NILGIRI HILLS. 313 careless and wandering life, are always poor, the hill tribes are in very comfortable circumstances. The Badagas, who are an industrious cultivating people, are rapidly becoming wealthy, as the improved character of their houses and extended holdings testify. Agriculture.—The crops grown on the Nilgiris include wheat, barley, and other cereals; peas, beans, potatoes, garlic, onions, mustard, castoroil seeds, etc. Two and sometimes thręc crops of potatoes can be taken off the soil in the course of a year; and the cultivation of this root is now growing into much importance, but is not free from the anxieties peculiar to potato-growing elsewhere. The area under potatoes in 1882-83 was Soi acres. Besides potatoes, peas, turnips, cabbages, cauliflower, beetroot, celery, parsnips, artichokes, and nearly every variety of English vegetable grow well. Of fruits, the grape, plum, Brazil cherry, raspberry, apple, peach, pear, and orange are grown. In some farms and gardens, managed by Europeans, oats, lucerne, and clover have been cultivated successfully. Dairy farms are worked profitably, but a small industry in silk that once promised well is now all but abandoned. Special Crops.—The commercially important products of the Nilgiris are coffee, tea, and cinchona. Coffee cultivation was introduced on these hills about 1847, havir already been established in the Wainád and in Coorg. The number of coffee plantations in 1875 was 126; in 1877, 213 ; in 1880, 354; in 1881, 375; and in 1883, 459. Of the 459 estates, 359 are in the Nilgiris proper, 24 in the Ochterlony valley, and 76 in South-cast Wainád. These are exclusive of several hundreds of small native clearings. The estates contained in 1883, 35,128 acres of coffee land, of which 22,897 were already planted, and 19,786 acres were in full bearing. The cost of cultivation per acre under coffee was from £10 to £13 in 1881; from £6, 125. to £8 in 1882; from £6, 6s, to £15, 125. in 1883. The average yield per acre was 426 lbs. in 1881; 350 lbs. in 1882; and 358 lbs. in 1883. These figures refer to mature plants. The approximate coffee yield of the Nilgiri plantations was 10,015,619 lbs. in 1881; 6,003,778 lbs. in 1882; and 7,085,391 lbs. in 1883. Their present value (1883) may be estimated at over a million sterling; and the annual out-turn averages about 4000 tons of coffee, which at present prices would yield about £300,000. They give employment to 10,000 or 12,000 labourers. There are about 150 European coffee planters and estate superintendents in the District. Besides these, many estates are owned by natives of India. Tea Cultivation. Three varieties of the tea-plant are cultivated, - the China, the indigenous plant of the Assan and Manipur valleys, and the hybrid. The hybrid is the most useful variety. It combines a great deal of the hardiness of the China plant with the vigorous
