In Situ.
Advantages.—The plants gain some three months in growth by not being moved. It saves labour at the busy time, viz., early in the rains. It saves all the labour of transplanting, that is, it saves labour absolutely, and gives labour when, as stated, it is much required.
Disadvantages.—If the early rains (that is, rain in December, January, and February) fail, but few seeds germinate. In the case of a new garden, the soil must be kept clean six or seven months before it would be necessary by the nursery plan. No artificial shade can be given.
It will thus be seen that the advocates of both plans have much to urge in their respective favours. Which is better?
The advocates of each plan are guided by the climate they have planted Tea in, and the truth is simply that the better plan for one place is not adapted to another. Planting in situ where it will succeed is by far the cheaper and better, and it will do so wherever there are certainly cold weather and spring rains. Thus (see rain table) it will often succeed in Assam, Cachar, Darjeeling, the Western Dooars, and perhaps the Terai below Darjeeling. It will fail in Chittagong, Dehra Dhoon, Kumaon, Kangra, and Hazareebaugh. In Chittagong, for instance, a garden could never be made by planting in situ, or, as it is generally called, at stake.[20]
In this and other matters adapt your operations to the existing climate.
I will now describe the above two methods of sowing seed.
[CHAPTER XII.]
SOWING SEED IN SITU, ID EST, AT STAKE.
It is named “at stake” because stakes are put along in lines to show where the Tea trees are to be, and the seed is sown at those spots.
The modus operandi is very simple. A month before the sowing time (which should be as soon as you can get the seed), at each stake dig a hole at least 9 inches diameter and 12 inches deep, put the soil taken out on the sides, taking care, however, if it be on a slope, to put none above the hole. Do not put the soil near enough to the pit to make it likely it will be washed back. Such soil as should be washed in ought to be the new rich surface soil. For this reason the upper side of the hole should be left free on slopes. The pits are made a month beforehand to admit of this, and to allow the action of the air on the open sides to improve the mould.
If lucky enough to have one or two falls of rain during the month, the holes will be more or less filled up with soil eminently calculated to instigate rapid growth. Just before sowing fill up the pit with surrounding surface soil. Whether to mix a little manure with it or not is a question. If it is virgin soil, and rich in decayed vegetation, I say no; if not virgin soil, and rather poor, yes; but it must be strictly in moderation—not more, say, than a man can hold in both hands to each hole. In filling up the hole, press the soil down lightly two or three times, or it will all sink later, and your seeds be far too deep.
When the above is all done, there is a perfect spot for the reception of the seed. The tap-root can readily descend in search of moisture, and the lateral rootlets can spread likewise. They (the latter) will not reach the outer walls of the pit for six months, and will then be strong enough to force their way through.
Now sow the seed. Put in, say, two or three, as the seed is good or bad, six inches apart; push them into the soft soil one inch, and put up the stake in the centre to mark the spot.
Keep the place clean till following rains, but allow only hand-weeding near the young seedlings, and occasionally open the soil with some light hand-instrument, as a “koorpee,” to the depth of half-an-inch.
If all the seeds germinate, and the seedlings escape crickets, and all live, at commencement of the rains leave the best and transplant the others to any vacant spot. You will succeed with some, not with others; but do not be too anxious to take up the spare ones with earth round the roots, and thus endanger the one plant left. That the seedling left be not injured is the great point, the others must take their chance.
Some people believe in two, or even three seedlings together, and would thus advise them to be all, or perhaps two, left. I do not approve of the plan, except, perhaps, with Chinese plants. Plant as close as you will in the lines, but give each plant its own home.
There is another mode of planting at stake, which is, I think, better than the above.
Lay the seed in alternate layers of seed and mould in beds. The seeds may be laid close to each other, but not above each other, with mould, say, two inches thick, above, and then seed again. When they begin to burst, ready to shoot out their roots, examine the seeds, by taking off the soil from each layer, every three or four days. Take out those that have burst, and plant with the eye or root side of the seed downwards. Put all that have not burst back again. Repeat the operation again and again every second or third day. Be careful and take them up before the root projects—that is, directly the coating has cracked.
By this means only one seed need be put at each stake, for it is certain to germinate, and seed may thus be made to go much further. Great care is, however, necessary in this operation.
[CHAPTER XIII.]
NURSERIES.
Choose a level site, with, if possible, the command of water at a higher level—anyhow with water handy. Either irrigating or hand-watering for seed beds is a necessity if vigorous and well-developed plants are to be looked for.
The soil should be of the light, friable kind recommended for the Tea-plant (see “[Soil]”) and of the same nature as the soil of the garden, the ultimate home of the plants. This latter is all-important, for seedlings will never thrive (probably not live) transplanted into a new kind of mould, particularly a poorer kind.
If possible, the soil of the seed beds should be poorer than the soil of the garden—on no account richer. Taking care it is of the same nature as the garden soil, choose the poorest you can find. The principle is well known in England, and it applies equally to India. From poor to rich soil plants thrive, but never the other way.
For the above reason, if you manure seed beds, do it very sparingly.
Artificial shade for seed beds is a necessity; at least very many more seeds will germinate when it is given.
Natural shade over seed beds is very bad; for, firstly, “the drippings” are highly injurious; and, secondly, shade is only required till the plants are two or three inches high; after that any shade is bad, for plants brought up to the time of transplanting in shade are never very hardy.
Seed beds, where water is handy, should not be dug deep. If so dug, and the soil is consequently loose a long way down, the tap-root will descend quickly, and will be too long when transplanted. As water can be given when it is necessary, there is no need for the tap-root to go down low in search of moisture.[21] A long tap-root is generally broken in “lifting” the seedling from the bed.
Seed beds raised, as is the usual custom, above the paths that run between them, are objectionable. They part with moisture too freely. They should, on the contrary, be below the level of the paths, and there is another advantage in this, for the said paths can then be used partly as supports for the artificial shade, and thus do away with the expense of long wooden stakes.
As the seed beds are only required until the beginning of the following rains, there is no possibility of their suffering from excessive moisture. When they are required to remain later, of course this plan of making the beds lower than the paths will not do.
Seed is best sown in drills, six inches apart, and each seed two, or if space can be got, even three inches from its neighbour. This facilitates each seedling being taken up later, with more or less of a ball of earth round the roots—an all-important point (see Transplanting, page [76]).
The length of the beds does not signify, but the breadth must not be more than five feet, so that a man on the path on either side can reach to the middle while hand-weeding or opening the soil.
After what has been said no lengthy directions for making the beds are necessary.
Cut down, burn, or carry off all jungle, and then take out all roots, whether grass or other. Now make the surface level. After this mark off the beds and paths, the latter one foot broad only, with string and pegs. Then raise the path six inches above the spots marked off for the beds. This latter must not be done by earth from the beds, but by earth from outside the intended nursery. Next dig and pulverise the soil of the beds to a depth of six or seven inches, no more, and level the surface.
All is now ready for the seed. A string, five feet long, with a small peg at either end, is given to two men who stand on the path at either side of the bed. Each man has a six-inch measure. The string is laid across the bed, beginning at one end and pegged down on either side. A drill is then made along the string about one inch deep, and this done the string is, by means of the six-inch measure on either side, removed, and pegged down again in the place for the next drill. Seeds are then sown or placed along the first drill made, two or three inches apart, and the earth filled in. This is repeated again and again till the whole bed is sown.
If the character of the seed is doubtful it must be laid in thicker, but with good seed two-and-a-half to three inches is the best distance.
The sowing finished the artificial shade has to be given. Along the paths, at five feet apart, put in forked stakes, two feet long—viz., six inches into the path, and eighteen inches above it. Connect these with one another by poles laid in the forks; now lay other (but thinner) poles attached to the first poles at either end across and above the bed; and again across these latter, that is along the length of the beds, split bamboos, and then bind the whole framework here and there. The said framework made will then be two feet above the beds—viz., eighteen inches of stake support, and the six-inch raised paths. The eighteen inches of opening all round, under the frame, that is, between the frame and the path, allows the necessary air to circulate; while the expense, danger from high winds, and the objectionable entrance of the sun at the sides, all of which high artificial shade is subject to, are avoided by this low frame-work.
Mats are the best to cover the frame-work. In case of accidental or incendiary fire they are not so objectionable as grass, for they burn less and slower, but mats are expensive. Any coarse grass (freed from seed) will answer, and it should be laid on as thin as will suffice to give shade.
The beds may be watered, if there is no rain, a fortnight after the seed is sown, and from time to time during the dry season, whenever the soil at a depth of three or four inches shows no moisture.
The soil should also be kept free of weeds, and after the plants are three or four inches high, the spaces between the drills should be slightly stirred every now and then.
After the seed has germinated, and the seedlings have, say, four leaves on them, the artificial shade should be taken away. But it must be done gradually, taking off portions of the grass first, so that the young seedlings may by degrees be inured to the hot sun.
Though cultivation, as described, by watering and opening the soil at times is well, these should not be done much, or the seedlings will be too large when the time comes to transplant them. Large seedlings do not, as a rule, thrive as well as moderate-sized ones, after being transplanted.
Among the many very absurd mistakes made in the cultivation of the Tea plant, none exceeds the ridiculous way Tea seed used to be sown in the Government plantations in the North-western Himalayas. The seed was sown in drills, as I have advised, but in six linear inches of the drills, where it is right to put two, or at most three, seeds, perhaps thirty were placed! I do not exaggerate; the drill, six inches deep, was filled with them. Many and many lacs of seed, in those days worth many thousand rupees, were thus sacrificed. Private planters in the Himalayas, taught by the Government method, once did the same. I believe the absurd practice is exploded now.
Seed cannot be sown too soon after being picked. It is ripe early in November, so the beds should be all ready by November, and if the seed has not far to come it can thus be sown early that month.
To each maund there are in round numbers 30,000 seeds, (see page [56]). The number of plants it will take to fill an acre depends, of course, on the distances they are set apart (see page [72]), but having decided this point, also the area to be planted, and consequently the number of maunds of seeds to be sown (see page [56]), the following table will be found useful in calculating the size of nursery required:—
Table showing the size of nursery required for one maund and ten maunds seed, the drills being 6 inches apart, and each seed 3 inches or 2 inches from its neighbour.
| Distance each seed is set apart in the drill. | Area in sq. inches each seed will occupy. | Area, in sq. feet, of beds without paths required for each md. | Area, including paths required for each md. | Size of nursery, including the paths to take in for 10 mds. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 inches | 18 | 3,763 | 4,513 sq. feet or 501 sq. yards. | 100 yards by 50 yards. |
| 2 inches | 12 | 2,500 | 2,995 sq. feet or 332 sq. yards. | 100 yards by 33 yards. |
If nurseries for more than ten maunds are required, then allow 100 yards to be the breadth, and for each extra ten maunds add respectively for 3 or 2 inches (see 1st column) 50 or 33 yards to the length. Thus fifty maunds will require nurseries 100 yards by 250 yards, or 100 yards by 165 yards, according as it is decided to plant the seed 3 inches or 2 inches apart in the lines.
[CHAPTER XIV.]
MANURE.
An idea existed formerly—got, I believe, from stray Chinamen, who I don’t think knew much about Tea in any way—that manure, though it increased the yield, spoilt the flavour of Tea. The idea is opposed to all agricultural knowledge, for high cultivation, which in no case can be carried out to perfection without manure, much improves the strength and flavour of all edibles, the product of mother-earth.
My first experience of manure to the Tea plant was obtained in the Chittagong district from a small garden close to the station, which has been for some years highly manured. I was struck with the frequency and abundance of the flushes and the strength and flavour of the Tea. My high opinion of the Tea was later borne out by the Calcutta brokers. I allude to the “Pioneer” garden, close to the Chittagong station. During the best Tea months flush succeeded flush at intervals of less than a week, while eight to ten maunds (640 to 800 lbs.) was the yearly yield per acre! The soil was very sandy and poor.
After-experience showed me that manuring nearly doubles the yield of plants, and that so far from injuring the flavour of Tea it improves it, while it adds greatly to the strength.
I shall therefore beg the question that manure is an advantage. If any planter doubts, let him try it, and his doubts will soon be solved.
Any manure is better than none, but I believe one of the best manures for the Tea plant (always excepting night-soil and the excrements of birds, which cannot be procured) is cattle manure. It is not heating, like horse-dung, and may be applied in large quantities without any risk. The fresher it is applied, in my opinion, the better, for it has then far more power. If mixed with any vegetable refuse, the bulk being increased, it will go further, but I do not think it is intrinsically any the better for it.
There are several chemical manures advertised for Tea plants. “Money and Ponder’s Chemical Manure,” lately patented by Mr. Ponder and myself, is said to have been very successful on several gardens. It is manufactured by Mr. J. Thompson, Kooshtea, Bengal, who will supply all details.
All garden refuse should be regarded as manure and buried between the plants. I allude to the prunings of the bushes and the weeds at all times from the land. To carry these off the ground, as I have sometimes seen done, is simply taking off so much strength from the soil. The greener, too, all this is buried the better.
When it is considered how much is taken from the Tea plant, it is evident the soil will be exhausted, sooner or later, if no means are adopted to repair the waste. Where manure cannot be got the waste must be made up, as far as possible, by returning all other growth to the soil. But manure should be got if possible, for it will double the yield of a garden; and highly concentrated chemical manures will, I am sure, be eventually much used on Tea gardens.
The best way to apply it, if enough manure is procurable, is round each plant; not close to the stem (the rootlets by which the plant feeds are not there) but about 1 foot from it. Dig a round trench with a kodalee, about 9 inches wide and 6 inches deep, at the above distance from the stem, lay in the manure, and replace the soil at top. If the plants are young the trench should be narrower, shallower, and 6 inches, instead of 1 foot, from the stems.
If enough manure is not procurable for this (the best) plan, the most must be done with what can be got, as follows:—If the plants are full grown, and there is say 4 feet between the lines, dig a trench down the centre and lay in the manure. The plants will then be manured on two sides. If the plants are young lay the manure near them on two sides, if possible, but failing that even on one side. The principle is to lay the manure at the distance the feeding rootlets are, and the older the plant the greater distance these are from its stem.
