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 direct money, and partly from work delayed which it may be very important to push on.

Managers should always carry note-books and take down at once anything they may wish to remember.  They should afterwards take out the principal points, enter them on a slip of paper and put it on the writing table, for, as the native saying goes, “A good memory is not equal to bad ink” for recording a fact.  Points or facts of more especial interest should be at once entered on the blank leaves of the information book to which I shall presently allude.  When visiting other estates managers should always note down any points of interest, and especially as regards manuring and the effects of shade trees on the coffee.