almost every class, are capable of growing good coffee if the climate is suitable, and if the forest in it is of undoubted primæval character; and I have much reason to think that, where soils have been found to be unfavourable, it is owing to the original jungle, say 50 or over 100 years ago, having been felled, burnt off, and cropped with grain for a season, and then abandoned. In from thirty to forty years very fair forest can be grown, but I should say that it would take at least 150 years to restore the land to anything approaching its chemical and physical condition when the primæval forest was first felled.
We have, lastly, to consider the healthiness of the climate, the water supply, the facilities for procuring labour, and the proximity of the land to good roads.
As regards the climate of the coffee districts in Mysore, I have no evidence before me to show that there is much difference as regards health in any of the climates, though some, from elevation and nearness to the Ghauts and the source of the sea-breezes, are decidedly more agreeable than others which are lower, hotter, and more distant from the western passes. Manjarabad, however, is generally considered to be the healthiest district, and some are of opinion that certain parts of the northern coffee district are rather below the average as to healthiness. A good water supply for drinking, and for pulping and nurseries, is, of course, of great importance, and a careful account should be taken of this in valuing land for planting. Then the facilities as to the supply of labour require to be carefully taken into consideration. They vary very much, as, in some cases, the whole labour has to be imported, while in other cases a considerable supply can be drawn from villages in the immediate proximity of the land. At one time it was always considered that it was a great advantage to have local labour, but the local labourers have now become so well off and independent that many planters much prefer the imported labourers, because the former are so uncertain in their attendance, while the latter, when once on the estates, have nothing to take them away from their work till the season arrives for their departing to their homes, either below the Ghauts, or in the interior of the province, from both of which sources the planters of Mysore draw so much of their labour. But in the picking season there can be no doubt that the vicinity of villages is a great advantage, as this generally occurs before the rice harvest, and before that takes place, many people are glad to work for a month or two months on the plantations. So that, in valuing land, proximity to villages ought certainly to be taken into favourable account. Finally, in valuing land, the proximity to good roads and easy access to them is of great importance—and I say easy access to them because it sometimes happens that land is situated on the wrong side of an unbridged river which is sure to be in flood for many months of the year. I now turn to the important subject of valuing plantations of various ages.
I may commence here by observing that all the points enumerated as regards the valuation of land suitable for coffee apply equally to plantations, but it is hardly necessary to say that there are many additional points to be considered when valuing a plantation that is for sale, or for which a valuation may be required for any other purpose. The first point that a valuator should inquire into, is the age of the forest land on which a plantation has been formed. This may not be very easily determined, as the whole of the original forest may have been removed, but there are nearly certain to be corners left, and the valuator should remember that the surest sign of very old forest is an occasional very old and partly decayed Nandi tree, or large and aged Marragudtha trees. The next point to be considered is as to whether the forest was all felled at once and burnt off with a running fire, or whether it was cleared by degrees—i.e., in the first year cleared of underwood and a few of the large trees, and the wood piled and burned in separate heaps, and the large trees gradually removed in subsequent years. This may be regarded as a very important point, for in the latter case the physical condition of the soil will be sure to have been better maintained, and, in the opinion of one of our most experienced planters, the coffee will be much less liable to attacks of the Borer. The age of the plantation should next be inquired into, but mere age, it must be remembered, though it may be of great importance, is by no means always so. At first sight it would appear that a young plantation, with its virgin soil, must be more valuable than an old one, but I have in my mind's eye a plantation in Manjarabad, belonging to friends of mine, and the planting of which was begun as far back as 1857. Last year one of my friends took me over it, and a finer plantation it would be impossible to find, and at the end of our walk he said to me, "The place is better than you ever saw it." And so it most undoubtedly was: and, as another planting friend once wrote to me, "All the old established estates in Mysore are to the front still, and many of them better than they ever were," and better because manuring and cultivation have improved pieces of inferior land and ridges to such a degree as to make them superior to what they were before the land was first cleared and planted. One of the estates in question was opened about ninety-five years ago, and yet contains as fine coffee as one could wish to see. All depends upon the care with which the estate has been kept up, and into that the valuator must specially inquire, and he must also specially inquire into the age of the coffee trees, which, always supposing that the soil has been well kept up, is of far more importance than the mere age of the estate. My friends' estate, for instance, above alluded to, was an old estate, but it was, comparatively speaking, a fresh plantation, for all the old trees had been removed, and the whole property replanted with the Coorg plant. So that, though the estate was old, the coffee was by no means so.