As to the quantity of cattle manure. Say for plants four years old and upwards (if younger, less will be an equivalent) one maund to 20 trees is a moderate dose, one maund to 15 trees a good dose, and one maund to 10 trees highly liberal manuring, and as much as the plants can take up.
Say in round numbers each acre contains 2,500 plants (4 by 4—a usual distance—gives 2,722 plants, as shown at page [72]), and say the manure is procurable at three annas a maund.[22]
The following table shows the expense of each degree of manuring, viz., 10, 15, and 20 trees per maund:—
Table showing the possible cost and result of manuring with cattle manure.
| Rate of Manuring | Maunds of manure per acre at 2,500 plants per acre | Cost of manure at 3 annas per maund N.B.—Ans. omitted | Probable extra yield of Tea per acre | Value of extra yield of Tea at Rs. 50 per maund | Profit by manuring per acre | Deducting the probable cost of putting in the manure, the following profit is shown per acre |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mds. | Rs. | Mds. | Rs. | Rs. | Rs. | |
| One md. to 10 plants | 250 | 47 | 2½ | 125 | 78 | 70 |
| One md. to 15 plants | 166 | 31 | 2 | 100 | 69 | 62 |
| One md. to 20 plants | 125 | 23 | 1½ | 75 | 52 | 46 |
It is not too much to calculate that this will add respectively 1½, 2, and 2½ maunds of Tea per acre to the yield, and I have carried this out in the table and shown the results.
I quite believe the results shown will be obtained by manuring, and I base my opinion on practice not theory.
N.B.—I have deducted Rs. 8 for the first, Rs. 7 for the second, and Rs. 6 for the third, as the probable cost of putting in the manure, as it may have to be carried from the factory to the garden. If purchased after being placed between the lines (and if manure is bought of adjacent villagers they will so place it), the cost would be less.
The above table, of course, only applies to localities where cattle manure can be purchased at 3 annas per maund, including carriage to the factory.
The value of the extra yield of Tea is estimated at only Rs. 50 per maund in the above table, because the leaf which will give one maund of Tea is worth no more, as follows:—
| Rs. | A. | P. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Probable price obtainable for one maund or 80 lbs. Tea in Calcutta, at 14 annas a lb. all round (a fair calculation, one year with the other, if it is well manufactured). | 70 | 0 | 0 |
| Deduct cost, manufacture, packing, transport, and broker’s charges as set out in the chapter on “cost manufacture,” page [162] | 16 | 9 | 0 |
| Value of leaf which will make one maund Tea | 53 | 7 | 0 |
But I prefer estimating it at Rs. 50 only, to be on the safe side.
[CHAPTER XV.]
DISTANCES APART TO PLANT TEA BUSHES.
When the idea existed, which it did once, that ploughs could be used to cultivate a garden between the lines, these latter, with this object, were placed unnecessarily wide apart.
All distances may be seen in different gardens, viz., 6 × 6, 6 × 3, 6 × 4, 5 × 4, 5 × 5, 4 × 3, &c., &c.
The plough idea has nowhere been found to answer, and is exploded.[23] Still, even for hand labour to cultivate, and for facilities in picking leaf, it is necessary there should be room enough one way to pass along. Cultivation here means digging, and space enough for this must be left between the lines. Giving so much, what is then the principle that should guide us? Clearly, with a view to the largest yield obtainable, to place as many plants on the land as it will bear.
Four or 4½ feet are, I think, the best distances between the lines.
They give space enough for air to cultivate, and to pass along, even when the trees are full grown.
Where manure is obtainable and the soil can be kept up to a rich state by yearly applications, a garden can scarcely be planted too close.
I see no objection to trees touching each other in the lines.
On considerable slopes, to prevent the wash of soil, the plants should be placed as close as possible, say 3½ feet between and 2 feet in the lines.
A closely planted garden will grow less weeds than a widely planted one, and will consequently be cheaper to work.
As the expenditure on a garden is in direct proportion to the area, and the yield in direct proportion to the number of plants (always supposing there is power enough in the soil to support them), it follows that a closely planted garden must be very much more profitable than the reverse.
Hybrid plants grow to a larger size than Chinese, and should therefore have more room.
The following is a useful table:—
Table showing the Plants to an Acre, and the Area one lakh of seedlings will cover, at the distances named.
| Distances in feet | Square ft. to each plant | Plants in one acre | The area in acres one lakh of seedlings will cover | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 by 6 | 36 | 1,210 | 82½ | Too wide for any plants. |
| 6 „ 5 | 30 | 1,452 | 69 | |
| 6½ „ 4 | 26 | 1,675 | 59¾ | |
| 5 „ 5 | 25 | 1,742 | 57½ | |
| 6 „ 4 | 24 | 1,815 | 55 | |
| 6 „ 3½ | 21 | 2,074 | 48 | For Hybrids, but still I think too wide. |
| 5 „ 4 | 20 | 2,178 | 45½ | |
| 6 „ 3 | 18 | 2,420 | 41¼ | Good distances for Hybrids. |
| 4 „ 4 | 16 | 2,722 | 36¾ | |
| 5 „ 3 | 15 | 2,904 | 34½ | |
| 4 „ 3 | 12 | 3,630 | 27½ | Chinese for early return. |
| 3½ „ 3½ | 12¼ | 3,555 | 28 | Chinese. |
| 3½ „ 3 | 10½ | 4,148 | 24 | |
| 6 „ 3¼ | 19½ | 2,233 | 44¾ | Hybrid. |
| 5 „ 3¼ | 16¼ | 2,726 | 36¾ | Chinese. |
| 5 „ 3½ | 17½ | 2,489 | 40 | |
| 3½ „ 2 | 7 | 6,223 | 16 | Best distance for Chinese on steep slopes. |
On flat lands I advise—
| Hybrid, if high-class | 4 × 3½ or 4½ × 4 |
| Chinese | 3 × 3 |
All the following equal one acre:—
| 4 roods. | 4,840 | square | yards. |
| 160 poles. | 43,560 | „ | feet. |
[CHAPTER XVI.]
MAKING A GARDEN.
I have not very much to say on this head, as most of the operations entailed are treated separately. Still a few directions on primary matters are required.
Having selected a site and made arrangements for the Tea seed required for the first year’s planting, you should commence operations early in October, either by constructing the nursery, or clearing land on the proposed site of the garden, as you may decide which mode of planting, viz., “nurseries,” or “sowing at stake,” to adopt.[24]
If the latter, you should begin to cut the jungle somewhat earlier, but it is no use beginning to do this before the middle of September in any case, for before that the jungle would spring up again so soon that it would be labour lost.
Before you do anything decide how much you will cultivate the first year, and make your arrangements for seed accordingly. Here let me advise you in no case to attempt more than 100 acres. If you do 100 really well the first year you will have done very well. Remember you have also buildings (though few) to construct, and trying to do too much you may simply fail in all.
Previous to October you should have made yourself thoroughly acquainted with all your land, so that you can then fix with knowledge on the best sites for your buildings, nursery, and Tea plantation.
You will find much on these matters in other chapters which should be read carefully.
These respective sites having been fixed upon, and supposing you are going to plant in both ways, from nurseries and in situ, construct the nurseries as advised under that head, page [62], and also cut the jungle on the intended garden site.
There is not much to say about cutting jungle. Cut all the brushwood first near the ground, and the big trees later, so that when they fall they may lie on the underwood. In the portion you intend to plant at stake you will not have time to cut down the big trees, and had better simply “ring” them. If this is properly done, that is, if the ring is broad enough and deep enough (less than one foot broad and five inches deep for large trees is not safe), they will certainly die in a twelvemonth, and will not give objectionable shade more than half that time. In the part to be planted “at stake” you must burn all the cut jungle by the end of October, and it will be well, if you have labour enough, to send men up the big trees to cut off the branches beforehand, so that they will more or less burn with the rest. Doing this, and piling up the underwood to be burnt round the base of the big trees, will cause earlier death, and diminish the objectionable shade.
Having burnt the jungle, that is, as much as will burn, and carried off the rest from the parts to be planted at stake, dig out all the small roots, and that done, dig the whole some 4 or 5 inches deep. Then stake it off with small bamboo stakes 18 inches long, showing where the Tea trees are to be (see page [72] as to the best distances), and then make your holes and plant your seed at each stake as directed at page [59].
See the way it is recommended to stake land as regards its lay at pages [45] and [46].
You will probably not have the ground ready before the end of November (do not attempt more than you can do to that date), and then take care and keep the seed, as directed at page [55], until it is sown.
For the part to be planted from nurseries the following June you have plenty of time. Nowhere have I, or anyone, seen large vigorous Tea plants under trees. It is therefore evident trees are hurtful, and no more should be left in a garden than are required for the labourers to sit under occasionally, and to collect leaf under before it is taken to the Tea-house. The trees that are left should be those on the sides of roads. One to every two or three acres is ample. After therefore cutting down all the low jungle, cut down all but the said few trees (it is cheaper in the end than ringing them), and then cut off and cut up all the branches into sizes that will burn readily. Cut up the large trunks also into lengths, for all that will not burn must be carried off later. Leave all so lying until February, then choose a day with a high wind and fire it from the windward side. It may burn some days. Then collect all unburnt into heaps, and fire again and again until nothing more will burn. Now take out all roots, big and small, and when well dry, stack all these, and what was left before, and fire again and again. The land should now be tolerably clear, and can be dug at once. The roads should be marked off before this, for they are better not dug.
Now stake the land at the distances determined on, and a month before the rains, or even more, if you are so far advanced, make holes for the young seedlings at each stake, precisely like those recommended for “planting at stake,” page [59]. Only, if possible, these should be a little larger each way than there advised, say 10 inches diameter and 15 inches deep.
Read carefully the direction as to those pits, and follow them out here. Much of the success of your planting depends on these holes.
At the first commencement of the rains transplant, as directed under that head in the next chapter.
Any large heavy trunks, which cannot be easily carried off the land, may be placed longways between the lines, but the less of dead timber you leave lying about the gardens the better.
[CHAPTER XVII.]
TRANSPLANTING.
If the pits for the plants have been all prepared, as directed at pages [59] and [75], this operation is simple enough.
A fortnight or so before it commences tip all the seedlings in the nursery. Take off only the closed leaf at the head of each young plant (see a leaf diagram, page [104]), so that the bud at the base of the next leaf be not injured. Doing this will make the seedlings hardier and enable them earlier to recover the transplanting.
On the day you intend to take up the seedlings from any bed, if you have water enough at command, flood the bed. This, as you take up each seedling, will cause the soil, being moist, to adhere better to the roots.
The difference between young plants transplanted with a ball of earth round the roots, and those moved with their roots bare, is no less than three months’ growth, if even it does not make the difference between life and death.
Proceed thus to ensure the former. At one short end of the bed, the lowest if it is on a slope, dig close to the first row of seedlings a trench so deep that its base shall be lower than the lowest end of the tap-roots. Then with a five or six-pronged steel fork (this is better than a spade, for it does not cut the rootlets) put in between the first and second row, and pressed down with the foot to its head, force carefully so much of the row down into the trench. Then with the hand take up each seedling separately, helping the soil with a very light pressure (so light that it shall not change the lateral direction of any of the rootlets) to adhere, and place it in a low basket sloping. Do this again and again, till two baskets are full, when they will be carried, banghy fashion, to the garden.
When the first row is finished clear away the loose soil, so that a similar trench to the first shall be formed, and then proceed as above with the second row, and so on.
No further directions for lifting the seedlings out of the nurseries are required.
All is ready for their reception in the garden if the directions at pages [59] and [75] have been followed out. The work now to be detailed must be done by careful men well superintended.
In the soft soil of the lately filled up pit, described at page [59], a hole is made either with the hand or a narrow kodalee (the former, if the soil has not settled much, will suffice), large enough and deep enough to take in the seedling with all the earth attached to it. The seedling is then put in and the soil filled in and round it, which completes the operation.
The manner, though, in which this is done is of great consequence. Four things are all important:—(1) That the tap-root shall not be turned up at the end because the hole is too shallow. (2) That any rootlets projecting outside the attached earth shall be laid in the hole, and shall preserve, when the soil is filled in, their lateral direction. (3) That the collar of the plant (the spot where the stem entered the earth in the nursery) shall be, when the pit is filled up, about 1½ inch higher than the surface of the surrounding earth. (4) That in filling in the hole the soil is pressed down enough to make it unlikely to sink later, but not enough to “cake” the mould.
The following is the consequence of failure in these four points:—
1. Probably death, in any case very much retarded growth. I have planted some seedlings so purposely, the majority died; those that lived recovered very slowly, and digging them up later the tap-root was found to have gone down after all by assuming the shape of the letter S, the growth downwards being from the head of the letter.
2. Rootlets, turned away from their lateral direction, interfere with other rootlets, and though they eventually grow right if the plant lives, they retard it.
3. Fill in as you may (unless you “cake” the soil, which induces worse evils) the plant sinks a little; thus, if not placed a little high, it will eventually be too deep. If on the other hand placed too high, the rootlets and collar will be exposed, which is an evil.
4. Unless this is attended to the plant will sink too much and the collar be buried; likewise an evil, which it takes the young seedling some time to recover.
Only first teaching and then practice will enable either European or Native to plant well. This is how it should be done.
Take the seedling in the left hand, holding it by the stem just above the collar; then take the very end of the tap-root between the second and third fingers of the right hand, and thus put it down into the hole (you thus insure the tap-root being straight). Now judge exactly the height of the collar that it be as directed. Rest the left arm then on the ground to keep the plant steady, release the tap-root, and fill up the hole about one-third, pressing the soil lightly. The plant will then be fixed, and you can employ both hands to fill up the remainder, and keep the rootlets in a lateral position. Press the soil lightly as you do so, and when all is filled up press it down a little harder round the stem of the plant.
All the transplanting should be finished as early in the rains as possible. A seedling, planted in the first fifteen days of June, is worth two planted in July, and after the latter month it is generally a case of seedlings and labour lost.
Days with heavy rain are not good to plant in. Those with showers or light drizzling rain are best. When there is very heavy rain the soil “cakes” much. Fine days, if the ground is wet, and if more rain may soon be looked for, are good, better though if cloudy than sunny.
