The Kerri estate, about 200 acres, covers a hill
forming a large plateau on the top, the old forest
having been cleared away to make room for plantations,
excepting a sufficient number of tall trees to
give shade; for in Mysore, unlike Ceylon and the
Wynaad, coffee is invariably grown under shade, and
few are better for that purpose than some specimens
of the Ficus genus, specially selected for their bushy
crown, besides the Goney, the Busri, and the Howli-
gay, the Canarese names by which they are known
here to planters and natives. The Toddy palm, which
attains a considerable height, is also frequent here;
these trees are hired out to men of a certain caste,
whose privilege it is to draw the liquid, by cutting
off the end of the young flower spike before it opens,
then fastening an earthenware chatty to the end, into
which the sap flows. The simple machinery, by
which the vessel is raised and lowered, consists of a
double rope passing through a loop, ingeniously
attached to the stem above, and a stone tied to the
other end keeps the chatty in its place; when full
the stone is removed and the vessel pulled down by
the other rope. The toddy, when fresh, has a very
pleasant taste, not unlike that of the green cocoa-nut,
hut it speedily ferments and becomes intoxicating;
this is the stage in which natives like it best. When
distilled it becomes “ arrack,” and by boiling a sugar
is obtained, called “ jaggary.”
After a very uncomfortable night, owing to the
want of mosquito curtains, and an early cup of tea
with some delicious chupatties, made of rice and cocoa-
nut milk, we returned on the following morning by a
longer but easier route, across many a field now almost
hare, as the annual fires during the hot month of May
had burnt off every blade of grass. These conflagrations,
the deliberate act of the natives to obtain a fresh
crop of herbage for the cattle, are a grand sight as they
rage along at considerable speed, covering a large
expanse of ground, but they are dangerous to cattle,
and it requires the assistance of all hands to prevent
the fire approaching the bungalow and the coffee
gardens. The coolies extinguish or beat it out with
long palm branches.
I t is also at this period that the stillness of a piping
hot day is frequently broken into by a tremendous
crash in the depth of the forest, indicating the sudden
•collapse of some gigantic tree, long decayed to the
core, breaking down in the midst of the dense growth
around it. There is something very solemn in this
last outburst of nature’s decrees; the very air seems
suddenly hushed, the birds stop their song, and all
living things seem awed by it.
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