Then there was the constant problem of an adequate labor force. Most of the field workers were recruited from the impoverished peasantry of southern India and crossed by sea to Colombo or to the northern part of the island via the Palk Straits, which was wider than the English Channel and even rougher. From there they had to make the rest of the long journey to the highland plantations by foot, often weakened by hunger and disease; many died on the way. Getting Ceylon coffee to market was itself a nightmare since the best regions for coffee growing were also the most remote — it had taken Charles eight hours by pony to go from his estate at Rathoongodde to the largest town, Kandy. Road building proceeded in fits and starts, depending on the health of government coffers. Until the railroad reached Kandy in 1867, coffee had to be hauled by bullock carts, far slower than ponies, over roads that were often little more than tracks. The bullocks themselves were in short supply since Ceylonese grasses were notoriously poor. It cost twice as much to transport the coffee the hundred miles or so from the Central Highlands to Colombo as it did to ship it half way around the world to England.