JOURNEY TO THE PULNEY HILLS.

Coonoor ghaut—Coimbatore—Pulladom—Cotton cultivation—Dharapurum—A marriage procession—Dindigul—Ryotwarry tenure—Pulney hills—Kodakarnal—Extent of the Pulneys—Formation—Soil—Climate—Inhabitants—Flora—Suitability for chinchona cultivation—Forest conservancy—Anamallay hills.

In the end of November I set out from Ootacamund, by way of the Coonoor ghaut and Coimbatore, with the intention of examining the suitability of the Pulney hills in Madura for chinchona cultivation. The Coonoor ghaut, on the southern side of the Neilgherry hills, leads down into the plain of Coimbatore. The road is good, though much too steep ever to make a convenient means of carriage traffic, and the scenery is exceedingly fine. The deep gorge has forest-covered mountains on the left, and a grand range of cliffs on the right, crowned by the bold peak of the Hoolicul Droog. There are few districts in India without some local tradition respecting the five Pandus,[423] the great mythical heroes of ancient Hindoo history, and the Hoolicul Droog is not without one. It is said that the fort on the summit of the Droog was inhabited by a rakshi or giant named Pukasooren, who levied a tribute on the people of the plains, in the shape of a cart-load of provisions daily. When he had eaten the provisions he swallowed the driver, and kicked the cart down again. Bhima, the impersonation of strength, when passing through this part of the country, volunteered to act as driver, had a desperate encounter with the giant, and killed him. The dying Pukasooren cursed the whole country over which the shadow of the mountain fell during the day, and it has ever since been the abode of a deadly fever. It is certain that the jungles at the roots of the hills are the most fever-haunted districts in India, and I rode rapidly through this belt of forests, and along a road bordered with cana-fistula and sappan-trees,[424] to the village of Matepoliem, on the banks of the river Bowany, and five miles from the foot of the ghaut.

Matepoliem is twenty-three miles from the town of Coimbatore, and I rode this distance on a Neilgherry pony in the early morning. The road is perfectly straight, with an avenue of shady trees along the whole length, and good bridges over the dry sandy water-courses. The soil appeared to be poor, partly waste, and partly cultivated with cholum (Sorghum Vulgare[425]), lablab,[426] and sesame. Cholum, or great millet, is much cultivated in the peninsula, and used as food in the shape of cakes and porridge, where rice is scarce or too expensive. It grows to a height of five or six feet, and cattle are very fond of the straw, which contains sugar, but it soon exhausts the soil, and two crops are never taken off the same land in succession. There are two villages on the road between Matepoliem and Coimbatore, called Karamuddy and Goodaloor, in both of which there is a choultry or native bungalow, and in the latter an English post-house. At Karamuddy there is a very picturesque temple, and on the roadside I passed several horses of earthenware, votive offerings by the potters to their god. Under many of the trees there are images of the elephant-headed, pot-bellied god of wisdom, Ganesa, anointed with ghee, and adorned with garlands of flowers.

The streets of Coimbatore consist of long rows of red-tiled, mud-walled buildings, with no windows, and overhanging eaves supported by wooden pillars, under which there are raised platforms where the people sit and talk. In peeping in at the doors, I could never discern any article of furniture in the dark obscurity of the interiors, but they generally looked clean and well swept. The houses of the English officials are about a mile from the town, generally surrounded by park-like compounds, but the trees and grass thrive badly in the shallow sandy soil. Outside the town there are two very large tanks, one nearly a mile long, which irrigate some rice-fields. The view is very pretty, with these extensive sheets of water in the foreground, the cupolas of temples rising above the trees beyond, and Lambton's Peak with the blue line of the Neilgherries in the distance.

Some exertions are being made at Coimbatore, both by Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries, and about sixty natives attend the little chapel of the London Mission Society. The Bible is very properly not admitted into any of the Government schools, and, strange to say, educated natives often inquire why this is not done, and why Christians are ashamed of their Shaster. But in schools unconnected with the Government the study of the Bible is enforced like any other class-book, and there are upwards of forty Brahmin youths in Coimbatore who habitually take it home to learn, with their other lessons, and never make the slightest objection. Mr. Thomas, the Collector, felt very strongly the great importance of educating the women, and a girl-school has been set on foot, after much difficulty. At present the influence of the women, and all women have influence, is for evil. The men, to maintain their superiority, dislike the women to know anything, and the head official of the cutcherry at Coimbatore, who is a Brahmin, dare not let his friends know that his wife can read and write, though this accomplishment makes her a more useful and agreeable companion. The women, generally, are treated like slaves by their husbands. They are never allowed to eat at the same time, except on the wedding-day, and must walk behind their husbands on a journey, generally carrying a child on their hips; yet I have seen the man carrying the child, and at least taking turn about, and in other respects they always appeared to be on good terms with each other.