Where much planting has to be done, of necessity planting must be carried on daily, for, as observed, it must all be finished by end of July at latest.
In case of a sunny break in the weather, stop planting after the second day, for early rain to young transplants is a necessity.
In making a garden too much care cannot be given to the way seedlings are placed in their homes.
Just before sending the third edition to press, I saw in the Indian Tea Gazette some details of “new transplanting and transporting tools,” patented by Mr. Jeben. I hope these will prove a success, for such are much wanted, and if they will do all it is said they can do, a great boon will have been conferred by Mr. Jeben on the Tea industry.
Mr. J. W. Mountjoy, of Pandawbrang, Arracan, writes as follows regarding these tools:—
“The Transplanter has, in working, proved to be a complete success. Almost all the remaining seedlings have been transplanted by the aid of your instrument, without the slightest injury to their roots or check to their growth. The fact is, the young plants do not know that they have been transplanted, and now that sunshine has succeeded the late very heavy rains, new and vigorous growth is ‘bursting out’ from all the seedlings that were transplanted by means of your Transplanter. No manager of a Tea or Coffee plantation, who had once seen this instrument at work, would ever again be likely to recur to transplanting by hand, and not a single seedling should die when removed from the nursery and carried to its place of ultimate growth by means of your Transplanter. Your transplanting apparatus is better than baskets, and has moreover the great recommendation of being very economical. Your Transplanter will, with moderate care, last for many years, and combines thorough economy with thorough efficiency.”
I am glad to give the above extract, for I look on the invention, if successful, as a most important one.
[CHAPTER XVIII.]
CULTIVATION OF MADE GARDENS.
As manuring, which is part of this, is treated separately, we have here only to consider the best means of stirring the soil to give air to the roots of the plants, and to keep down weeds, which, if allowed, injure the yield vastly.
Unless when plants are full blown and in full bearing (and not even then unless they are planted close) it is not only not necessary, but a waste of labour and money, to open the soil all over the garden with a view of stimulating or cultivating the plants. Much money has been wasted in this way: for instance, in a garden planted 6 by 6 or 6 by 5, and the plants but two years old, I have seen the whole dug many times in the year. The roots of the said plants did not protrude at that age more than 1 foot or so, what good could they possibly derive from the extra space dug?
The soil over the rootlets of Tea plants cannot be stirred too often. The oftener it is done the oftener the trees flush, and when young the more vigorously will they grow. What is the best way to do it?
I believe simply by digging round each plant. I go to show why this is, I believe, the best.
Putting aside the waste incurred in digging a whole garden when not necessary, the way the soil is then dug near the plants is, I think, objectionable. The ground is dug in a straight line up to the plant, and in doing so, if the digging is deep, roots are very apt to be cut. Again, when the work is task-work, the men shirk as much as possible digging close up to the stems under the branches, and thus the soil over much of the roots, is not stirred at all. This is not easy to detect, for you must look under the branches of each tree to see how the work has been done.
In “digging round plants” the men should follow the kodalee round the tree, and the position of the blade in the same line as the roots makes any injury very unlikely. Even if tasked, as when the work is examined, it is only round the plants, it is more readily perceived if the ground has not been stirred close up to the stems.
I therefore prefer digging round plants, with the view of cultivating them, to digging the whole garden. I believe the object is better attained. That it is much cheaper is evident.
The annulus, or space to be dug round, beginning 9 inches from the stem, varies with the age of the plant. Up to two years one kodalee in width will do, and after that say 2 feet.
The draw-hoe of 8 inches wide is a better tool for the above than the kodalee, especially as it is work well suited to boys, and the “draw-hoe” is a lighter tool.
Till plants from seed at stake are a year old, and till seedlings from nurseries are the same age, calculating in the latter case from the transplanting, no kodalee or even draw-hoe should come near them. The soil round for 6 inches should be slightly opened once a month or so, but it should be done with the “koorpee.”
We have now discussed the cultivation of the plants. The above often done, say once a month, if possible, during the season, with judicious pruning and liberal manuring, constitutes high cultivation. Did weeds not grow there would be no need to do more, but weeds do grow, and must not be allowed. The richer the soil the more weeds, the more manure you apply the more weeds also.
Weeds choke the plant and diminish the yield. Weeds take from the soil, and from manure, when given, the strength you want for your constantly recurring flushes. If, therefore, you have a large crop of weeds you have a small yield of Tea.
How to stop this? There is one golden rule, “never let them get ahead of you.” This, it is true, argues ample labour; but unless you have ample labour for the area you cultivate, better let your money lie in the Bank and not grow Tea. Reduce your area until you can keep ahead of your weeds, for keep ahead you must if you wish for success.
The secret of keeping ahead of weeds is to destroy them when young, to do this again and again, as often as they come up, never allowing them to bear seed. The kodalee, an excellent digging tool, is not good for this: you want a lighter instrument, which can go over more ground and will not open the soil in the dry season to any depth. The Dutch hoe, the widest procurable in the blade, with a long lithe handle of 6 feet, is perfect for this.
With weeds at the height fit for a Dutch hoe, viz., 3 or 4 inches, and not numerous (which they will not be if you have “kept ahead”), a man will easily do 45 square nulls, id est, 720 square yards. He would not do more than 30 nulls with a kodalee.
The Dutch hoe must be well known. It is used for weeding drives and walks in England.
To conclude shortly, for “hoeing and weeding” I recommend as follows:—
Dig the whole garden thrice in the year, viz., spring, rains, and autumn. Bury all weeds as you dig in trenches between the lines.
In the intervals use the Dutch hoe as often as weeds appear.
Cultivate the plants by digging round them once a month if possible.
Do all this and you will find your garden is kept clean and well cultivated, at far less cost than you incurred for cultivation when it was choked with weeds for months together, while your yield will be at the same time much increased.
If you keep your garden thus clean, and do not allow the weeds to get ahead of you, the following table shows about the cost of each cultivation operation each time you do it:—
| Detail of work | Headman at 4½ annas | Men at 3½ annas | Women at 3 annas | Boys at 2½ annas | Total cost | Say in Rs. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digging the whole surface | ¾ | 12 | 5 | .. | 2 | 13 | 6 | 3 |
| Digging round plants | ½ | .. | 4 | 5 | 1 | 13 | 9 | 2 |
| Dutch hoeing or weeding | ½ | 4 | .. | .. | 1 | 14 | 3 | 2 |
If weeds get ahead the cost in each case will be nearly double the above.
The following table, which is as near the mark as any such estimate can be, will be found useful. It will also be made use of when calculating the cost of making a garden in Chapter XXIX., pages [164], [165], and [166].
Table showing the cost per annum of keeping up at its best 100 acres of Tea from the year it is planted until the sixth year inclusive.
| Year | Rate per acre per annum | Per 100 acres | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rs. | Rs. | ||
| First | 50 | 5,000 | The year the seed is sown at stake |
| Second | 60 | 6,000 | |
| Third | 70 | 7,000 | |
| Fourth | 80 | 8,000 | |
| Fifth | 90 | 9,000 | |
| Sixth | 100 | 10,000 | The plants should be large plants now, but they will not be at full bearing until the eighth year. |
The above rates in the case of a 300-acre garden making will include everything but buildings.
The rates are progressive, because the expenditure on the following increases, or should increase, yearly.
- 1. Manager’s pay (say every second year).
- 2. Assistant (first entertained, say third year).
- 3. Cost and wear of tools.
- 4. Cost of pruning.
- 5. Cost of cultivation.
- 6. Cost of manure.
- 7. General expenses.
No cost for Tea manufacture is included in the above, as this is estimated for separately. See table at pages [160], [161], and [162].
Keeping up high cultivation in every way and manuring liberally, a made garden in full bearing can be kept up to its highest producing powers (including the pay of the manager, establishment, and everything else) for Rs. 100 per acre per annum.
An acre of Tea may, I am aware, be kept up in a manner for Rs. 50 or so yearly, but the profit on such a plantation must be nil.
On the contrary, with the above expenditure per acre, on a good and favourably located garden, the profit will be very large. See table at page [172].
It is with Tea as with all other cultivation. It has been proved in England, and in all other countries where really high cultivation is followed out, that the higher the system followed the greater the profit.
[CHAPTER XIX.]
PRUNING.
It is stated elsewhere at length (page [102]) why I conceive pruning to be necessary for the Tea plant. Whether I am right or not, the fact is certain that without pruning very little leaf is produced.
Pruning must be done in the cold weather when the plant is hybernating, that is to say, when the sap is down. The sooner after the sap goes down it is done the better, for the sooner the tree will then flush in the spring.
There have been many theories about pruning Tea bushes, but none, I think, worth much practically, for the simple reason that it is impossible to prune 250,000 plants (the number in a 100-acre garden, at 2,500 to the acre)[25] with the care and system a gardener prunes a favourite fruit tree. The operation must be a coarse one, done by ignorant men, in large numbers at one time, who can in a measure be more or less taught, and the nearer they do right the better: still, really careful and scientific pruning can never be carried out on a Tea plantation.
The time to do it, too, is very limited. It cannot be begun before the trees have done flushing, say, at the earliest, middle of November, or continued, if early flushes and a large yield next season is looked for, beyond end of January, at the latest. Thus at the most two months and a half is all the time given.
I shall confine myself therefore to giving such directions as will be practically useful.
The best instrument is the common “pruning knife.” It cuts far cleaner than the “shears,” besides which the natives very seldom use the latter well. What is called in England a “hedge-bill” is useful to trim the outsides of the trees. If required it must be got from England, as I do not think it is procurable in Calcutta. Whatever instruments are used should be kept very sharp, and for this purpose, besides sharpening them every morning on the grinding stone, each pruner should be provided with a small pocket “hone.”
The theory, and it is correct, is in pruning, to cut near above a bud or branch, but not near enough to injure them. The cut should be quite clean and sloping upwards, so that nothing can lodge on it. This theory can be, and must be, strictly carried out in cutting the thick stems and branches, but it is quite impossible to do it with the slender branches or twigs of the tree.
Prune so as to cause lateral growth. A Tea plant should never be allowed to exceed, say, 4 feet in height, but the wider it is the better.
Prune off all lower branches tending downwards,[26] for the plant should, if possible, be clean underneath to a height of, say, 6 inches. This clean stem high class plants have naturally, not so the Chinese, or the Chinese cast of hybrid.
Plants should be more or less pruned out in the centre. In the following spring young wood is then formed in the heart of the tree, and it is only young wood and shoots that give leaf.
Plants, if above two years old (see [foot note] next page), exceeding 2½ feet in height at the end of the season (and all plants of any age will) may be pruned down to 20 inches, but the thick wood must be pruned down to varying heights several inches lower.
Small plants must naturally be more lightly pruned.
The best plan is, I think, to have two gangs:
The first to go ahead and cut out the thick wood (here judgment is necessary, so let them be the best men) to varying heights, from about 11 to 18 inches. The second gang to follow, each with a rod 20 inches long, to cut down all the light wood left to that level.
All plants, how low or how young soever they may be, must be pruned somewhat.[27] The lower their stature and the less their age the less pruning they require.
Of the two extremes, at least with the Tea plant, it is probably better to over than to under-prune. The treatment of the plants, with reference to the leaf to be taken in the spring, must be a good deal regulated by the way, or rather the extent, to which they have been pruned. On this point see page [103].
The cost of pruning depends on whether it is high or low, and whether the plants are large, middling, or small. The greatest cost is about Rs. 6, the least about Rs. 3 per acre.
Let all prunings be buried between the lines of plants, if possible, before the leaves have even withered. They make capital manure, but much of the virtue escapes if they are allowed to lie on the ground any time before they are buried.
[CHAPTER XX.]
WHITE ANTS, CRICKETS, AND BLIGHT.
These insects (for blight, too, is said to be an insect) are very destructive to the Tea plants. The cricket, however, only injures it when quite young, so we will consider that little pest first.
When Tea seed germinates, and the young seedling is 2 or 3 inches high, the cricket delights to cut the stem and carry, or try to carry, the two or three green leaves attached to the upper part into its hole. Even after seedlings are planted out, if the stems are slender, it cuts them. To the young seedlings, in nurseries or planted “at stake,” they often do great harm, killing in some places one-third or so.
It is much easier to prevent their ravages in nurseries than in this latter case, simply because the spot in which they must be sought and destroyed is circumscribed in the one, almost unlimited in the other.
Only one thing can be done. Employ boys (they soon get clever enough at the work) to hunt for their holes and dig them out. The holes are minute, but run down a long way. The only plan to follow them is to put in a thin pliable stick and remove the soil along it. On getting to the bottom of the stick, if it is not the bottom of the hole, you repeat the operation till you do get to the bottom, and there you will generally find the cricket.
Early in the morning they can be often found and caught outside their holes. The boys employed should be paid for them by the number they catch. They can be placed alive and brought to the factory in a hollow bamboo, and then killed in some merciful way.
When once a Tea plant has got a stem as thick as a thick pencil no cricket can hurt it.
They are much worse in some places than others, and in my experience I have found them worse on low lands.
The white ant is a much more formidable enemy than the cricket. They do (as all planters know) attack and destroy living bushes.[28] Whether they first attack some small dead portion or not is a question, but practically it does not signify the least, for if they do they manage to find such in about one-third of the trees in a garden. Beginning with the minute dead part they kill ahead of them as they go, and will, eventually, in many cases, if left alone, kill the largest trees.
They have a formidable enemy in the small black ant which exists in myriads, and kills the white ant whenever the latter is not protected by the earthen tunnels he constructs. In many places so great is the pest that, did this small black ant not exist, I believe no Tea Garden could stand.
From the close of the rains to the cold weather is the worst time for white ants, and the time the planter should guard particularly against their ravages. At that time if he examines his trees closely he will very likely find white ants on a quarter of the whole.
Digging round the plant where they are disturbs their runs and does much good. At the same time they should be brushed off any part of the tree they have attacked, and the tree should be well shaken.
All this, however, only does temporary good, for they often are found as thick as ever on the plant a week later.
Tobacco water is beneficial, but in wet weather it is soon washed off.
Kerosene oil is very efficient. A little is put round the stem, but it is expensive. The next best thing I know is the earth oil (petroleum) from Burmah, and this is cheap enough. It is thick, but used from a bottle it gets heated by the sun and is then quite limpid.
