Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore / With chapters on coffee planting in Coorg, the Mysore representative assembly, the Indian congress, caste and the Indian silver question, being the 38 years' experiences of a Mysore planter

by Robert H. Elliot

The best form of bungalow is, in my opinion, one with the rooms in a row and an open veranda ten feet wide running around three sides of the house. The veranda at the back should also be ten feet, but there it would require to be partially inclosed, partly for bathrooms, and partly for a store-room for household supplies. The advantage of this form of bungalow is that the wide veranda is a pleasant place to sit in, and walk up and down in the rainy season, and besides, if an additional room is required, a temporary partition may be put up, and should a permanent addition to the accommodation be necessary, a portion of the veranda at the end of the bungalow may be built up. Such a form of bungalow, too, can easily be added to in length.

Willesden paper should be put under the tiles, as it prevents leaks, keeps the wood of the roof largely free from the influence of damp, and the bungalow, too, in the monsoon months. For bedrooms I should recommend glazed tiles, and for the dining-rooms and verandas, unglazed square red tiles, fringed at the edges of the room with two or three rows of glazed tiles. I do not recommend the latter for any place where there are many people moving about, as I have found that the glazing soon becomes injured.

It is generally the custom to have the kitchen at some little distance from the bungalow, but I do not think that this is a good arrangement, partly because it is inconvenient in the rainy season, and partly because the kitchen is apt to be turned into a resort for horsekeepers and loungers. The plan I have adopted is to have the kitchen and the go downs in a wing running at right angles to the west end of the bungalow, and with the kitchen door facing the back veranda. This arrangement is most convenient for the servants, and enables the master of the house to have the kitchen under easy observation, so as to see to its cleanliness, and prevent its being made a place of common resort. The dirt and disorder usual in an Indian cook room is well known, but there is no reason why it should not be kept as neat and clean as an English kitchen. The floor should be paved with square tiles, and I believe it would pay well, for economy of fuel, and ready supply of hot water, to have a small Wilson range (227, High Holborn—range No. 11 is a convenient size). Owing to the shape of the ground it may not be convenient to have the kitchen and go downs built as a wing of the bungalow, and in that case they should be opposite the back of the bungalow, and connected with it by a covered way. No drain should be made out of the kitchen or scullery. I have found it cheaper, and safer, from a sanitary point of view, to have all the dirty water used for watering purposes. I have a group of orange trees on a slope near the kitchen, and above each tree a hole is made. Into this the dirty water is poured for several days. Then the pit is closed with earth, and others are used in succession. I thus get rid of a nuisance in a wholesome way, and at the same time water the orange trees.

The aspect of the bungalow is of great importance. It should front due north, as the declination of the sun is southerly during the cloudless season, and the sun is thus entirely off the front veranda, and if the situation should not be naturally well sheltered from the east, a solid block of casuarinas should at once be planted on the eastern side, as the easterly wind is disagreeable, and liable to create drafts, and consequently cause chills. A line of casuarinas should be planted on the south and west side of the bungalow, and at such a distance as to cast a shadow on to the southern and western walls, and also on to the roof, as this will keep the house much cooler than it would otherwise be. Other trees might be suggested for this purpose, and trees affording more coolness, but I have suggested the casuarina as it is a quick grower, very ornamental, and not at all liable to be blown down. No carriage drive should be made up to the front of the bungalow, as it is obviously much pleasanter to look out of the veranda on to a pretty garden without a road intervening, and carriages should either drive up to the back of the bungalow, or to one end of it where a wide space may be left for turning. I have said that a line of casuarinas should be planted on the southern and western sides of the bungalow so as to shade it from the sun, and I would suggest that, in order to keep the ground on these aspects cool, orange trees should be thickly planted, and I may mention that I have done this with excellent effect on the southern side of my bungalow. When orange trees are planted for this purpose they should either not be allowed to bear fruit, or but a very small number of oranges, as the object of course is to have, for ornamental reasons, fresh looking trees, and full of foliage, so as to keep the ground near the bungalow as cool as possible.