At Coimbatore I bought a bandy or country cart of the simplest construction, with two wheels, no springs, and a hood of matting spread over curved canes; and started, with relays of bullocks posted at intervals of fifteen miles. This mode of travelling is inconceivably slow, the rate being about three miles an hour, and it was near sunset before I reached Pulladom, a village twenty-two miles from Coimbatore. The road is nearly straight, and planted on both sides with trees of stunted growth, owing to the shallowness of the soil. It was market-day at Pulladom, and people were sitting in rows, before piles of cotton cloths, rice, and dry grains; while an old Tahsildar, in spectacles and snow-white garments, was holding a court under a verandah. In strolling about I came upon the huge idol-car belonging to the village, on heavy wooden trucks. The carvings on its sides were very elaborate, with elephant-headed gods at the angles; but it is only dragged out on very great occasions, and will require new trucks before it is moved again.

All this country round Coimbatore produces much cotton, and cloths are manufactured in great quantities, which supply garments, such as they are, for the people of the plains, as well as for the hill tribes of the Neilgherries. The native cotton is of two kinds, called oopum-parati and nadum parati.[427] The seed of the latter is sown broadcast, in the same field with cholum and cumboo.[428] After the grain is cut, the ground is ploughed between the plants four times, and in the next year the cotton yields a small crop in July, and a larger one in the following January. After the third year the field is manured and cultivated with grain for two years, cotton being again sown when the third crop of grain has been reaped. This nadum cotton is very little cultivated in the Coimbatore district. The chief product is the oopum, the best indigenous cotton, raised, in rotations of two years, with cumboo and cholum.

The oopum cotton is raised on the black soil,[429] an adhesive black clay, while the little Bourbon cotton that is cultivated is grown on red soil. It is picked very carelessly, and the bales are so badly pressed that those which I passed in carts on the road looked as if they would sink in like a feather-bed, if any one sat upon them.

Much pains have been taken by the Government for a series of years to improve the method of cultivating cotton in India, and to introduce American and other species; and very large sums of money have been spent on experiments. Bourbon cotton was cultivated in Coimbatore as early as 1824; and in 1842 Government cotton-farms were established for the growth of New Orleans and Indian plants, both in the black and red soils, under the able superintendence of Dr. Wight, the eminent botanist. In 1849 these experiments were abandoned.

The great importance of the question of cotton supply from India has been long felt, and never more so than at the present time. To meet the requirements of the English markets numerous and costly attempts have been made during a course of years to introduce the American species, which produces a much longer staple than the indigenous Indian kind. Yet American cotton has not hitherto been raised so as to yield a profitable return, excepting in the province of Dharwar, in the Bombay Presidency. The success in this instance is chiefly to be attributed to a suitable soil and climate; but also, in no small degree, to the energy of Mr. Shaw, a former Collector.

Great attention has been paid to the nature of the soils, while less importance than it really deserves has been attached to climate, though climate, and mainly one element of climate—the moisture of the atmosphere—is an essential condition in the successful culture of American cotton. In travelling southward from the latitude of Bombay the climate becomes gradually moister, and at 300 miles there is a very decided change. The American cotton-plant has a very different constitution from the Indian; it cannot stand so much drought, and the conditions required for its culture are an equable and moderate supply of moisture through all the stages of its growth. These conditions are fulfilled in the Dharwar country, which retains a considerable quantity of moisture in the air during the cold season, when other parts of the Bombay Presidency are intensely dry. Wherever this is the case, as in Sind, Guzerat, Broach, and Ahmednuggur, the American plant will not yield a remunerative crop. The indigenous plant is able to endure this dry season well, because it is a native, not of the peninsula, but of the arid country of Sind and part of the Punjab, where it grows wild.