When white ants are found on a tree, a little with a small brush is put on the part they have attacked. They are also well shaken off, and a ring of oil is placed round the stem. My experience is that they will not attack that tree again for a long time. I was at first fearful that both it and the kerosene (the one, I believe, is only a manufacture of the other) would injure the trees, but both are safe. I strongly recommend others to try it, if they doubt, on a small spot only in the first instance.
Whatever is used, or whatever is done, white ants must not be left to work their will in the autumn. All the trees should then be examined once at least, and once again, if possible, the following spring.
Blight (a serious matter, I hear, in Cachar) I know but little of. I do not remember hearing anything about it when I was there, now some fourteen years ago. It is rare in the Chittagong district, but I have seen one or two trees attacked with it. Under its influence the young leaves get covered with brown spots and shrivel. It is most destructive to the yield of a garden.
From one or two experiments made I believe pruning off all the diseased branches, and scraping back the soil for a space of 2 feet round the stem, so as almost to lay the roots bare, will be found beneficial, but I do not speak with certainty.
All the Himalayan gardens are free from these three pests detailed, except that occasionally a few crickets have been seen.
[CHAPTER XXI.]
FILLING UP VACANCIES.
So difficult is this to do, that I have heard several planters declare they would attempt it no further, but, on the contrary, accept the vacancies in their gardens as an unavoidable evil.
That it is difficult I, too, can certify. Seedlings put into vacant spots year after year die, either in the rains they are planted or in the following spring. If, however, a few yards off a fresh piece of land is taken in and planted, the plants live. What is the reason? It can be nothing connected with the soil, for on adjacent spots they live and die.
It puzzled me a long time, but I believe I can now explain it. First, seedlings planted in vacant spots in a garden are never safe. When in the rains there are many weeds in the gardens, and it is being dug, the young seedlings are not observed, are either dug up, or injured so by the soil being dug close to them, that they shortly after die. This is, I believe, the principal cause of the failure, and it may be in a great measure, if not entirely, obviated by putting, first, a high stake on either side of the seedling, and taking care it remains there all through the rains. Secondly, as an additional precaution, and a very necessary one, before any such land is dug, send round boys with “koorpies” to clean away the jungle round the young plants, and at the same time open the soil slightly over their roots. Doing this “cultivates” them, and the plants being apparent, with the newly-stirred vacant spaces round them, are seen by the diggers, and are not likely to be damaged.
The second cause of failure I attribute to the old plants on either side of the young seedling, taking to themselves all the moisture there may be in the soil during any drought. The young seedling, whose tap-root at the time is not a long one (for it is in the spring of the year following the year of planting that this occurs), is dependent for life entirely on the small amount of moisture that exists in the soil, at that insignificant depth (say 8 inches). But on two sides of the said seedling’s tap-root, and in fact surrounding it, if the neighbouring Tea bushes are full grown, are the feeding rootlets of the big plants, sucking up all the moisture attainable (the necessities of all plants being then great), and leaving none for the poor young seedling, which consequently dies in the unequal contest.
This last evil (in climates where there is a deficiency of spring rains, and, in fact, more or less in all Tea localities, for in none is there as much rain as the plants require in the spring) there is no means of avoiding as long as seedlings, after transplanting, lose time, the effect of the transplanting, and thus fail to attain a good depth before the said dry season.
In fact, unless something is devised, I believe with many, trying to fill up vacancies is a loss of time and money.
The pits to plant in, advised at page [59], should of course be made in these vacant spots, for they help much towards the early descent of the tap-root. Still they can scarcely avail sufficiently to avoid the evil, if the plant is lying inert, as is generally the case for two or three months after planting; this delay being, moreover, in the rains, the best growing time.
If we can devise any means to avoid this delayed growth in the young seedling after it is transplanted, then the tap-root, before the drought of next spring, will have descended low enough to gather moisture for itself; that is, from lower depth than the greater number of the rootlets of the neighbouring big plants traverse. Could this be done, and if the means above detailed are resorted to, to prevent the young plants being injured when the gardens are dug, I see no reason why vacancies should not be successfully filled up. Then might be seen, what nowhere can be seen now, a Tea garden full of plants, that is, with no vacancies.
When it is considered that many gardens in all the districts have 30 or even 40 per cent. vacancies, none less than say 12 per cent., we may strike a fair average and roughly compute the vacancies in Tea gardens throughout the country at 20 per cent. In other words, the yield of Tea from India, with the same expenditure now incurred, would be one-fifth more were plantations full!
I have shown how the first evil can be obviated. I think the following will obviate the second.
Get earthen pots made 7½ inches diameter at the head and 7½ inches deep, like the commonest flower pots, only these should be nearly as wide at the bottom as at the top. A circular hole, 2 inches diameter, must be left in the bottom. Fill these with mould of the same nature as the soil of the garden where the vacancies exist. Put two or three seeds in each, all near the centre, and not more than half an inch below the surface. Place these pots, so filled, near water, and beneath artificial shade, as described in Chapter [XIII].
When the seeds have germinated, and the seedlings have two or three leaves, so that you can judge which is the best class of seedlings in each pot,[29] root out all but one, the best one. Now remove the shade gradually, water from time to time, and let the seedlings grow in the pots till the rains. Having, before the rains, made the holes at the vacancies as before described, after the first fall carry the pots to the garden and place each one near a hole.
Then plant as follows. Stand the pot on the brink of the hole, having previously with a hammer broken the bottom. Then crack the sides also gently, and deposit pot and all in the hole at the proper depth. If not enough broken, the sides of the pot may now be further detached, nay, even partially removed. Now fill up with earth to the top. Pieces of the pot left in the hole will do no harm; but it, the pot, must be sufficiently broken at the bottom to allow of the free descent of the tap-root, as also enough broken at the sides to allow of the free spreading of the rootlets.
If all this has been carefully done, so that the mould in the pot shall not have been shaken free of the rootlets, the seedlings will not even know it has been transplanted. Its growth will not be delayed for a day, instead of two or three months; and by the time the dry season comes, the tap-root will have descended far enough to imbibe moisture.
Another plan to effect the same object. Instead of pots, use coarse bamboo open wicker-work baskets. The split bamboo forming the said wicker-work about half an inch wide, the interstices about one quarter of an inch square. Let the diameter of the basket be the same at top and bottom, viz., 9 inches; the depth of the basket 10 inches.
When the seedlings in the nursery are large enough to enable you to select a good class of plant, transplant one into each basket previously filled with soil.[30] This being done when the plants are very young, and there being then no difficulty in taking them up with earth attached to their short tap-roots and rootlets, they will scarcely be thrown back at all. Being near water they can also be well tended. Put basket and all into the vacant hole at the beginning of the rains, and fill up as directed for the pots. The interstices will allow the feeding rootlets to pass through, besides the basket rots quickly under ground, so quickly it cannot impede the plant.
Seed is not sown at once in the baskets as in the pots, because the baskets would not last so long. Even putting the seedling in it during (say) February, the basket, with the occasional watering necessary, will, more or less, have rotted before it is put into the hole.
I have concluded a contract for ten thousand pots and five thousand baskets at half an anna each for both kinds. Two pice, to ensure the filling up of a vacancy, is not a large outlay.
Since writing the above I have had experience of both the above plans. The pot system is far the better, and answers very well.[31] I am now trying to improve this still further by making the pots a little larger, and placing a thin inner lining of tin inside each about half an inch from the sides. This space is first filled with sand, then the pot is filled with mould, and the tin pulled out. The same tin will therefore do for any number of pots. The seed is then put in.
I think by this plan if, when about to plant, the mould in the pot is well wetted, that it, with the seedling, can be turned out whole in one piece, and then put in the hole without the pot.
The same pots would then answer year after year, and the expense would be quite nominal.
If well done, the seedling in this, as in the former case, would not even know it had been transplanted.[32]
[CHAPTER XXII.]
FLUSHING AND NUMBER OF FLUSHES.
The Tea plant is said to flush when it throws out new shoots and leaves. The young leaves thus produced are the only ones fit to make Tea, and the yield of a plantation depends therefore entirely on the frequency and abundance of the flushes.
The way a flush is formed is fully explained under the head of “leaf picking” (pages [103], [104], and [107]).
The number of flushes in different plantations varies enormously, owing, first, to climate; secondly, to soil; thirdly, to the pruning adopted; fourthly, to the degree of cultivation given; and fifthly, though not least, to the presence or absence of manure.
How to secure all these advantages to their fullest extent is shown under those heads, and we have here only to consider what is a low, a medium, and a high rate of flushing per season.
In doing this we must speak of elevated (as Himalayan) gardens separately. The cool climate of heights makes it impossible for Tea to flush there as on the plains.
Speaking generally of elevated gardens (the higher they are the shorter the period, and vice versâ), seven months may be considered as the average producing period, viz., from beginning of April to end of October, and during that time twelve to fifteen flushes may be obtained, which, I believe, with high cultivation and liberal manuring, can be increased to eighteen.
In all localities, with favourable Tea climates, the plants flush both for a longer period and oftener. Speaking generally also, in this case, of the five best localities, viz., Assam, Cachar, Chittagong, the Terai below Darjeeling, and the Western Dooars (for even in these districts many advantages exist in one garden which do not in another), the following is an approximation to the flushing periods:—
Upper Assam.—February 25th to November 15th.
Lower Assam.—February 20th to November 20th.
Cachar.—February 20th to November 20th.
Chittagong.—March 10th to December 20th.
Terai below Darjeeling and Western Dooars.—March 1st to November 20th.
The opening period is a little late in Upper Assam on account of the cold, and closes a little earlier for the same reason.
Lower Assam and Cachar are much alike.
The opening in Chittagong is later than in the two just mentioned from want of early rains, but the season continues longer on account of the low latitude and consequent deferred cold weather.
Roughly, then, rather more than nine months may be assumed as the flushing period for these districts. The next point is how often do gardens in these localities flush in that time.
Not very many planters can say, certainly, how often their gardens have flushed in a season, because they are picked so irregularly, and no account of the different flushes kept. Enquiring on this point, when I was in Cachar some thirteen years ago, 9 to 24 were the minimum and maximum numbers given me at different gardens, showing how little was really known about it.
Such knowledge as I have on the subject is mostly derived from carefully kept records of my own garden in the Chittagong district. The plantation is all worked in sections, in the way described previously, and the dates given in the table below are the days each flush was finished (that is, the picking was finished) during the seasons 1869 and 1870; 1869 being carried up to the end of the season, 1870 up to the date I wrote the first edition of this Essay.
In the table it will be observed there is a great difference between the two years. The section for which the dates are given was planted from seed beds in the month of June, 1866. In 1869 it was therefore only three years old. This will partly account for the first flush occurring a month earlier in 1870, as it was then a year older; but fortunate early rains in 1870 had also much to do with it.
| Flushes | 1869 | Interval in days | 1870 | Interval in days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dates | Dates | |||
| 1 | March 22 | .. | February 22 | .. |
| 2 | May 6 | 44 | March 30 | 35 |
| 3 | „ 29 | 23 | April 13 | 10 |
| 4 | June 11 | 12 | „ 25 | 12 |
| 5 | „ 23 | 12 | May 5 | 9 |
| 6 | July 5 | 11 | „ 14 | 9 |
| 7 | „ 17 | 12 | „ 25 | 11 |
| 8 | „ 31 | 14 | June 4 | 9 |
| 9 | August10 | 9 | „ 12 | 8 |
| 10 | „ 21 | 11 | „ 22 | 10 |
| 11 | Sept.2 | 11 | July 1 | 8 |
| 12 | „ 12 | 10 | „ 8 | 7 |
| 13 | „ 25 | 13 | „ 16 | 8 |
| 14 | October9 | 13 | „ 25 | 9 |
| 15 | „ 22 | 13 | August 2 | 7 |
| 16 | Nov. 2 | 10 | „ 11 | 9 |
| 17 | „ 11 | 9 | „ 21 | 10 |
| 18 | „ 19 | 8 | „ 29 | 8 |
| 19 | Dec. 4 | 14 | Sept 7 | 8 |
| 20 | .. | .. | „ 18 | 11 |
| 21 | .. | .. | „ 27 | 9 |
| 22 | .. | .. | October 5 | 7 |
| Average intervals between Flushes. | Nearly 14 days. | .. | Very little over 10 days. | |
In 1869 there was no flush between March 22nd and May 6th, a period of 44 days; and in 1870, none between February 22nd and March 30th, a period of 35 days, a very long time in both cases, which is entirely accounted for by the dry weather prevailing at Chittagong in the spring (see under head of Climate), for in Cachar, Assam, and the Western Dooars two or three flushes would have occurred in that time.
There were 19 flushes in all in 1869, and 22 in 1870, up to the time I wrote, so there were probably in all 27 in the latter year.
In the table I give the intervals between each flush. It shows an average of 14 days in 1869 to 10 days in 1870; the difference is due to the increased age of the plants, and the liberal manuring given in the cold weather 1869-70.
Such a result as is shown for 1870, and the probable result of 27 flushes to the end of that season, could not be obtained without high cultivation and liberal manuring. The land in question had been manured every year since it was planted, but an extra dose was given in the cold weather of 1869-70. The ground was therefore very rich.
I think, therefore, 25 flushes in the season may be looked for on gardens in good Tea climates, when high cultivation and liberal manuring are resorted to. Where manure cannot be obtained, I think, even if in other respects the land is highly cultivated, more than 22 flushes will not be obtained. Where neither manure nor high cultivation is given, above 18 flushes will not be got.
It seems to be a general idea with planters (see diagram, page [104]) that when a flush is picked the succeeding flush, at an interval of say seven to ten days, consists of shoots from the axis of the leaf down to which the previous flush was picked. Thus in the diagram, supposing the shoot to be picked down to the black line above 2, the idea is the next flush will be a shoot springing from the same place, viz., the axis of leaf d. But it is not so. In the above case it will take a whole month, after the said shoot has been picked, before the new shoot from the base of the leaf d is ready to take, probably six weeks in Himalayan gardens.
