FIRST COFFEE ESTATE

Coffee which had been a peasant crop before the British arrival was a very minor crop in the early years of British rule. Between 1801 and 1804, exports averaged only 1,116 cwts. Cultivation was carried out by peasants in home gardens and the collection and marketing of the output was handled by Muslim traders who often obtained the coffee though barter with cotton goods,trinkets,ect.systematic Cultivation by the British began in 1823,and between 1823 and 1825 exports averaged 10,246cwts.
The brothers Henry and Geory bird, and Governor Barnes,were the pioneers of coffee Cultivation on a plantation basis. Henry bird who was deputy commissary general of H.M.FORCES in Ceylon died at Kandy in 1829 of cholera,but his son Henry C.Bird who also become a Colonel like his father, managed the plantation at Sinnapitiya near Gampola. There had been a quarrel between Henry and his brother Geory, and Henry Bird (jnr)reverted to an earlier spelling of Byrde.
A.M.Ferguson describes Geory Bird as "the real pioneer of coffee planting on a large scale," and says he established the first coffee estate at Gampola in 1824. George was a coffee planter for 33 years but does not seem to have reaped much benefit from his pioneering endeavours. In Ceylon in 1837-1846 Ferguson writes of Goerge Birds singular want of success....having been the measure of conferring singular advantages on others, by the energy of his character, while to himself the pioneer of coffee cultivation, his best efforts served only to prolong his disappointment. Meanwhile Henry Birds son Henry become an important figure in the planters Association in which he served as chairman for four terms and as secretary for seven term.
Barnes had a coffee plantation at Gannoruwa which later become part of the Royal Botanical garden at peradeniya,near Kandy. in order to get the best possible scientific advice,Barnes transferred the botanical garden from slave island in Colombo to peradeniya, and officials to the gardens were told about Barnes interest in the coffee industry. Barnes personal example in cultivating coffee was less important than the measures he took to establish the industry on a firm foundation by providing land for estates; on opening up a network of roads,and abolishing the export duty of five per cent. bird and Barnes were the first to import Indian labour. they got down 150 Indian Tamil workers wages range from 12 to 15 shillings per month but their experiment was a failure as all the workers returned to India within a year.