If careful hygrometrical observations were taken throughout the year in the various cotton districts, the results might be compared with similar observations taken in Dharwar; and thus the localities may be ascertained where the American cotton can be advantageously cultivated, so far at least as this depends on the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. The supply of aqueous vapour in the atmosphere, at any period of the year, diminishes as we recede from the coast; but, having once found a centre where the American plant can be profitably raised, in Dharwar, it is advisable to work from that centre, especially in a south-eastern and southerly direction. This spread of the growth of American cotton has already taken place to the eastward of Dharwar, to a considerable extent. The people in the Bellary district, and in neighbouring parts of the Nizam's territory, have for some years grown cotton from American seeds, and value it more highly than their native species.

In Coimbatore, where scorching hot dry winds parch up the plains during part of the year, and where the rainfall varies so much in different seasons,[430] sometimes being thirty inches, and at others only seven inches, it is perhaps doubtful whether it will ever answer to cultivate American cotton on a large scale, yet excellent samples were obtained from cotton raised on the farms, under the superintendence of Dr. Wight. The attention of Sir William Denison, the present Governor of Madras, has been chiefly directed to the improvement of native cotton, by increasing the length of the staple, and lessening the coarseness of the fibre. It is a well-established fact that "the best seeds make the best breeds,"[431] and Sir William Denison proposes to select those seeds to which the largest fibres are attached, to be used for the next crop, and so on in each successive season, the minimum length being increased every year. He believes that, in this way, a permanent addition may be made to the length, and possibly to the fineness of the fibre of the native cotton, which might thus ultimately be able to compete in the English markets with its American rival. Mr. Haywood, the Secretary of the Manchester Cotton Company, on the other hand, strongly urges that attention should be given to the improvement of American cotton. Well-directed efforts in both directions will doubtless be rewarded.

I left Pulladom in the night, and arrived at the large village of Dharapurum in the following morning, a distance of twenty-eight miles. Dharapurum is on the banks of a small river, where there are rice-fields and cocoanut-trees; for wherever there is the means of irrigation, rice is always cultivated. Great quantities of cows and calves swarm along the roads, and in the open spaces of the village, where there are some fine spreading peepul-trees (Ficus religiosa), one of the sacred trees of the Hindus. It has a peculiarly shaped cordate leaf, with a long narrow acumen one-third the length of the leaf, and yellow flowers; and it is venerated from a belief that the god Vishnu was born amongst its branches. Potters' horses, and images of the elephant-headed Ganesa, were placed under the trees, the objects of worship by the villagers, who make offerings of ghee and flowers to them. Literally "an idol under every green tree."

After leaving Dharapurum the road becomes very sandy, and passes over a bleak open country covered with low bushes, on the frontier between the Coimbatore and Madura collectorates. A range of mountains bounded the view to the south. A slow jolting journey of thirty miles brought me to the village of Pulkanooth in Madura. Cholum and lablab were cultivated in the surrounding fields, and from the top of a ridge of rocks overhanging the village there is an extensive view of open country covered with waving cholum, and bounded by the broken outline of the Pulney hills. Near the village there is the ruin of a square brick fort, with bastions at the angles, entirely overgrown with bushes. One of the happiest signs of English rule is to be found in the number of ruined forts scattered over the country, once the lurking-places of brutal robbers who extorted half the crops from a wretched peasantry, whose descendants now reap the fruits of their labour in peace.

In taking a walk near Pulkanooth I encountered a marriage procession. First came a man with a drum, then two more with a gong of skin stretched on wooden hoops, then a man with a large game-cock under his arm, then a bullock led by a woman, then four women covered with bracelets and anklets, then a pony ridden by a boy about twelve, with nothing on but a red turban and gold necklace and bracelets, with a little girl about five in front, whom he clasped round the waist; then more men and women, another drum, and lastly a small boy mounted on a large cow. They appeared to have come from a distance, as they stopped to rest under a peepul-tree, by the road-side.

Another night journey took me to the town of Dindigul, a pretty little place at the foot of an isolated mass of primitive rock, whose perpendicular sides are crowned by a dismantled fort, said to have been erected in the days of Dupleix and French ambition, and to have been occupied and long held by Hyder Ali of Mysore. Here the plains are chiefly covered with cholum and cumboo; and between the town and the rock there is a grassy esplanade, a grove of cocoanut and betel-palms, and a neat little temple to Ganesa. Troops of young girls were drawing water from a tank near the esplanade. Their slight graceful figures, supporting chatties on their heads, were perfect models of beauty; but they had black ugly faces, flabby ear-lobes, and large studs stuck in their noses. To be admired their backs must be turned.

