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Poona’s coffee connection: An affair that began in 1839
Enterprising Anglo-Indians William Sundt and William Webbe who had well-cultivated gardens in Mudhwa and Hadapsar in Poona (Pune) turned their attention to the cultivation of the coffee plant
Archives tell stories. They can capture lives, and what people meant to others, and preserve them long after memory has faded.
Many years ago, while going through the digitised copies of the newspaper “Jnanaprakash” at SPPU, I came across an interesting report, probably from 1864. “The coffee plantations at Mundhwa and Hadapsar in the Haveli taluka have been ruined due to a dispute between the owners. It’s a pity because we have heard that the coffee was praised by the Europeans living in the Cantonment area”, the report read.
This piqued my interest. I had never heard of coffee plantations in Pune till then. What further excited me were two reports I found shortly after in another newspaper.
On July 26, 1834, “Bombay Courier” translated and reproduced a report that had originally appeared in the Marathi newspaper “Darpan”. “At the request of Lord Clare, Mr William Sundt, an East Indian gentleman, well known for his skill and ingenuity in practical mechanics, has erected in the Government Garden at Dapooree, a machine to raise water from the river, for the purposes of irrigation”, it said.
The engine by which this was affected was as simple as it was ingenious, consisting of three forcing pumps which were worked by a windmill, and were capable of raising, in ten hours, 3,444 hogsheads of water from the river, which flowed from 50 to 60 feet below the level of the garden. “When we consider how much good might accrue to the Dukhun, were a number of such works constructed along the Rivers which run through the country, we cannot help lamenting that the government does not adopt a more liberal system of fiscal administration, which might encourage the expenditure of capital on such works of general utility”, it concluded.
Another report in the very next issue of the same newspaper mentioned that Sundt was planning to erect the same “machine” at his farms in Mundhwa.
Was this the same coffee plantation “Jnanaprakash” had mentioned? Who was Sundt? And who were the “other owners”?
I kept on finding missing pieces to this jigsaw puzzle for the next several years with the help of Revenue, Land, and Horticultural Reports published in the first half of the 19th century.
William Sundt and William Webbe were two enterprising and respectable Anglo-Indians who had well-cultivated gardens in the villages of Mudhwa and Hadapsar. Besides growing oranges, grapes, and other fruits, they turned their attention to the cultivation of the coffee plant.
Their affair with growing coffee began in 1839. The Bombay Chamber of Commerce considered it excellent both in quality and “cleanness”, and said it would fetch the same price as the best Mocha coffee or about 2d. the pound ( ₹14 the Surat man of 40 pounds). To encourage the experiment, the Government granted Messrs. Sundt and Webbe ten acres of land close to their garden. Red gravelly soil, according to Sundt, was the best suited for the coffee plant.
The plant when young requires a great deal of shade. When about a year old it is planted in open ground where for at least four years, it must be screened for the extreme heat of the sun.
To shade the coffee bushes, Sundt grew castor-oil plants around the young trees.
He thought that much of the Poona soil was admirably suited to the coffee plant. He particularly recommended some spots of red gravelly soil between Khandala and Karla.
In 1842-43, Sundt and Webbe grew plants from seed furnished to them by Colonel Capon which he had brought from the city of Mocha, Yemen. The next year, they had seven thousand seedlings in their nursery ready for planting, and several berry-bearing trees which were fair specimens of fine coffee plants. A sample of coffee was submitted to the Chamber of Commerce who considered it “equal to Mocha coffee”.
They successfully cultivated the crop for the next few years. The coffee beans were sold all over Bombay and Madras Presidencies.
William Webbe and William Sundt were among the first generation of surveyors and draughtsmen who drew the maps of British India. Webbe was the “half-caste” son of a British sergeant, according to the “Historical records of Survey of India – Vol. 3”, written by Col RH Phillimore. Webbe was apprenticed and educated at the Madras Surveying School.
Sundt, who was the son of a Captain of the Madras Establishment, left the Orphan Asylum of that Presidency to enter the Quarter-Master-General’s Office in 1806, in which he was employed as “Surveyor and Draughtsman”. He had accompanied both, Major-General Sir John Malcolm’s missions to Persia as a surveyor – 1799 to 1801 and 1809 to 1810 – and compiled the maps. He is also credited for drawing the first maps of Malwa, along with the divisions of districts.
Malcolm’s memoir mentions that several maps published by the Survey of India Office would not have been possible without the participation of Sundt and Webbe.
Sundt and Webbe were later transferred to carry out the Revenue surveys in Gujarat, after which they were employed in the Survey of India Office in the Bombay Presidency.
When James Sutherland chose to make Poona his headquarters after becoming the Deputy Surveyor-General of India in 1822, he brought them to the city to work under him.
The historical records of the Survey of India are replete with praises showered upon them for their professionalism, keen intellect, and skill in drawing maps.
It appears that Sundt and Webbe, who had closely worked with each other in the Survey of India Office, formed a partnership of sorts in Poona, and ventured into horticulture post-retirement.
After successfully dabbling with coffee, Sundt devoted his attention to growing sugarcane. He brought cultures from Mauritius, and within a couple of years had mastered the art of growing sugarcane around Poona. His was probably the first sugarcane farm around Poona if one has to believe the Horticultural Reports published by the government.
According to the Horticultural Report published in 1839, the government made several extensive purchases of canes from him. They were distributed for cuttings in the Ahmednagar and Poona districts. When Thomas Williams, Revenue Commissioner, Bombay Presidency, encamped at a village near Ahmednagar, he found that seven bighas were cultivated by one individual, and the specimen of the produce “looked very good”. They were about “three times the size of the common cane”.
Sundt and Webbe also set up a unit to manufacture jaggery. They sold kakavi (molasses) in the markets of Poona and Bombay.
Sundt passed away in 1856, after which Webbe became the sole owner of the farms. This was challenged in the court by one Mrs Loster, who was an illegitimate daughter of Sundt. She and her husband were helping Sundt run the farm in his last days. The judge ordered both the parties to jointly manage the farms.
The fate of the farms and the coffee and cane plantations thereafter is not known. While the Western part of Maharashtra is now famed for its sugarcane plantations, coffee is not cultivated in the region anymore.
I hope someone someday follows the footsteps of Sundt and grows coffee “as good as Mocha” in Pune.