’Tis true the flushes in favourable Tea climates follow at about seven to ten days from each other, but these are other shoots. The replacement of the actual shoot taken is a whole month in developing. I have carefully watched this, and am sure I am right.
With similar treatment, gardens in Cachar, Assam, and the Western Dooars would probably give two or three more flushes in the season than Chittagong, because there the spring rains are much more abundant; and I am very certain that, if the day ever comes that manure in large quantities is procurable in those districts and is applied, the yield on those gardens will be very large.[33]
The difference between very small and very large profits is represented by 18 and 25 flushes, so I strongly advise all planters to cultivate highly, and to get all the manure they possibly can. If even procured at a high figure, it (the manure) will pay hand over hand.
[CHAPTER XXIII.]
LEAF PICKING.
The first consideration is how to get the largest quantity of leaf without injuring the trees.
To a certain extent, it is true that the more a Tea bush is pruned and picked the more it will yield. It appears as if Nature were always trying to repair the violence done to the tree by giving new mouths or leaves to breathe with in place of those taken away. I may exemplify my meaning in another way. A Tea bush which has as many leaves on it as it requires will throw out tardily new shoots, and their number will be small. In other words, a plant which is not pruned, and from which the young leaves are not taken, grows gradually large and bushy, and then gives up flushing altogether. It has all the leaves it requires, and it has no necessity to throw out more.
If, however, Nature is too much tried, that is, if too much violence is done to her, she sulks and will exert herself no more. Up to this point, therefore, it is well to urge her. How can we know when we have reached it?
Only general rules can be laid down. Experience is the great desideratum on this and many other subjects connected with Tea.[34]
If the plant can always be kept in such a state that the foliage, without being very much so, is still less than Nature requires, I conceive the object will be attained.
The greatest violence is done to the plant when it is pruned, and reason would seem to argue that when this violence is repairing, that is, when the first shoots in the spring show themselves, and until new mouths (or leaves) in sufficient quantities exist, until then but little leaf should be picked.
Fortunately, moreover, while in the interests of the plant this is the best plan, it also is the mode by which the largest yield of leaf will be secured in the season. I go to show this.
The ordinary size of a good full-grown Tea plant, at the end of the season, is, say, 3½ or 4 feet high, and 5 feet diameter. It is pruned down, say, to a height of 2 feet, with a diameter of 3 feet. It is then little more than wooden stems and branches, and to anyone ignorant of the modus operandi in Tea gardens, it would appear as if a plantation so pruned has been ruined. The tree remains so during all its hybernating period, that is, during the time it is resting and the sap is down (this period is longer or shorter, as the climate is a warm or cold one, and it is always during the coldest season), but on the return of spring new shoots start out from the woody stems and branches in the following way:—At the axis or base of each leaf is a bud, the germ of future branches, these develop little by little, until a new shoot is formed of, say, five or six leaves, with a closed bud at top. Then if it be not picked the said bud at top hardens. At the axis or base of each of the said five or six leaves are other buds, and the next step is for one, two, or three of these to develop in the same way and form new shoots. The original shoot grows thicker and higher until it becomes a wooden branch or stem. The same process, in their turn, is repeated with the new shoots. A diagram (see next page) will make my meaning clear. We here have a shoot fully developed, of six leaves, counting the close leaf a at top as one, viz., the leaves a, b, c, d, e, f. The shoot has started and developed from what was originally a bud at K, at the axis or base of the leaf H. In the same way as formerly at K a bud existed, which has now formed the complete shoot or flush K a, so at the base of the leaves c, d, e, f, exist buds 1, 2, 3, 4, from which later new shoots would spring. These again would all have buds at the base of the leaves, destined to form further shoots, which again would be the parents of others, and so on to the end of the season, or until the tree is pruned.
It will readily be seen the increase is tremendous. It is only limited by the power of the soil to fling out new shoots, and the necessities of the plant, for, as I have explained, when as much foliage exists as the plant requires, but few new shoots are produced.
Now supposing the shoot in the diagram to be (with perhaps another not shown at L) the first on the branch I I in the spring (the said branch having been cut off or pruned at the upper I). It is then evident the said shoot is destined to be the parent and producer of all the very numerous branches and innumerable shoots into which the plant will extend in that direction. It is, in other words, the goose which will lay all the future eggs. If, eager to begin Tea making early, the planter nips it off, the extension on that part of the tree is thrown back many weeks. It may be taken off at 1, 2, or 3 (the back lines drawn show the proper way to pick leaf); the least damage will be done if it is taken off at 1, the most at 3.
The said shoot K a is the first effort of Nature to repair the violence done to the tree by pruning. It is the germ of many other branches and shoots, and it ought never to be taken. I have, I hope, made so much plain.
There is, however, another consideration. Any shoot, left to fully develop and harden, does not throw out new shoots from the existing buds 1, 2, 3, 4 so quickly as one checked in its upward growth by nipping off its head. For instance, supposing the shoot under consideration not to be the first of the season, but on the contrary to be a shoot when the plant has developed sufficiently to make picking safe, if taken off at 2, then the new growth from 2, 3, 4 will be much quicker than it would be had the whole shoot been left intact.
Our object then with first shoots should be to secure this advantage without destroying any buds, and this we can do by taking off simply the closed leaf at the top a. This must be done so as not to injure the bud at the base of the second leaf b (I have not numbered it, for there is no room in the diagram to do so), and we shall thus leave all the buds on the shoot intact.
Again here the interests of the plant, and profit to the planter, go hand in hand. The closed bud a in this case will be found very valuable. I go to show this.
The value of Tea is increased when it shows “Pekoe tips.” Only the leaves a b make these. They are covered with a fine silky whitish down, and, if manufactured in a particular way, make literally white or very pale yellow Tea,[35] which, mixed with ordinary black Tea, show as “Pekoe tips.” In ordinary leaf-picking these two leaves are taken with all the others, but unfortunately, when manufactured with them, they lose this white or pale yellow colour, and come out as black as all the other Tea.
As the season goes on, this is less and less the case, till towards the end nearly all the a b leaves show orange-coloured in the manufactured Tea. Still they are not white (the best colour) as they can be made when treated separately. No means have yet been devised to separate them before manufacture from the other leaf, and though sometimes picked separate, the plan has serious objections (see next page). In the case, however, of the first two or three flushes the welfare of the plants demands that no more should be taken, and though the quantity obtained will be small, it will, if carefully manufactured so as to make “white Pekoe tips,” add one or two annas a lb. to the value, when mixed with it, of one hundred times its own weight of black Tea!
More will be found under this head in the Tea manufacturing part. I now beg the question that the said downy leaves taken alone are very valuable.
In detailing the mode of picking I advocate, it would be tedious to go minutely into the reasons for each and everything. I have said enough to explain a good deal, but will add anything of importance. Of the latter are the following.
Tea can be made of the young succulent leaves only. The younger and more succulent the leaf the better Tea it makes. Thus a will make more valuable Tea than b, b than c, and so on; e is the lowest leaf to make Tea from, for though a very coarse kind can be made from f, it does not pay to take it. The stalk also makes good Tea, as far as it is really succulent, that is, down to the black line just above 2.
The leaves are named as follows from the Teas it is supposed they would make:—
- a.—Flowery Pekoe.
- b.—Orange Pekoe.
- c.—Pekoe.
- d.—Souchong, 1st.
- e.— „ 2nd.
- f.—Congou.
| Mixed together ... | a, b, c—Pekoe. |
| a, b, c, d, e—Pekoe Souchong. |
If there be another leaf below f, and it be taken, it is named, and would make Bohea.
Each of these leaves was at first a flowery Pekoe leaf (a), it then became b, then c, and so on.
That is to say, as the shoot developed, and a new flowery Pekoe leaf was born, each of the leaves below assumed the next lowest grade.
Could the leaves fit to make each kind of Tea it is proposed to make be picked and kept separate, and each be manufactured in the way most suitable to its age, and the Tea to be produced, the very best of every kind could easily be manufactured. But this cannot be; the price of Tea will not allow it, and the labour to do it would moreover fail. It has been attempted again and again to do it, partly to the extent of taking the Pekoe leaves a, b, c separate from the others (for the manufacture best suited to these upper leaves is not suited to the lower), but it has been as often abandoned, and I doubt if it is now practised anywhere. I am sure it will never pay to do it.
Picking leaf is a coarse operation. It is performed by 80 or 100 women and children together, and it is impossible to follow each, and see it is done the best way. They must be taught, checked, and punished if they do wrong, and then it will be done more or less right; but perfection is not attainable.
I advise the following plan in picking. Please refer to the diagram:—
If the garden has been severely pruned (as it ought to be) take only the bud a for two flushes; then for two more nip the stalk above 1, taking the upper part of leaf c, as shown (done with one motion of the fingers). But from the fifth flush take off the shoot at the line above 2, and by a separate motion of the fingers take off the part of leaf e where the black line is drawn. By this plan, when the rains begin, the trees will show a large picking surface, for plenty of buds will have been preserved for new growth. After the month of August you may pick lower if you like, as you cannot hurt the trees. For instance, you may nip the stalk and upper part of leaf e together, and separately the upper part of f.
The principle of picking is to leave the bud at the axis of the leaf down to which you pick intact.
Some planters pick all through the season at the line above 1, and take the d and perhaps the e leaf separately. I do not like the plan, for though it will make strong Teas, the yield will be small. Moreover, the plants will form so much foliage; they will not flush well; and again, they will grow so high that boys who pick will not readily reach the top.
Shortly, the principle I advocate is to prune severely, so that the plant in self-defence must throw out many new shoots; to be sparing and tender with these until the violence done to the tree is in a measure, but not quite, repaired; then, till September, to pick so much that the wants of the plant in foliage are never quite attained; and after September to take all you can get.
I believe this principle (for the detailed directions given may be varied, as for instance when trees have not been heavily pruned) will give the largest yield of leaf, and will certainly not injure the plants.
[CHAPTER XXIV.]
MANUFACTURE. MECHANICAL CONTRIVANCES.
To manufacture your leaf into good Tea is certainly one of the first conditions for success. It will avail little to have a good productive garden if you make inferior Tea. The difference of price between well and ill-manufactured Tea is great, say 4 as. or 6d. a lb., and this alone will, during a season, represent a large profit or none.
Fortunately for Tea enterprise, the more manufacture is studied the more does it appear that to make good Tea is a very simple process. The many operations or processes formerly considered necessary are now much reduced on all gardens. As there was then, that is formerly, so there is now, no one routine recognized by all, or even by the majority; still simplicity in manufacture is more and more making its way everywhere; and as the real fact is that to make the best Tea, but very few, and very simple, processes are necessary, it is only a question of time ere the fact shall be universally recognised and followed out.
For instance, panning the “roll”[36] was formerly universally practised. Some panned once, some twice, some even three times! But, to-day, pans are not used in most gardens at all!! Other processes, or rather in most cases the repetition of them, have been also either discarded or abridged. But a short statement of manufacture in old days, and the simplest mode of manufacture, will best illustrate my meaning:—
| One and a common old plan | One plan to-day by which the best Tea can be made | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Days | Number of operations | Detail | Days | Number of operations | Detail |
| 1st | 1 | Withering. | 1st | 1 | Withering. |
| 2nd | 2 | 1st Rolling. | 2nd | 2 | Rolling. |
| 3 | 2nd „ | 3 | Fermenting. | ||
| 4 | Fermenting. | 4 | Sunning (if sun). | ||
| 5 | 1st Panning. | 5 | Firing (Dholing). | ||
| 6 | 3rd Rolling. | ||||
| 7 | 2nd Panning. | ||||
| 8 | 4th Rolling | ||||
| 9 | Sunning. | ||||
| 10 | 1st Firing (Dholing). | ||||
| 11 | Cooling and crisping. | ||||
| 3rd | 12 | 2nd Firing (Dholing). | |||
| 3 | 12 | Total days and operations. | 2 | 5 | Total days and operations. |
So much for simplicity, and I affirm that no more than the five operations detailed are necessary. I shall try to show this further on.
In studying Tea manufacture I first tried, in order to get reliable data to go on, to ascertain the effect of each and every operation, and not only that, but the effect on the made Tea of each operation exaggerated and diminished. It would be tedious, and of no use, to set out in detail all the experiments I conducted, the results only I will try to give.
I began at the beginning. Why wither at all? I made Tea (following out in each case all the other processes detailed in the old plan) of 1st, totally unwithered leaves; 2nd, of leaves but little withered; 3rd, of leaves medium-withered; and 4th, of leaves over-withered.
I arrived at the following results:—Unwithered or under-withered leaves break in the rolling and give out large quantities of a light green coloured juice during the same process. The Tea is much broken and of a reddish grey colour. The liquor is very pale in colour, cloudy, weak, soft, and tasteless.
Over-withered leaf on the other hand takes a good twist in the rolling, gives out but little juice, which is of a thick kind, and of reddish yellow colour. The tea is well twisted, “chubby” in appearance, and blacker than ordinary. The liquor of an ordinary depth of colour, clear, with a mawkish taste.
The medium-withered leaves make good Tea, but I found the withering should be rather in excess of what is generally done to ensure strength. I will show later to what extent I think leaf should be withered.
The next point was rolling. I knew some planters rolled the leaf hard, others lightly. That is, some rolled with force till much juice was expressed, others with a light hand, allowing little or no juice to be pressed out. Which was the better?
After many experiments I arrived at the following:—Hard rolling gives darker coloured and stronger liquor than light rolling. Hard rolling destroys Pekoe tips,[37] inasmuch as the juice expressed stains them black.
Light rolled Tea has therefore many more Pekoe tips than hard rolled.
Hard rolled Tea is somewhat blacker than light rolled.
In all, therefore, but the point of Pekoe tips hard rolling is better.
The next question was, what is the advantage of repeated rolling? I rolled twice, panning once between, vide old plan, and found the Tea as well made and as strong as that rolled three or four times. I then decided to roll no more than twice. The second time was, I then thought, necessary, as I found the leaf of the roll opened in the pan, and a second rolling was requisite to twist it again.
But what did panning do? I heard pans had been discontinued in some gardens. In what way was panning an advantage? I made Tea, fermenting it between the two rollings, but not panning it, and it was equally good. I tried again and again, but never could detect that panning caused any difference to either the Tea, the liquor, or the out-turn.[38] In short, though I never found panning did any harm, I equally found it never did any good. Its use is, in fact, simply barren of all results.