From what I have hitherto said, it is evident that in many cases the valuing of an estate presents to the mind an extremely complicated problem, and there are so many exceptions and limitations, and so many points of doubtful nature—the question of the age, for instance, at which the coffee tree declines—that I cannot attempt to do more than indicate those to which the valuator should turn his attention. There are, however, points on which I can express a more decided opinion—the shade on an estate, its kind, or kinds, and regulation.
After what has been previously written as to shade, its weight in determining the value of a plantation must obviously be very great; so much so, that planters, when going round an estate in Mysore, are generally more taken up with observing the shade than the coffee underneath it. And I cannot, perhaps, better illustrate the effects of bad caste trees than by mentioning what a neighbour said to me when I was going round his plantation. He pointed to the coffee under a bad caste tree and said, "The coffee there gave a good crop this year, but the trees are suffering now, and will give a poor crop next year; while the coffee under the good caste trees there gave a good crop this year, are looking well now, and will give a good crop next year." Such, then, is the difference, and sometimes it is much more, between bad and good caste shade trees. And when the reader remembers that Mr. Graham Anderson has said that he has experienced more misfortune of every kind owing to the presence of bad caste shade trees, it is evident that a valuator should attach a much higher value to a plantation shaded entirely with good caste shade trees than to one with bad or indifferent kinds of shade trees. For the latter mean diminished crops, and more Borer and leaf disease, while the former lead to the very opposite effects.
Manurial facilities have next to be taken into consideration, and here we shall find a very great difference between estates. Some, but I am afraid very few, have spare, odd bits of jungle land which the proprietors have acquired for the purpose, or angles of the original forest which they have left uncleared, from which valuable top soil may be procured, while others are in parts of the country where the grazing for cattle is good, and where cattle manure can sometimes be bought from the natives. But many estates have no top soil resources, and but poor facilities of making bulk manure, and all these points require to be carefully considered when valuing an estate.
But besides all the previously mentioned points, there are the labour facilities, the water supply, and lastly, but by no means leastly, the concentration of all the points of most importance in one central point to be taken into consideration. It often happens on estates that the nursery is in one place, the pulping-house half a mile from that, and the bungalow half a mile from either. But is it not obvious that an estate is more valuable when the bungalow, drying-ground, pulper, and nursery are all within a stone's throw of each other?
Lastly, we come to the most difficult question of all. How many years' purchase is a coffee property worth? To this question I can give no answer at all, nor is it likely that any answer can ever be given till all the facts connected with the industry become widely known. And of all these determining facts, the execution of the projected railway line through the southern coffee district to Mangalore will certainly be the most important. This line, in fact (which will probably be opened in three years' time), will alter the entire position of coffee, as it will not only provide for the carriage of coffee to the coast and the importation of manure, but will bring the planters within ready touch of the finest sanatorium in the world—the Nilgiri Hills.
[58] My friend Mr. Graham Anderson presented to the Durbar, at the meeting of the Representative Assembly in 1892, an interesting memorandum on rainfall in Mysore, and the influence of trees on the condition of climate, and in this he has given a return of the rainfall for a section of the Manjarabad Talook, stretching inland from the crest of the Ghauts to about the termination of the forest tract—a parallelogram of fifteen miles in length from west to east, and about four miles from north to south. This section shows, from April to end of August, a rainfall of 291.53 inches on the extreme west, as compared with 44.21 inches on the extreme east. But it is remarkable that this variation of no less than 247.32 inches occurred on the northern side of the tract, the variation on the southern side being only from 232.46 inches to 72.42 inches, or a difference of only 160.04 inches. This shows an extraordinary, and at present unaccountable, deflecting of the South-West Monsoon current. Mr. Anderson remarks that, though in heavy weather and with favourable winds, the Monsoon rain is often carried to a considerable distance to the east of the termination of the forest tract, it is of common occurrence to find an almost total cessation of continuous rain a few miles beyond the forest zone.
In the memorandum in question Mr. Anderson also remarks on the well known and interesting fact that the clearing away of certain descriptions of trees, and the substitution of others improves the supply of water in the springs. But the whole memorandum is both interesting and practical, and its presentation at the meeting of the Representative Assembly is an additional illustration of the value of that institution in pressing matters of importance on the attention of the Government. The returns of the rainfall were obtained from various planters on the section of country investigated by Mr. Anderson.