morning I started at a quarter to six, and after driving about
twenty-four miles, crossed the frontier, and entered Manjarabad--the
southernmost coffee district of Mysore. The northernmost part of Coorg
consists of a long tongue of land which projects into Mysore, and the
scenery, in its beautiful, open, and park-like character, naturally
resembles that of Manjarabad.

On my visit to Coorg I look back with pleasure. It was, indeed, extremely
enjoyable and instructive, and I cannot help regretting the fact that,
owing to the nature of their duties, planters are obliged to remain so
continuously at home; and then, of course, when they can get away, they
naturally go for change of air and scene anywhere out of the coffee
districts. The result of this is that the planters of the north of Mysore
see little of those in the south, and that neither have any intercourse
with Coorg, and that, in consequence, much valuable interchange of views
and experiences that might otherwise take place cannot now do so. Had such
intercourse existed, many of the mistakes made in Coorg as regards shade
would probably have been avoided, and much loss of money averted.

The reader will have noticed that I have hitherto made no observations on
the coffee I saw in Coorg, my reason for not doing so being that I thought
they might be more conveniently reserved for the close of the chapter. I
am glad that in the course of my observations I shall have much to say in
praise of the state of coffee in Coorg, and if I should seem to be a
little free in my remarks as to the management of shade, I trust that my
Coorg readers will bear in mind that my experience of trees planted as
shade to supply the place of original forest trees removed is the oldest
in India, and stretches back to the year 1857, and that it requires a very
long time, as they will see by consulting the chapter on shade, before all
the points connected with shade trees can be proved with certainty. That
mistakes as regards shade should have been made in Coorg, where shade
experience is comparatively recent, is not at all surprising; in former
times numerous mistakes were made in Mysore, and have only been rectified
by long experience and observation.

My general impression on going through the Bamboo district of Coorg was
that it contains a certain proportion of land of poor character (and this
can be said of most coffee districts) which should never have been opened,
but that there are ma