SECTION XIV.. Cultivation in Southern India.

CULTIVATION IN SOUTHERN INDIA.

Southern India is becoming as celebrated for its coffee, as Northern India for its tea. We find that the exports of coffee from Madras have increased considerably during the last five years, and there is every reason for supposing that Southern India will shortly become the chief coffee-producing country of the world. We have no idea of the number of acres of land under coffee cultivation in the Madras Presidency, but it must be very large, for after its local wants have been supplied, coffee to the value of half a million sterling is exported.

In 1858-59 the shipments were 7,288,421 lbs. to foreign ports, and 4,083,917 lbs. to Indian ports. In 1862-63 the shipments were 16,292,238 lbs. to foreign ports, and 3,976,766 lbs. to Indian ports.

Though some parts of India are well adapted to the culture, it is not yet so extensively cultivated as might have been expected from the vicinity of its Arabian sites to the Malabar coast. There, however, some excellent coffee is grown, as well as in the hilly regions of Mysore and on the slopes of the Neilgherries, and some of these are of such good quality, and so carefully prepared, as to bring the same price as Mocha coffee. Some very good specimens of coffee have also been produced in the interior of India, as in the district of Chota Nagpore, where the culture might apparently be greatly extended, and be of great benefit for consumption in that part of the country.

According to local tradition, the coffee-plant was introduced into Mysore by a Mussulman pilgrim, named Baba Booden, who came from Arabia about two hundred years ago, and took up his abode as a hermit in the uninhabited hills in the Nuggur Division named after him, and where he established a college, which still exists, endowed by government. It is said that he brought some coffee-berries from Mocha, which he planted near to his hermitage, about which there are now to be seen some very old coffee-trees. However this may be, there is no doubt that the coffee-plant has been known in that neighbourhood from time immemorial, but the berry has never come into general use among the people for a beverage. It is only of late years that the coffee trade of these districts has become of any magnitude, or that planting has been carried to any important extent. The export of coffee from British India, which in 1851 was only 3239 tons, had increased in 1861 to 8535 tons; about one-fourth of this is shipped from Bombay, and nearly all the remainder from Madras.

More than thirty years ago a few Europeans were engaged in coffee planting near Chickmoogloor, a few miles from the Bababooden Hills. About twenty years ago the plantation producing the well-known coffee called “Cannon’s Mysore,” and others, on the Memzera, or “Bad Mountain,” was commenced by two enterprising gentlemen. The success of these has induced many more Europeans to plant coffee there, and the consequence is that the coffee trade of Mysore bids fair to emulate that of Ceylon. It has given, also, an example to other parts of India, and the plant originally taken from the Bababooden Muth is now extending over tens of thousands of acres in Coorg, the Wynaad district, the Neilgherry Hills, and along the Western Ghauts, north and south.

In Mysore the number of European coffee-planters has increased to about thirty, while the number of native planters is estimated at between three and four thousand.

The average produce per acre in Mysore is probably not half that of Ceylon. Some attempts have been made to cultivate coffee in the open country, but without success; it seems to require forest land and considerable elevation and moisture. “Cannon’s Mysore” is grown on a range of hills from 3500 to 4000 feet above the sea, having the benefit of the south-west monsoon, which very seldom fails at all, never entirely, and of the tail-end of the north-east monsoon. This elevation gives a pleasant climate, well suited to Europeans.

Several species of the genus Coffea (C. alpestris, C. grumeloides, and C. Wightiana) are indigenous to the Neilgherry Hills.

A berry, generally one which has itself fallen ripe from the tree, is put into the ground, usually in a nursery plot, though some planters prefer to place the seed in the identical hole which is to be its future situation. The nursery plan is, however, generally adopted, and here the young plant, which shoots up in about a month after it is sown, is allowed to remain until about sixteen months old. It, or rather we will say they, for hundreds and thousands are generally dealt with at once, are transplanted to holes which have been carefully prepared for them on the soil which is to be their future location. These holes are generally two feet cube, and many good planters prefer them even deeper; in this the plant is carefully placed and covered around, and in eighteen months from that time, i.e. about three years from the time the berry was first planted, our small coffee-tree begins to bear fruit, the first crop being of course very scanty.

The berry is picked from November to the end of February, by any number of men, women, and boys which can be collected, and who are paid by the quantity they pick, some expert hands earning a good deal.

The berry collected is carried to the house of the estate, and there having been weighed, is thrown into what is called a cherry loft, a wooden chamber, alongside of, but a little higher, than the place containing the pulper. From this cherry loft to the pulper the coffee is washed by a stream of water, which carries it along a trough so arranged as to catch and impede any stones or heavier materials from entering the pulping machine. These heavier materials sink to the bottom of the trough, and the buoyant coffee-berry, floating on the surface, is borne to its destination.

The object of the pulper is to remove the fleshy capsule from the berry, and this being accomplished, the coffee passes on in one direction, whilst the pulp, by a clever arrangement of the mechanism of the instrument, is pushed away in another. The berry is now thrown into a vat and allowed to ferment, until the remaining mucilaginous substance adherent to the parchment covering is easily washed away by water.

This accomplished, it is thrown on open exposed places, called barbecues, and allowed to dry in the sun. This takes about twelve days, when it is packed in gunny (jute) bags, placed upon bullocks, and despatched to the coast.

There it is what is called garbled, that is, having been once more exposed to the sun and thoroughly dried, it is placed in circular troughs, and over it large heavy wheels, shod with iron nails, are made to revolve. This removes what is called the parchment skin, leaving the berry now covered only with a beautifully fine coating, the silver skin.

It is then, by a number of women employed for the purpose, carefully sized; after this, passed through a pea-berry mill, the object being to separate the round pea-shaped berry from the flatter, the former being much more prized, and fetching a higher price in the market, though why, it is difficult to say, as it makes no better coffee than the other; and as it has to be deprived of its form by roasting and grinding before it comes to table, the advantage of its pea-shaped figure is, to say the least of it, somewhat obscure.

There is likewise separated from the rest what is called “triage,” the broken and otherwise defective beans, which are also packed by themselves, and which again, we believe, though selling more cheaply, are found to make quite as good an infusion for a beverage as their more aristocratic friends the pea-berries. However, pea-berries, flats, and triage, are all ultimately packed in square wooden boxes and shipped to England, where it is sold, roasted, ground, and drank.

In Wynaad, in the close of 1863, there were 93 coffee estates, covering 50,000 acres, of which about 15,000 acres were planted; 6100 acres had trees over two years old on them. There were also about 3600 acres under culture with coffee by the natives. Wynaad is an elevated plateau, rising somewhat abruptly from the western or Malabar side, but sloping more towards the Mysore or easterly side.

The quantity of coffee exported from Tellicherry during the official year ending April, 1862, was 58,500 cwt., of which about 30,000 cwt. is supposed to have come from Wynaad, the rest from Coorg. 8 cwt. of coffee per acre is considered an average yield in Wynaad, 10 cwt. a good crop.