The bungalows in Mysore are usually built on the grass land outside of the plantation, and where this is practicable it should always be done, as, from the value of the coffee land, much of it cannot be spared for planting, whereas in the open, as the land is of little value the planter can, by planting clumps of casuarinas and other trees, make his residence so much more agreeable and cheerful. But sometimes it is advisable or even necessary to have the bungalow in the plantation, and in that case the most must be made of the situation, and vistas cut here and there through the shade trees so as to let in the best available views. It should be remembered, a fact too often forgotten, that, what are called in Scotland the amenities, are not only agreeable in themselves, but have an important marketable value, and when people discover that the winter on a Mysore plantation is one of the pleasantest climates in the world, and have practically realized the ease with which the journey may now be made, a plantation will be often regarded (as I regard mine) as a pleasant winter home. And, whatever it may be regarded as, it is certain that an intending purchaser of coffee property on which he proposed to reside would naturally, and perhaps unknown to himself, be influenced by the amenities of the estate.

As regards the garden in front of the bungalow, it should of course be limited to such an amount as may be within easy command of the water available. Roses should be freely used, and violets, mignonette, geraniums, and phlox, while the edges of the veranda should have some crotons and ferns in pots. I have given this limited list because it contains all that is necessary to make a place reasonably presentable, but many additions may of course be advantageously made.

I need hardly say that it is very desirable to place the bungalow as close as possible to the points where the near presence of the planter is advantageous. These are the pulping-house, store, drying-ground, nursery, vegetable garden, and orchard. I have two estates where this desirable combination exists, and by the exercise of a little care and time to study the situation, it may often be carried out; but the best site for the bungalow cannot sometimes be discovered without a residence of some duration on the estate, and it is of great advantage in making a new plantation to defer for some time building a permanent bungalow. For all practical purposes a house with sun-dried brick walls, and a roof of rough jungle wood, will answer very well for some years, and during that time a careful study of the land will generally disclose a much better site than one might at first be disposed to select. And I speak with personal experience on this point, as, had I built a permanent house on the site I at first selected on my head estate, I should certainly have had cause for regret. At first sight it may seem that the proximity of the bungalow to the drying-ground is not desirable, but the drying-ground, estate office, store, and other buildings may, by planting, be completely and quickly screened off from the dwelling-house. The permanent bungalow should be built of brick, but all steps should be made of stone, and not of brick, as is so commonly done, as the stone is so much more suitable in a climate which is wet for so many months of the year. It is very advisable to keep a bungalow cool at night, so that you may be able to have a cool house in the day, and in order to effect this a free admission of air is necessary, and the doors of the dining-room certainly should have wire gauze doors as well. The wooden doors may then be left open at night. The bedroom doors that open into the verandas should have the same too, for, though this is not quite so necessary, it is a great comfort to have plenty of air, and yet be able to exclude cats, rats, or snakes.

Building materials should be constantly collected—stones, stone-posts, the wood-work of native houses which is sometimes for sale; and a careful eye should also be kept on all the felled wood left in the plantation, as this is often overlooked till it partially decays, and it is very apt to be stolen. Trees with a central dark wood, like Jack, may be left unsawn for some years, but trees which have not, like Neeral or Mango, should be sawn up as soon as they are dry. Sawn wood should be brought home at once and stored in a house sheltered from the east wind which dries up the wood extremely, and a careful list should be kept of it. Wood for rafters is the better for being put into a tank and left there for four or five months. I may explain that stone posts (we use the literal translation from the Kanarese) are blocks of from 8 to 12 feet in length, which are raised by fire by an ingenious process. The natives first light fires on the slab of sheet rock they desire to operate on, and then cut small holes along the segment they wish to split off. They then drive wedges into the side of the rock, and the segment splits off, giving a stone post of the length required (they may be raised as long as 20 feet) and about 18 inches wide and 5 inches thick. There are no more useful things to have a supply of on an estate, and we use short ones for the posts of wire fences and for stiles. They are particularly useful for supporting verandas.

To prevent white ants attacking the roofs of buildings I have successfully used the following mixture. Tar, one pailful; asphalte, 2 lbs.; and castor oil, one seer. Mix and boil these ingredients. Afterwards add sand. Then plaster the mixture on the top of the walls to the depth of about two inches, and on this place the wall plates. This plan was adopted when one of my bungalows was re-roofed many years ago, and we have not a sign of white ants, though they are numerous all around the house.

If posts, when put in the ground, are buried in sand, and surrounded with it up to the level of the floor, white ants will not attack the wood, as they cannot apparently work in sand. This is important to remember, as wooden posts are often used for cattle, and other sheds.