The Tamil people, who inhabit this part of India, are an exceedingly black and ugly race, and the Brahmins are the only people who have any pretensions whatever to fair skins. On the whole the peasantry in the country between the Neilgherry and Pulney hills appeared to be tolerably well off, and the country was well cultivated, considering the unpropitious climate and poor soil. As is well known, the people in this part of India hold their land by what is called the ryotwarry tenure, which is a settlement for the land assessment with each individual ryot or cultivator, without the intervention of any zemindar or renter. The land is made over to the actual cultivator, who is regarded by the Government as the proprietor of the soil, and the arrangement for the payment of land-tax is made directly with him, while he receives assistance by remissions of assessment in unfavourable seasons, and cannot be ejected so long as he pays his dues.

The land is classified as irrigated and un-irrigated, and then according to its different degrees of fertility; and this settlement is permanent so long as the land remains in the same condition. The Collector of each district makes an annual tour of inspection, called jummabundy, to ascertain the extent to which the Government demand ought to be reduced, owing to particular circumstances of season; but in ordinary times the duty of collection is intrusted to the Tahsildars or native officials, and their subordinates the Sheristadars. These officials, who visited me in the villages through which I passed, appeared intelligent respectable men, and all the younger ones talked English fluently.

Sir Thomas Munro, who was Governor of Madras from 1818 to 1827, established the ryotwarry system, and since his time the conditions on which the ryots hold their land have been made lighter and more advantageous. In 1837 it was enacted that there should be no increase of land-tax on account of the growth of more valuable crops; in 1852 it was ordered that no ryot should pay an additional tax on account of improvements made by himself, causing an increased value;[432] and, during Lord Harris's administration, considerable reductions were made in the land-assessment in nearly all the Madras collectorates. These reductions, independent of the boon conferred on the people, have been attended by the most successful results, in an increasing revenue, and in the extension of the area of cultivation over lands which were formerly waste.

Dindigul is about forty miles from the foot of the ghaut leading up to the Pulney hills, and relays of bullocks were posted for me every seven miles, with a man running in front of the cart with a blazing torch. Passing through the village of Periacolum, round which there are many large tanks and extensive rice cultivation, we reached the jungle at the foot of the Pulney hills at early dawn. The path, which is only practicable for ponies and pack-bullocks, leads up a ravine for half the distance, and then corkscrews up the steep sides of the mountain. The range looks very imposing from the plain, but not equal to the Neilgherries at the foot of the Coonoor ghaut. After resting under a clump of trees I commenced the ascent on foot, driving an unhappy sheep before me, which was to be sacrificed on the summit, where, at this time of the year, there are no residents, no market, and no means of procuring any supplies.

The ascent is exceedingly beautiful, but the undergrowth is thick grass, and the vegetation is not nearly so luxuriant as at similar elevations on the Neilgherries. The trees are chiefly LeguminosÆ, and at an elevation of 3000 feet chinchonaceous plants commence, amongst which I observed the Hymenodictyon excelsum. At 6000 feet the steep ascent is covered with long grass, and trees are confined to sheltered hollows and ravines. After reaching the plateau it is necessary to scale a second steep grassy slope before arriving at the settlement of Kodakarnal, which is 7230 feet above the level of the sea. Kodakarnal consists of eight houses, built along the crests of undulating hills, and one of the inner slopes is clothed with a wood of fine trees and tree-ferns, from which the Tamil people have named the settlement.[433] Round the houses there are gum-trees. Acacia heterophylla, Cassia glauca, fruit-trees, and hedges of roses and geraniums as at Ootacamund. The houses belong to the officials of the Madura district, the American missionaries, a Mr. Clerk of Madras, and the French priest of Pondicherry, who come here to recruit their healths, and for short intervals of holiday and relaxation.

