This he immediately commences by giving out contracts, and the forest is cleared, lopped and burnt.

The ground is then planted with coffee and the planter has to wait three years for a return.

By the time of full bearing the whole cost of felling, burning, planting and cleaning will be about eight pounds per acre; this, in addition to the prime cost of the land, and about two thousand pounds expended in buildings, machinery etc., etc., will bring the price of the land, when in a yielding condition, to eleven pounds an acre at the lowest calculation.
Thus before his land yields him one fraction, he will have invested eleven thousand pounds, if he clears the whole of his purchase.

Many persons lose sight of this necessary outlay when first purchasing their land, and subsequently discover to their cost that their capital is insufficient to bring the estate into cultivation.
Then comes the question of a road.

The government will give him no assistance; accordingly, the whole of his crop must be conveyed on coolies' heads along an arduous path to the nearest highway, perhaps fifteen miles distant.