I may here mention that Messrs. Matheson and Co., who held no less than
7,000 out of the 20,000 acres occupied by Europeans in the Bamboo
district, went to great expense in introducing coffee seed from Brazil,
Venezuela, Costa Rica, and Jamaica, with the view of ascertaining whether
coffee grown from the seed thus imported would be less susceptible to
attacks of leaf disease. But, though the plants raised from these seeds
are doing exceedingly well, it was found that they were also liable to be
attacked by leaf disease, often before they were even out of the nursery,
and in this respect proved to be neither better nor worse than the Coorg
variety of coffee. A clearing of fifty acres has been entirely planted
with coffee raised from Blue Mountain seed, but there is nothing in the
appearance of the trees to show that they are not indigenous to the
country.

Liberian coffee has been tried experimentally in several parts of Coorg,
but I cannot learn that any results have been obtained which would tend
to encourage its adoption as a substitute for the variety at present
grown.

It is estimated that the Coorg planters employ at least 30,000 Mysore
labourers in addition to local labourers and those from the Madras
Presidency, and of the 30,000 in question Messrs. Matheson and Co. employ
no less than about 5,000 for six to eight months of the year. The 30,000
coolies, with their maistries, draw from 12 to 15 lakhs of rupees per
annum (from L120,000 to L150,000, estimating the rupee at par, and for the
purposes of a labourer it goes nearly as far in India as when it was so)
in wages, very nearly the whole of which eventually reaches Mysore either
in payment for grain or as a surplus income which the labourers annually
take with them when they return to their homes in Mysore. And as this
capital is largely employed in developing the agricultural resources of
the Mysore State, it is evident that anything that its Government could
do--in the way of railway extension or otherwise--that would stimulate the
employment of labour in Coorg would be of great advantage to the finances
of Mysore. It is extremely interesting to follow the labour-spent capital
of the planters of Coorg to its ultimate destination--to the western
coast, to various parts of the Madras Presidency, and far away into the
interior of Mysore, and to observe its effects on the country and its
financial results. I am not in a position to say exactly what should be
d