Mr. Ames, the Sub-Collector at Dindigul, had kindly given me the use of a house which he shared with Mr. Levinge, the Collector of Madura. It has a pleasant garden, whence there is a glorious view of the Madura plains, with their numerous tanks glittering in the sun; and close to the house a torrent of deliciously cold water babbles over huge boulders of rock, and finally leaps in long falls down the face of the cliffs, making a noise at night like the roar of the sea. The house was in charge of a very original old native of low caste, with a large family, named Chenatumby, who is a tolerable gardener, and cultivates his own patch of potatoes. Chenatumby is a devoted Protestant, feels a conscientious horror for the idolatry of the Roman Catholics, and intends to bring up his eldest son as a half-caste, this honour being conferred on him by the simple process of attiring him in a hat and trousers. Old Chenatumby acted as a guide in my walks over the hills, and was very useful.

The Pulney[434] or Varragherry hills, like the Neilgherries further north, branch out in an easterly direction from the main line of the western ghauts. United to a portion of the Anamallay range at their western end, they stretch out into the Madura plains for a distance of fifty-four miles, with a medium breadth of fifteen, and an area of 798 square miles. On the south they rise very abruptly from the plains, presenting, near their summits, a perfect wall of gneiss; but on the north and east they slope down in a succession of broken ridges. The Pulneys are divided into two parts: a lower series of hill and dale to the eastward, called Mailmullay or Kunnundaven, averaging a height of 4000 feet, and covering 231½ square miles, where there are extensive tracts of forest, some cultivation, and several villages; and a loftier region to the westward 6000 to 7500 feet above the sea, with undulating grassy hills and mountain-peaks, the highest of which, Permanallie, attains an elevation of 8000 feet.

The formation is gneiss, interstratified with quartz, and traversed by veins of felspar; and the rock is generally decayed to a considerable depth on the plateau, and disintegrated so as to form a gritty clay. In the eastern part the soil is a light reddish loam; but on the western and loftier half it is very poor, being a heavy black peat several feet thick, with a stiff and plastic yellowish clay as a sub-soil. The rains on the Neilgherry hills have the effect of mixing the decaying grass with the decomposed rock, and a rich soil is thus formed; but on the plateau of the Pulneys this operation does not appear to take place, the one becoming a black peat, and the other a stiff clayey subsoil. These remarks, however, only apply to the interior valleys, for on the outer slopes, overlooking the plains of Madura, there is plenty of good soil, and magnificent forests clothe the mountains at the foot of the perpendicular walls of gneiss which form the southern ridge of the Pulneys.

The climate of the Pulneys, as regards temperature, very closely resembles that of the Neilgherries. At the time of my visit, in the end of November and beginning of December, the season was very late, though there were thick mists and showers of rain every afternoon. This is the time of the north-east monsoon, and the streams swell to torrents after every shower. During the first two months in the year it is very cold, and the ground is often covered with frost on the upper plateau. In March there are light showers of rain, which increase during April and May, and continue, with strong westerly winds, until October. Thus the Pulneys are within the influence of the south-west monsoon.[435] In June and July, the warmest months, the thermometer never falls below 50°, nor rises above 75°; and the westerly winds, with occasional rain, continue during August and September.

The eastern part of the Pulneys, called Kunnundaven, and Poombary, the principal village to the westward, are inhabited by people of the Kunnuver and Karakat Vellaler castes, numbering about two thousand of both sexes. The villages are chiefly on the lower Pulneys, and one which I visited, called Vilputty, was surrounded by terrace cultivation of mustard, garlic, raggee, and keeree or amaranth. The people also cultivate lablab, limes, oranges, and plantains; and I heard that in one or two villages there were small coffee-gardens. Many low-country natives are also settled on the Pulneys, chiefly men outlawed from their castes; and in the more inaccessible forests are the Poliars, a race of timid wild men of the woods. Chenatumby told me that they have no habitations of any kind, but run through the jungle from place to place, sleep under rocks, and live on wild honey and roots. The women run with them, like wild goats, their children slung in rows on their hips. The Poliars occasionally trade with the country people, who place cotton and grain on some stone, and the wild creatures, as soon as the strangers are out of sight, take them and put honey in their place, but they will allow no one to come near them.

