ived of the
proper share of bones, or got none at all. This may seem a trifling
matter, but it will illustrate and enforce my suggestion as to the
necessity of being always on the spot, and it is the attention to, or
neglect of, all these apparently trifling matters which, in the total,
makes estate management either a success or the reverse. What I have said
will also illustrate the fact that coolies, who to those who do not
understand them, appear so lifeless and uninteresting, do take an interest
in what is going on, and this poor woman, as the reader will have
observed, was defending my interests, and remonstrating with the duffadar
(native overseer) as to the way in which the manuring was being carried
out, at least so far as her share in the work was concerned at the moment.
I do not think I could add anything further as to the necessity of being
always on the spot, though I may as well mention that one planter of long
experience once said to me, "Every day that a man is off his estate is a
loss to him."

Managers are apt to neglect seeing to the execution of the minor works of
an estate, and it is there that there is often a great leakage of money,
and, what is often of more importance, waste of labour which is required
for pushing forward other works. I will take, for instance, the people
sent off to gather leaves for littering the cattle sheds. I have found by
personal inspection that, unless closely looked after, much of this labour
will be lost, and the same is sure to be the case with the people
employed in other minor works. To keep the people employed in minor works
up to the mark the manager should always visit them daily, and, besides,
pay them a surprise visit three times a week.

Another source of leakage on an estate, and not an inconsiderable one,
arises from tools not being sharpened over night, or by some one before
the arrival of the people, and nothing is more common than to see a group
of coolies hanging round the grindstone in the morning waiting to have
their axes or knives sharpened. Ten minutes may here easily be lost, and
on six men this leads to the loss of one hour's work. Then time by a slow
manager is often lost in getting his gangs under weigh and setting them to
work. Where the work can be done by contract, or task work, this does not
of course matter, but such work as pruning, shade tree thinning, etc.,
cannot be tasked, and delay in setting to work is then a serious loss,
partly in