I therefore dispensed with it. Having done so, why roll the second time at all? I experimented, and found the second rolling as barren of results as the panning.
I had now got rid of operations 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 in the old plan. The next was No. 9—“sunning.” I made Tea with and without it, and found as follows:—
Sunning between the fermenting and firing processes has no effect whatever on the liquor or the out-turn, but it makes the Tea rather blacker, and as it drives off much of the moisture in the roll, the firing process after it is shorter and does not consume so much charcoal. What little effect therefore it has is good (for if not continued too long, it does not make the Tea too black) and it is economical. I therefore decided on retaining it.[39]
Next came the operations 10, 11, and 12, viz., “first firing, cooling and crisping, and second firing.” Where these are done (and they are done in some gardens now) the usual thing is to half-fire the roll the same afternoon and evening it is made, then allow it to “cool and crisp” all night, and finish the firing next day. I tried this plan, and also the plan I have now adopted, of doing the whole firing at one time the same evening. I tried the experiment again and again, and always found the Tea, the liquor, and the out-turn were the same in both cases. In short, that the three operations did no more and no less than the one. As the three entail extra labour and extra expense in charcoal I abandoned them.
I thus reduced the twelve operations detailed to five, and naturally by so doing much decreased the cost of manufacturing Tea. I in no way lay claim to having devised this simplicity myself. Part had been done by others before I even turned my attention to it, and I have done no more than help with many to make the manufacture of Tea a simple process.
I was now convinced that (though I had still much to learn regarding the said five processes) success was comprised therein, and that to multiply them could not avail.
The next consideration is—What are the qualities desired in Tea to enable it to command a good price at the public auctions either in Calcutta or London? The brokers in these cases judge of the Tea first, value it, and give their report and valuation to intending purchasers and sellers. From what appearances and qualities do they judge?
They judge from three things, first, the Tea; secondly, the liquor; thirdly, the out-turn.
The Tea.—The colour should be black, but not a dead black, rather a greyish black with a gloss on it. No red leaf should be mixed with it, it should be all one colour. The Tea should be regular: that is, each leaf should be about the same length, and should have a uniform close twist, in all but “broken Teas.” (These latter are called “broken” because the leaf is more or less open and broken.) The Tea should also be regular of its kind, that is, if Pekoe all Pekoe, if Congou all Congou; for any stray leaves in a Tea of another kind, if even of a better kind or class, will reduce its value. In the higher class of Teas, viz., Pekoes and broken Pekoes, the more Pekoe tips that are present the higher, in consequence, will its price be.
The Liquor.—In taste this should be strong, rasping, and pungent, with, in the case of Pekoes, a “Pekoe flavour.” There are other words used in the trade to particularise certain tastes, but the words themselves would teach nothing. Tea tasting cannot be learnt from books. If the liquor is well flavoured, as a rule, the darker it is in the cup the better. But to judge of Teas by the colour of the liquor alone is impossible, for some high-class Teas have naturally a very pale liquor.
The Out-turn.—A good out-turn is generally indicative of a good Tea. It should be all, or nearly all, one colour. No black (burnt) leaves should appear in it. A greenish tinge in some of the leaves is not objectionable, and is generally indicative of pungent liquor, but the prevailing colour should be that of a bright new penny.
Every planter should be more or less of a Tea-taster, and should taste his Teas daily. After a time (particularly if he gets other Teas to taste against his own) he will learn to recognise, at all events, a good as against a bad Tea, a strong as against a weak Tea, &c. No Tea should be put away with the rest until it has been tasted. It may be burnt or have other defects, not apparent till infused, and one day’s bad Tea will bring down considerably the value of a whole bin of good Tea.
The fancy, amongst brokers and dealers, for “Pekoe tips,” in all Pekoe Teas, constitutes the one great difficulty in Tea manufacture. If the leaves which give “Pekoe tips” (see page [106]) are separated from the other leaves, and manufactured separately and differently, that is rolled very little and very lightly, not allowed to ferment at all, but sunned at once after rolling, and, if there is sun enough, finished in the sun, otherwise by a very light and gradual heat—best placed above the drawers in the Dhole-house; if this is done, I say, these will come out perfect “Pekoe tips” of a white colour, which is the best.
If not separated from the other leaf, but manufactured with it, the sap from the other leaves, expressed in the rolling, stains these said leaves, which are covered with a fine white silk down, and makes them black like all the rest of the Tea; the whole of which is then valued lower because there are no “Pekoe tips.”
Now, in the latter case the “Pekoe tips” are there all the same, only they don’t show. The Tea is really just as good, in fact a shade better, with black than with white or orange tips,[40] but it does not sell so well, and as we cannot argue the brokers or dealers into a rational view of the case, we must humour their fancy (they are virtually our masters) and give them the Pekoe tips—if we can.
How are we to do it? The plan of picking these small leaves separately, in order to manufacture them separately, does not answer; it is too expensive; it diminishes the yield of a garden, and labour for it fails. All this is shown at pages [107] and [130]. Is there any other way?
It may be done during some periods of the season when there is not leaf enough on the garden to employ all the leaf-pickers, by setting a number of them to separate the said two leaves from the others after the whole leaf is brought to the factory. This is expensive, but it pays when there is labour to do it, for then the Teas can be made very showy and rich with white Pekoe tips.
An ingenious planter, a Mr. McMeekin, in Cachar, invented a rolling table with the object of separating the said leaves. It is constructed of battens, and while rolling the leaf on it, many of the small leaves fall through. The said table is now well known in Cachar, and is in use in several gardens. I have tried it and find that it in a great measure answers its object, but the objection to it is that the leaf must be rolled lightly, and lightly-rolled leaf, as observed, does not make strong Tea.
The Pekoe tips may be, in a great measure, preserved by rolling all the leaf lightly on a common table. But then again the Tea is weak, and the plan will not give so many Pekoe tips as McMeekin’s table.
In short, in the present state of our knowledge, except by the hand process (a tedious and expensive one for separating the leaf), strong Teas and Pekoe tips are incompatible.
The difficulty is just where it was, and will so remain until dealers give up asking for Pekoe tips (not a likely thing), or till a machine is invented to separate quickly and cheaply the two said small leaves from the others after they have been all picked together. That such a machine is possible I am certain, and the inventor would confer a boon on the Tea interest far beyond the inventor of any other machine, for all the other processes can be done by hand without much expense, this cannot.
I may here notice such machines and contrivances as exist for cheapening the manufacture of Tea, or rather such as I know of.
Rolling-machines have for their object the doing away with hand labour entirely for rolling the leaf. Kinmond’s rolling-machine is first on the list, for it is the best yet invented.[41]
Kinmond’s consists of two circular wooden discs, the upper one moving on the lower, which is stationary, with an eccentric motion. The adjacent faces of the said discs are made rough by steps in the wood, cut in lines diverging from the centre to the circumference, and over these rough faces is nailed coarse canvas.
The leaf is placed between the discs and rolled by the motion described. The lower disc is arranged by means of weights running over pulleys, so that it shall press against the upper with any force desired.
The motive power, as designed by the inventor, is either manual, animal, or steam.
Mr. Kinmond showed me this machine, just after he had invented it, at the Assam Company’s Plantations in Assam, and I have since seen it working by manual and steam power. With the former it is quite useless, for by no arrangement can sufficient or regular force enough be applied. With the latter it does very well, and on a large garden which will render the outlay for the machine and engine justifiable (the former is, for such a simple machine, very expensive), it may probably eventually prove an economy.
Not having seen it under animal power, I can give no positive opinion as to how it would answer, but I see no reason why it should not do well. I believe wind or water power might, on suitable sites, be easily applied to it, and they would certainly be the cheapest of any.
Another rolling-machine was invented by a Mr. Gibbon, and a good deal used in Cachar. I have never seen it.
Kinmond’s is, I believe, the best rolling-machine yet invented (though it is fair to state I know no other except by report), but I do not believe in any Tea rolling-machine superseding entirely the necessity of hand-rolling.[42] A rolling-machine may be, and is, very useful to roll the leaves partly, that is, to break the cells, and bring the leaf into that soft mashy state that very little hand labour will finish it. No rolling-machine yet invented can, I think, do more than this, and it is, I think, doubtful if any will ever be invented that will do more. Machines do not give the nice final twist which is obtained by the hand. I was told lately that most of the gardens in Cachar that had machines had dropped them and gone back to hand-rolling. I cannot help thinking this is a mistake. They should use both, the hand-rolling for the final part alone. Very few rolling-men would then suffice, with the aid of the machine, to manufacture a large quantity of leaf.
I only know of one other Tea rolling-machine, which is Nelson’s. It does not profess to do more than prepare the green leaf for rolling, which, as stated above, is, I think, all that any machine will ever do. I have never seen it working, but it appears simple, being nothing more than a mangle. The leaf is placed in bags, and then compressed under rollers attached to a box, weighted with stones. The prospectus states, it will prepare 80 lbs. green leaf in fifteen minutes, and that one man can then finish as much of such prepared leaf in three minutes as would occupy him twelve minutes if the same had not been prepared. I see nothing unlikely in this. The machine, though inferior to Kinmond’s in its arrangement, ought to be cheap enough to bring it within the reach of all.[43]
I have already spoken of one of McMeekin’s inventions. His chest-of-drawers for firing Tea is, I think, superior to his batten table. It is now so well known, and in such general use, that I shall describe it very shortly. It is nothing more than a low chest-of-drawers, or trays fitted in a frame one above the other, the bottom of each tray being fine iron wire, so that the heat of the charcoal, in the masonry receptacle over which it is placed, ascends through all the drawers and thus dries or fires a large quantity of “roll” at the same time. By the old plan, a single wicker sieve was inserted inside a bamboo frame called a “dhole,” which was placed over a charcoal fire made in a hole in the ground. On the sieve the roll was placed, and all the heat, after passing through this one sieve, was wasted. Mr. McMeekin’s idea was to economise this heat by passing it through several drawers.
Most planters use these drawers, and there is no doubt in the space saved, and the economy of heat: it is a great step in advance over the old barbarous method, where not only was the heat wasted after passing through one sieve, but a great deal was lost through the basket work of the “dhole” itself.
Still I do not advocate four, still less five drawers one above the other. I think the steam ascending from the lower drawers must, more or less, injure the roll in the upper ones. I confine myself to two, and even then in the top tray leave a small circular space vacant by which the steam from the lower drawer can escape. I utilize the heat that escapes, partially, by placing “dhallas” in tiers above, with roll in them. These are supported by iron rods let into the wall, and are useful not only for partly drying the roll, but also for withering leaf when there is no sun.
Some planters have proposed to do away with charcoal altogether under McMeekin’s drawers, supplying its place by hot air. The first point in considering this invention is the question whether the fumes of charcoal, as some assert, are necessary to make good Tea. If they are not necessary (that is, if they produce no chemical effect on the Tea, and therefore heat from wood devoid of smoke would do as well) there can be no doubt such heat would be cheaper, and more under command, by this or some other plan. Are then the fumes of charcoal necessary?
I do not know that anyone can answer the query. I certainly cannot, for I have never made Tea with any other agent than charcoal, and I have never met with more than one planter who had. He said the Tea was not good. Still it would, I think, require very careful and prolonged experiments to establish the fact either way. Speaking theoretically, as it appears, the only effect of charcoal is to drive all the moisture out of the roll and thus make it Tea, I cannot but believe other heat would do as well. It is, however, a question that only experience can solve.[44]
I have now (four years since the above was written, and at the time I am preparing the second edition of this essay) been for some time employed on experiments with a view to settle the above question. Whether I shall be able to devise a simple apparatus to effect the manufacture of Tea without charcoal is doubtful, but I can, I think, now safely affirm that the fumes of charcoal are not necessary to make Tea. On this point I am myself quite satisfied. The advantages of making Tea with any fuel (wood, coal, or anything else) would be numerous:—
1.—Economy.
2.—Absence of charcoal fumes.
3.—Less chance of fire in Tea Houses.
4.—Probably reduced temperature in Factories.
5.—Great saving of labour.
6.—Saving of fuel—for it takes much wood to make a given weight of charcoal.
In addition to all the above, the wholesale destruction of forests that now takes place in all Tea Districts, in order to supply the charcoal for Tea, would be much lessened.[45]
I have seen a machine advertised for packing Tea, that is to say, for so pressing it down that a large quantity shall go into a chest. I have never seen the machine, and so cannot say how it works, but I do not think such a machine at all necessary. By the mode of packing, described at page [150], as much Tea as a chest will hold with safety can be put into it. If more were forced in, the chest would probably come to pieces in transit.
I see a sifting machine is now being advertised—“Jackson’s sifting machine.” I have seen drawings of it, but not the machine itself. In the one respect, that it is much larger than anything used hitherto, it is more likely to succeed.
There is a machine for sifting and fanning Tea at one and the same time. I know not who invented it. It is a simple winnowing machine with sieves placed in front of the fan. By means of a rod and crank attached to the axle of the revolving fan the sieves are made to shake from side to side when the fanners are turned. The Tea is put into the upper sieve, a coarse one, and passing successively through finer ones, is thus sorted into different Teas. The open leaf at the same time is blown out by the fan.
I purchased one, but I do not find it does the work well. Sifting Tea is a nice process, and I did not find it sorted the Teas with any nicety. I have taken out the sieves, and use it now only for fanning, which it does very well, though no better than an apparatus which could be constructed at one-third the cost.
I do not believe in any present or future machine for sifting Tea, inasmuch as it is an operation which, to be well done, has to be continually varied. More will be said on this head further on.
I have now detailed shortly all the Tea machines or contrivances I know, or have heard of, and I think there is plenty of room yet for inventors.[46] The machine, as before observed, most to be desired is one to separate the small Pekoe leaves from the others, ere the rolling of the leaf is commenced. If such a machine existed, it would much increase the value of all Indian Teas, and if the Agricultural and Horticultural Society are inclined to offer a prize for any machine, it should be this.