The undulating hills and valleys of the interior plateau are covered with an aromatic grass (Andropogon), which grows in large coarse tufts, like the Stipa ychu in Peru; and it is not until the young tender shoots come out that it affords good pasture for cattle, of which there is a small herd on the hills, belonging to American missionaries and others. The grassy slopes are dotted with tree-Rhododendrons, Gaultherias, Osbeckias, Lobelias, the Hypericum Hookerianum, and brake ferns. This upper plateau is admirably adapted for the growth of English fruits and vegetables. In Mr. Levinge's garden there were bushes of Fuchsias, Daturas, roses, and geraniums; and behind the house grew peach, apple, plum, and loquot-trees, strawberries, potatoes, green peas, and artichokes.

Where there are springs or watercourses on the higher range, there are generally fine wooded "sholas" facing inwards, and very extensive tracts of forest on the outer slopes; but the timber, especially teak and black-wood, has been very extensively cut by the people of the hills. I examined a shola called Minmurdi-karnal near Pattoor, on the south side, another between that and Kodakarnal, and two others, and observed trees of the following genera:— Michelia, Cinnamomum, DodonÆa, Millingtonia, Myrsine, Monocera, Symplocos, Bignonia, Crotalaria, Passiflora, Osbeckia, Jasminum, Hedyotis, Lasianthus, Canthium, and Hymenodictyon. Tree-ferns abound near the streams, and in some of the jungles there were trees of enormous size. Early one morning I went with Chenatumby to see the "pillar-rocks," three miles to the westward of Kodakarnal. They consist of grand perpendicular cliffs descending from the grassy heights, with their bases clothed with forest. Two of them are separated by fissures from the main cliff, and have the appearance of gigantic columns. It was altogether a most magnificent sight, with volumes of fleecy clouds rolling up from the low country, and occasional peeps of the far-away plains and glittering tanks through their folds.

The natives have long been in the habit of recklessly felling the most valuable timber, and acres of fine shola used to be annually destroyed to make clearings for plantain and cardamom groves. For the latter, however, only the small trees and underwood are burnt on the Pulneys, the larger trees being left standing. But this wasteful destruction of timber has recently been checked by the authorities, and in 1860 Mr. Spershneider was appointed as overseer of the Pulney forests, with a small staff, to prevent the reckless cutting of timber, and to mark, from year to year, the trees which arrive at sufficient maturity, and are fit to be felled.

I came to the conclusion that in several of the wooded sholas the chinchona-plant might be cultivated with advantage, the C. Condaminea, and other species which thrive at great elevations, on the upper plateau, and the C. succirubra in Kunnundaven. Mr. Levinge, the Collector of Madura, takes an interest in the experiment, and Mr. Spershneider would be willing to superintend the chinchona plantations; so that, when the undertaking is in a sufficiently advanced stage on the Neilgherry hills to enable Mr. McIvor to distribute plants for cultivation in other parts of India, a number might advantageously be sent to the Pulneys. I understand, too, that it is in contemplation to form a Company for the cultivation of coffee on these hills, in which case it is to be hoped that the extension of the growth of chinchona-plants will be advanced by private enterprise, from motives of humanity as well as with a view to successful commercial speculation.[436]

I did not visit the Anamallay hills, to the south of Coimbatore and westward of the Pulneys, as no planter was as yet established on them, and a considerable time must elapse before they are prepared for the introduction of the chinchona-plant. At the time of my visit no bold clearer of jungles had ventured to invade the domains of the conservators of forests on the Anamallays.

Dr. Cleghorn reports that these hills are under the influence of the south-west monsoon, though not so much so as the Koondahs at Sispara: but I do not find that he gives any detailed account of the amount of moisture in the atmosphere during the winter. The soil is described as deep and covered with rich pasture, streams of water are numerous, there are table-lands 6000 to 7000 feet above the sea, and very fine timber in the ravines. The three hill-tribes, called Kaders, Poliars, and Malsars, trade in cardamoms, turmeric, ginger, honey, wax, resins, soapnuts, and millet. Dr. Cleghorn considers that, from the extent of forest, the resemblance of the flora to that of Ceylon, and the altitude, the Anamallays are suitable for the cultivation of coffee on a large scale, and for colonization of small communities of Englishmen.[437] In this case they are also adapted for the growth of chinchona-plants, and their introduction, which will of course be simultaneous with the settlement of Europeans, will be the more beneficial because the lower slopes of the Anamallays are the haunts of fevers. The quinine-yielding trees will confer blessings on those whose duties or interests oblige them to frequent the forests of the Anamallays, while their cultivation will be a remunerative speculation to the settlers on the upper plateau.