At the point where the separation should take place, the stalk is much tenderer than elsewhere, and this led me to think a blow or concussion on the mass of green leaf might effect the object. I attached a bow by the centre to an immovable board, placed at right angles to the plane of a table (like the back of a dressing table), and then, causing leaf to drop from above, subjected it to sharp strokes from the string of the bow. It effected the object partially, for many Pekoe ends were detached, but it bruised and cut the other leaf too much also. I believe a revolving barrel, with blunt but thin narrow iron plates inside, which would strike the leaf placed within, as the barrel was turned, would perhaps answer. I give the above idea for what it is worth, for any inventive genius to improve on.
As it is impossible, as far as I can see, to construct any machine which should cut the stalk only in the right place, ergo, I believe some arrangement which would take advantage of the fact, that the stalk is tenderer there than elsewhere, is the only one that could answer.
Now to return to the manufacture of Tea. I will consider each of the five operations detailed, which I believe are all that are necessary to make good Tea, separately.
Withering.—There are several tests to show when leaf is withered. Fresh leaf squeezed in the hand, held near the ear, crackles, but no sound should be heard from withered leaf. Again, fresh leaf, pressed together in the palm of the hand, when released, springs back to nearly its original bulk, but withered leaf, in like circumstances, retains the shape into which it has been pressed. The stalk of withered leaf will bend double without breaking, but fresh leaf stalks, if bent very little, break. Practice, though, soon gives a test superior to all these, viz., the feel of the leaf. Properly withered leaves are like old rags to lay hold of, and no further test, after a time, than the feel of the leaf is necessary.
The agents for withering leaf are sun, light, heat, and air. Of these the most powerful is sun, for it combines all the others with it. Light is a powerful agent, for if some leaf be placed in a partially dark room, and some in a well-lighted verandah, the latter will wither in half the time the former will take. If light and moderate ventilation be present, heat is a rapid accessory to rapid withering.
There is often great difficulty in withering leaf in the rain. It can be withered in Tea pans, but “the out-turn” is then more or less injured, for after infusion the out-turn comes out green instead of the proper “new penny” colour. Withering in dholes is also objectionable for the same reason, though if the heat is moderate the green effect is less. It is further a long and tedious operation.
Space and light are the great wants for withering leaf in wet weather. Bamboo mechans, tier above tier, should be constructed in every available space. Large frames, covered with wire mesh, may also be made (by means of weights running over pulleys) to run up to the roof of any Tea building. The leaf withers well in such frames, for heat ascends, and much heat is given out by dholes.
It signifies not though where leaf is spread as long as there is space and light. Houses made of iron and glass would be far the best for withering leaf, for, if well ventilated, all the necessary agents for withering, detailed in the last page, would be present. I do not doubt the day will come when these will be used, for properly withered leaf is a necessity for good Tea.[47]
In dry weather, when leaf comes in from the garden, spread it thinly anywhere and turn it once early in the night. It will generally be withered and ready to roll next morning. If not quite ready, then put it outside in the sun. Half an hour’s sunning will probably finish it.
In wet weather, if there is any sun when it comes in, or any time that day, take advantage of the sun to wither the leaf partly, so much that, with the after withering all night under cover, it will be ready next morning. If not ready next morning, put it out in the sun, if there is any, till it is ready.
In very wet and cloudy weather, when there is no sun and continual rain, so that the leaf cannot be put outside (for remember that outside, when there is no sun, the light alone will wither it), artificial withering of some kind must be resorted to. I have mentioned the only means I know of for doing this.
As properly withered leaf is an important point in making good Tea, it is well worth while to keep one or two men, according to the quantity of leaf, for that work alone. They soon learn the best way to do it, and if made answerable the leaf is properly ready for the rollers, the object is generally attained. In this and every thing else in Tea manufacture, give different men different departments, and make them answerable. Much trouble to the manager, who should supervise all, and much loss to the proprietor from bad Tea, will then be avoided.
Rolling.—This is a simple operation enough when the men have got the knack of it. Some planters advocate a circular motion of the hands when rolling, under the impression it gives the leaf a better twist. Some like rolling it forward, but bringing it back without letting it turn during the backward motion. I believe in neither way, for it appears to me to be rolled no better, or no worse, by these plans than by the ordinary and quicker mode of simply rolling it any way. The forward and backward motion is the simplest and quickest, and the way all rollers adopt, who are given a certain quantity of leaf (say 30 lbs. a fair amount) to roll for their day’s work. In this ordinary rolling the ball in the hand, ’tis true, does not turn much in the backward motion, for ’tis more or less pulled back, but whether it turns or not does not, I believe, signify the least.
Rolling in hot pans was formerly extensively practised. It is not much done now. I have tried the plan, but found no advantage in it.
Rolling on coarse mats, placed on the floor, might be seen also. When I visited the Assam Company’s gardens near Nazerah, in Assam, I saw it done there. It is a great mistake. The coarse bamboo mat breaks the leaf sadly, and much of the sap or juice from the leaf, which adds much to the strength of the Tea, runs through the coarse mat, and is lost.
One and the principal reason why Indian Tea is stronger than Chinese is that in India the sap or juice is generally retained, while in China it is, strange to say, purposely wasted!
A strong immovable smooth table, with the planks of which it is formed well joined together, so that no apertures exist for the juice of the leaf to run through, is the best thing to roll on. If covered with a fine seetul pattie mat, nailed down over the edges of the table, a still greater security is given against the loss of any sap, and I believe the slightly rough surface of the mat enables the leaf to roll better. An edging of wood one inch above the surface of the table should be screwed on to the edges over the mat, if there is one, to prevent leaf falling off.
The leaf is rolled by a line of men on each side of such a table (4½ feet is a good width for it) passing up from man to man, from the bottom of the table to the top. The passage of each handful of roll from man to man is regulated by the man at the end, who, when the roll in his hand is ready (that is, rolled enough), forms it into a tight compressed ball (a truncated shape is the most convenient) and puts it away on an adjacent stand. When he does this, the roll each man has passes up one step.
The roll is ready to make up into a ball, when it is in a soft mashy state, and when in the act of rolling it gives out juice freely. None of this juice must be lost, it must be mopped up into the roll, again and again in its passage up the table, and finally into the ball, when made up.
There will be some coarse leaves in the roll which cannot be twisted. These, if left, would give much red leaf in the Tea. They should be picked out by, say, the third or fourth man from the head of the table, for it is only when the leaf has been partly rolled that they show. The man who picks out the coarse leaf should not roll at all. He should spread the roll, and pick out as much as he can, between the time of receiving and passing it on. In no case allow roll to accumulate by him, for if so kept it hardens and dries, and gives extra work to the last rollers to bring it into the mashy state again. Besides which I rather think, any such lengthened stoppage in the rolling helps to destroy Pekoe ends, and is certainly injurious to the perfect after-fermentation, inasmuch as it (the fermentation) partly takes place then.
This finishes the rolling process. Each man as stated can do 30 lbs., but there is further work for him to be now described.
Fermenting.—The balls accumulated are allowed to stand until fermented. I look on this being done to the right extent and no more, as perhaps the most important point in the whole manufacture.
Some planters collect the roll after rolling in a basket, and there let it ferment, instead of making it up into balls for that purpose as described. I much prefer the ball system for the following reasons:—When a quantity is put into a basket together and allowed to ferment a certain time, what was put in first is naturally more fermented than what was put in last, the former probably over, the latter under-done. The balls, on the contrary, can be each taken in succession in the order they were laid on the table, and thus each receive the same amount of fermentation. I think further the twist in the leaf is better preserved by the ball plan, and also that a large quantity in a basket is apt to ferment too much in the centre.
It is impossible to describe, so that practical use shall be made of it, when the balls are sufficiently fermented. The outside of the ball is no good criterion. It varies much in colour, affected by the extent the leaf was withered.[48] You must judge by the inside.
Perhaps as good a rule as any is that half the twisted leaves inside shall be a rusty red, half of them green. Practice alone, however, will enable you to pronounce when the balls are properly fermented. There is no time to be fixed for it. The process is quicker in warm than cool weather.
The fermentation should be stopped in each ball just at the right time. Great exactitude in this is all-important, and therefore, as I say, the balls should be taken in rotation as they were laid down.
The fermentation is stopped by breaking up the ball. The roll is spread out very thin, and at the same time any remaining coarse leaves are picked out.
This concludes the fermenting process.
Sunning.—The roll is then without any delay put out in the sun, spread very thin on dhallas or mats. When it has become blackish in colour it is collected and re-spread, so that the whole of it shall be affected by the sun. With bright sunshine, an hour or even less suns it sufficiently. It is then at once placed in the dholes, which must be all ready to receive it.
If the weather is wet, it must, directly the balls are broken up, and the coarse leaf is picked out, be sent to the dholes. This is the only plan in wet weather, but the best Tea is made in fine weather.
Firing or Dholing.—In the case of wet weather, unless you have very many dholes, fresh roll will come in long before the first is finished. The only plan in this case is to half do it. Half-fired the roll does not injure with any delay, but even half an hour’s delay, between breaking up the balls and commencing to drive off the moisture, is hurtful.
In any but wet weather necessitating it the roll can be fired at one time, that is, not removed from the drawer until it has become Tea.
The roll in each drawer must be shaken up and re-spread two or three times, in the process of firing. The drawer must be taken off the fire to do this, or some of the roll would fall through into the fire, and the smoke thus engendered would be hurtful. If the lowest drawer is made to slide in and out a framework covered with zinc should be made to run into a groove below it, and this zinc protector should be always run in before the lower drawer is moved. This is part of Mr. McMeekin’s invention, and is very necessary to prevent roll from the lowest drawer falling into the fire when it (the lower drawer) is moved.
The roll remains in the drawers, subject to the heat of the charcoal below, until it is quite dry and crisp. Any piece then taken between the fingers should break with the slightest attempt to bend it.
The manufacture is now completed. The roll has become Tea.
All the above operations should be carefully conducted, but I believe the secret of good Tea consists simply in, first, stopping the fermentation at the right moment; and, secondly, in commencing to drive off the moisture immediately after.
I do not say that the manufacture here detailed may not be improved upon later, but I do say that in the results of economy, strong liquor, and well twisted leaf, its results are very satisfactory, and not surpassed by any other mode at present in vogue. I do not pretend that it will give Teas rich in Pekoe tips. To attain this, light rolling as shown must be resorted to, but just as far as Pekoe tips are procured so far must strength be sacrificed. Until the small Pekoe leaves can be detached and manufactured separately, this must always be the case.
From the Tea made as described by sifting and sorting, all the ordinary black Teas of commerce, as detailed at page [137], can be produced, excepting “Flowery Pekoe.”
To make Flowery Pekoe the closed bud and the one open leaf of the shoot are alone taken, and these are manufactured alone. It does not, as a rule, pay to make this Tea at all, though it fetches a long price. It does not pay for the following reasons:—
1. After the head of the flush is taken the pickers that follow do not readily recognise the remainder of the shoot, and consequently omit to pick many of them. A heavy loss in the yield is thus entailed.
2. The after Teas, made without these small leaves, are very inferior, as they are much weaker, and totally devoid of Pekoe tips.
3. The labour, and ergo the expense of picking the flush, is double.
The manufacture of Flowery Pekoe is simple enough. When the two leaves from each shoot of which it is made are collected they are exposed to the sun, spread out very thin, until they have well shrivelled. They are then placed over small and slow charcoal fires, and so roasted very slowly. If the above is well done, the Pekoe tips (and there is little else) come out a whitish orange colour. The whiter they are the better. If the leaf is rolled very lightly by the hand before sunning, the liquor will be darker and stronger, but the colour of the tips will not be so good.
Flowery Pekoe is quite a fancy Tea, and for the reasons given above it can never pay to make it.
Green Tea.
The pans for this should be 2ft. 9in. diameter and 11in. in depth. They should be thick pans, which will not, therefore, cool quickly. Many are required for this manufacture, four or five for every maund of Tea to be made daily. They should be set up in a sloping position, and the arrangement of the fireplaces such that the wood to burn under them can be put in through apertures leading into the verandah. One chimney will do for every two pans, and it should be built high so as to give a good draught, for hot fires are necessary.
Flat-bladed sticks are used to stir both the leaf and the Tea in the pans, for the hand cannot bear the heat.
The men when working the Tea in the pans should have high stools to sit on, for it is a nine hours’ job.
The bags in which “the roll” is placed at night should be made of No. 3 canvas, 2 feet long and 1 foot broad.
I will now detail the manufacture.
To make Green Tea the leaf must be brought in twice in the day. What comes in at one o’clock is partly made the same day. The evening leaf is left till the following morning, laying it thick (say 6 inches), so that it will not wither. But if the one o’clock or the evening leaf comes in wet, they must both be dried, the former before being put into the pans, the latter before being laid out for the night.
The manufacture thus begins twice daily, viz., morning and one o’clock, but “the roll” of both these is treated together up to the time “the roll” is ready to place in the bags.
The leaf having no moisture in it is placed first in hot pans, at a temperature of say 160°, and stirred with sticks for about seven minutes, until it becomes moist and sticky. It is then too hot to hold in the hand.
It is then rolled for two or three minutes on a table until it gets a little twisted.
Then lay it out on dhallas in the sun (say 2 inches thick) for about three hours, and roll it thrice during that time, always in the sun. It is ready to roll each time when “the roll” has become blackish on the surface. It is not rolled more than three minutes each time, and then spread out as before. If you put on a proper number of men to do this they do each dhalla in succession, and when they have done the last, “the roll” in the first dhalla will be blackish on the surface again, and ready to roll again.
When three rollings are done, the roll should have a good twist on it.
It is then placed in the pans, at the same heat as before, and worked with sticks as before for two or three minutes, until it becomes too hot to hold.
It is then stuffed, as tight as it can be stuffed, into the bags described above, putting as much into each bag as you can possibly get it to hold. The mouth is then tied up and the bag beaten with a flat heavy stick to consolidate the mass inside, and so it is left for the night.
Next morning it is taken out of the bags, and worked with the flat sticks as before in the pans for nine hours without intermission. The temperature 160° at first down to 120° at the last.
During and owing to this last process the green colour is produced.[49] It is worked quicker and quicker as the hours pass.
The following are the kinds of Tea into which it is best sorted:—
| 1. Ends | The relative value is in the order in which they are numbered. |
| 2. Young Hyson | |
| 3. Hyson | |
| 4. Gunpowder | |
| 5. Dust | |
| 6. Imperial |
The sorting of Green Tea is a nicer operation, and takes twice as long as sorting Black Tea.
If there are pans enough, and the work is well arranged, there should be no night-work with Green Tea, for all should be over by 5 P.M.; whereas with Black Tea night-work is generally a necessity.
The price obtained for Green Tea is more dependent on its appearance than in the case of Black.
It is not easy to make Black and Green Tea in the same factory.
Green Tea, if well made, pays much better than Black Tea; and, as before observed, I think all gardens with Chinese plants should adopt the manufacture.[50] When once the building is fitted for it, and the routine established, the Green Tea manufacture is always preferred by those who have tried both.
The Hybrid plant makes the best Black, the Chinese the best Green Tea.
[CHAPTER XXV.]
SIFTING AND SORTING.
Sifting is a very important item in the manufacture of Tea. Careful and judicious sifting, as contrasted with the reverse, may make a difference of two or three annas a lb. in the sale of Teas.
I was shown some Tea quite lately which, as regards “liquor,” was valued by the brokers at Re. 1-3 per lb., but the “Tea” at only 14 annas! This was entirely owing to faulty sifting and sorting.
I don’t believe in any machine for Tea sifting, simply because it is not a regular process.[51] For example, you cannot say that, to make Pekoe, you must first use one sieve, then another, and so on. The sizes of sieves to be used, and the order in which they are to be used, will vary continually, as both are decided by varying causes, viz., the comparative fineness or coarseness of the Tea made daily, the greater or less presence of red leaf in it, and (because Tea varies much during the season, and gets coarse towards the end) by the time of the year. These points all necessitate changes in the sizes, and the order of the sieves.
’Tis true sieves might be changed in a machine as required, but the only machine that could even pretend to save labour would be one in which all the sieves were arranged one below the other, and thus the Tea would fall through each alternately, the motion being common to all. But this won’t do for Tea sifting. Judgment must be used to decide the length of time each sieve is to be shaken; further, with how much motion it shall be shaken, &c., &c. But this is simply impossible with any machine, though all necessary to sift Tea well.
The cost of Tea sifting by hand (see page [161]) is not eight annas per maund, including picking out red leaf, which must be hand-work. Good and bad sifting will affect the value three annas per lb. or Rs. 15 per maund!
With all parts of Tea manufacture it is well to employ the same men continually in each department, but above all, perhaps, should this be done in Tea sifting. A good sifter is a valuable man. He knows each kind of Tea by name; he knows what sieves to use, and the order in which to use them for each Tea; what the effect a larger or smaller mesh will have on each kind, &c., &c. In fact, he knows much more of the practical part of sifting than his master can, though the latter is, probably, a better judge how far the Teas are perfect when made.
Tea sieves are of two kinds, both round. One made of brass wire, with wooden sides, 3½ inches high, the other cane, with bamboo sides, 1¼ inches high only. The latter are called “Chinese sieves,” and though the brass ones are used in many places, there is no possible comparison between them, for the labour required in the use of the brass ones is much greater, and the results, as regards well sorted Tea, much better with the Chinese.
Both kinds are numbered according to the number of orifices in one linear inch. Thus a No. 6 sieve has six orifices to the inch in both; but in the brass kind, a No. 6 has six orifices including the wire; in the Chinese kind, the cane between each aperture is not included in the measure. Thus the orifice in a No. 6 Chinese sieve is exactly 1/6th of an inch square, but somewhat less in a brass sieve.
As I well know brass sieves cannot remain in favour after the others have been only once tried, I shall confine my directions to the Chinese kind.[52]
I practise, and I advise, Tea to be sifted daily. The Tea made one day, sifted the day after, and in fact stored away in the bins ready sifted. I find it is more carefully done this way, for by the other plan a larger quantity being done at once by several men, they cannot, from want of practice, be expert. But by the daily plan one, two, or three men, as necessary, can always be kept on the work, and consequently they learn and do it well.
To sift the following, Chinese sieves are required; and if daily sifting is resorted to, they will be found ample for any ordinary-sized garden:—
- 4 of No. 4
- 6 of No. 6
- 6 of No. 7
- 9 of No. 9
- 9 of No. 10
- 6 of No. 12
- 4 of No. 16.
Previous to sifting all red leaf should be picked out of the Tea. This, as stated under the head of “Manufacture,” should be done twice before the “roll” is fired; but towards the end of the season especially, some will still remain in the made Tea, and this must be carefully separated.
From what I have said it is evident that no rules can be laid down as to what sieves to employ to get out certain Teas. Only practice can teach this.
Further, practice can only enable you to judge in a Tea broker’s point of view of different classes of Tea. This essay would, however, be incomplete did it not contain a description of these. Such a description has been ably given by Mr. J. H. Haworth in his “Information and Advice for the Tea Planter from the English Market” (Journal, A. & H. Society of India, Vol. XIV.), and, as his knowledge on the subject is far in advance of mine, and consequently more to the point than any description I could give, I will close this chapter with the following extract from his valuable pamphlet, and trust he will excuse my doing so:—
Of the Different Classes of Tea.
Teas are arranged in various classes according to the size, make, and colour of the leaf. I treat first and principally of the Black descriptions, as Green Teas are manufactured in only a few of the Tea-growing districts of India.
The following classes come under the name of Black Tea:—
| Flowery Pekoe. | The various broken kinds, viz.:— | Broken Pekoe. |
| Orange Pekoe. | Pekoe Dust. | |
| Pekoe. | Broken Mixed Tea. | |
| Pekoe Souchong. | Broken Souchong. | |
| Souchong. | Broken Leaf. | |
| Congou. | Fannings. | |
| Bohea. | Dust. |
We occasionally meet with other names, but they are generally original, and ought not to be encouraged, as a few simple terms like the above are sufficiently comprehensive to describe all classes manufactured.
Perhaps before entering into a detailed description of the various classes it will be well to explain the term “Pekoe” (pronounced Pek-oh), which as we see occurs in so many of the names above quoted. It is said to be derived from the Chinese words “Pak Ho,” which are said to signify white down. The raw material constituting Pekoe when manufactured is the young bud just shooting forth, or the young leaf just expanded, which on minute examination will be found to be covered with a whitish velvety down. On firing these young leaves, the down simply undergoes a slight change in colour to grey or greyish yellow, sometimes as far as a yellowish orange tint.
When the prepared Tea consists entirely of greyish or greenish greyish Pekoe, with no or very little dark leaf mixed, it is called Flowery Pekoe.
Flowery Pekoe is picked from the shrub entirely separate from the other descriptions of Tea, only the buds and young leaves being taken. In the preparation it is not subjected so severely to the action of heat as the other classes of Tea, and generally preserves a uniform greenish grey or silvery grey tint. Its strength in liquor is very great, flavour more approaching that of Green Teas, but infinitely superior, having the strength and astringency, without the bitterness, of the green descriptions. The liquor is pale, similar to that of Green Tea, and the infused leaf is of a uniform green hue. In many instances, where too much heat has been employed, we find dark leaves intermixed, and the prevailing colour, green, is sprinkled with leaves of a salmony brown tinge, which is the proper colour for the out-turn of any other ordinary black leaf Tea. A very common mistake is to call an ordinary Pekoe, that may contain an extra amount of Pekoe ends, Flowery Pekoe. When this class of Tea is strong and of Flowery Pekoe flavour, it is called by the trade a Pekoe of Flowery Pekoe kind. In England Flowery Pekoe sells, as a rule, from 4s. 6d. to 6s. 6d. per lb. One parcel has sold as high as 7s. 6d.
By many people the expediency of making Flowery Pekoe is much doubted. The true Flowery Pekoe leaf is the one undeveloped bud at the end of each twig. To pick this alone, without any ordinary Pekoe leaves, involves a great deal of trouble and expense, and I think though the Flowery Pekoe be very valuable, that the account would hardly balance when we consider the deterioration of the Pekoe by the abstraction of the young leaves.
The ordinary Pekoe is a Tea of blackish or greyish blackish aspect, but dotted over with greyish or yellowish leaves which, on close inspection, will be found to possess the downy appearance which gives the name to Pekoe. In general we do not find the whole leaf covered with down, but only part of it, which in its growth has been developed later than the other parts. These are called by the trade “Pekoe ends” when very small Pekoe tips. A Pekoe is generally of good to fine flavour, and very strong, and its liquor dark. Its value is from 2s. 9d. to 3s. 8d. per lb.
When the Pekoe ends are of yellowish or orange hue, and the leaf is very small and even, the Tea is called Orange Pekoe. In flavour it is much the same as an ordinary Pekoe, and many growers do not separate the two varieties, but send them away in the finished state mixed together. Its value is from 2d. to 4d. per lb. more than Pekoe.
The term Pekoe Souchong is generally applied to a Pekoe that is deficient in Pekoe ends, or to a bold, Souchong class leaf with a few ends mixed. We often meet with it applied to an unassorted Tea, including perhaps Souchong, Congou, a few Pekoe ends, and some broken leaves. Prices range from 2s. 3d. to 2s. 10d.
The name of Broken Pekoe indicates at once what class of Tea it is, namely, Pekoe which has been broken in the manipulation or otherwise. It possesses the strength and fine flavour of a full leaf of Pekoe, being therefore only inferior to it in point of leaf. In value it is very little inferior to Pekoe, sometimes as valuable, or even more so, as owing to the frangibility of the tender Pekoe ends, they are sometimes broken off in very large quantity, thus adding to the value of the broken Tea, though at the same time deteriorating the Pekoe. Prices from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 4d.
Pekoe dust is still smaller broken, so small in fact as actually to resemble dust. It is of great strength, though often not pure in flavour, as frequently any dust or sweepings from other Tea is mixed with it to make the lot larger. The price of Pekoe dust may range from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 8d.
A Tea only slightly broken is often called by the planter Pekoe Dust; again an Orange Pekoe is often called Broken Pekoe, and the converse. A knowledge of the signification of these and other terms would teach the grower to be very careful in marking his Teas, as the nomenclature influences to a great extent the sale in the home market.
Having described the finer Teas, we now come to the consideration of the classes of Tea which form the bulk of the manufacture of a garden.
Souchong may be taken as the medium quality, and when experience and skilled labour are employed in the manufacture as the bulk of the produce of an estate. The qualifications for being comprehended under this term are just simply an even, straight, or slightly curved leaf, in length varying say from ½ inch to 1½ inch. It has not the deep strength of Pekoe, but is generally of good flavour and of fair strength. The prices of Souchong are from 1s. 10d. to 2s. 8d.
Congou comes next. It may be either a leaf of Souchong kind, but too large to come under that class, or though of smallish-sized leaf, too unevenly made, or too much curled (so as to resemble little balls) to be so classified. The flavour is much the same as that of Souchong, but the Tea has not so much strength. Some of the lower and large leaf kinds may be only worth perhaps from 1s. 3d. to 1s. 6d., whereas the finer qualities sell as high as 2s. to 2s. 3d. per lb.
Bohea is again lower than a Congou. It may be either of too large a leaf to be called Congou, or, as is generally the case, it may consist principally of old leaf, which on being fired does not attain the greyish blackish colour which is so desirable for all the black leaf kinds except Flowery Pekoe, but remains of a brownish or even pale yellowish hue. It has scarcely any strength, and is generally of coarse flavour, sometimes not, but is never of much value unless of Namuna kind (a term which will be described hereafter). We may quote prices at from 3d. to 1s. 2d. per lb.
We now come to the broken descriptions of these middle and lower classes of Tea.
Broken Mixed Tea is, as its name imports, a mixture of the various kinds of Tea broken. It may have a very wide range, include some of the lower classes or approach Broken Pekoe in character and value, but the kind usually thus named is a Tea worth from 1s. 8d. to 2s. 6d., generally of a blackish aspect, and containing a few Pekoe ends.
The term Broken Souchong is commonly and appropriately applied to a Tea which, though broken, has some approach to a full leaf, and that of the even Souchong character. Its value may vary, say from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 2d.
Broken leaf is a term of great comprehensiveness, but generally is used to signify a Tea worth from 8d. to 1s. 1d. per lb. It may be of a brownish, brownish blackish, or blackish colour. Its strength is seldom great, but its flavour may be fair or good, but in the lower qualities it is generally poor, thin, or coarse. It would be better to employ this term only as a general name of Broken Tea, and not to use it to signify any particular class, as it is very indefinite.
Fannings is similar in colour and class of leaf to broken leaf as described above; in value also much the same, perhaps on the average a little lower. I suppose, in most cases, the mode of its separation from the other classes of Tea is, as its name implies, by fanning.
Dust is a very small broken Tea, so small, in fact, as to approach the minuteness of actual dust. It is often very coarse, or “earthy” in flavour, owing perhaps to sweepings and dust having become mixed with it. Its value is from 6d. to 1s. 6d. In any Tea of this class worth more than these quotations, a few Pekoe ends or tips will generally be found, which bring it under the name of Pekoe Dust.
We will now look at Black Teas in a body, and point out what is desirable and what is objectionable in them.
We have seen that all Teas which contain Pekoe fetch higher prices than others, consequently we infer that Pekoe is a desideratum. If we glance at the descriptions of the various classes of Tea which have been given above, we shall find that it is an element of strength and good flavour. I do not mean to say that any Pekoe is stronger or of better flavour than any Tea which does not contain Pekoe, as the soil, the climate, the cultivation, the manufacture, and various other causes, may influence the strength and flavour of different Teas; but, as a rule, in Teas that are produced under the same circumstances, the classes containing Pekoe are stronger and of better flavour than those without it.
There is another class of Tea which I have not yet described that possesses very great strength and very fine flavour. This is the class known as the “Namuna” kind. All readers of these pages who have been connected with India any time will recognise the word,[53] though they may not quite see how it comes to occupy the position in which we consider it. It is said that its first application in this manner arose from a planter having sent to England some sample boxes of Tea with the ticket “namuna” on them. These Teas happened to be of the peculiar description which now goes by that name, and which I proceed to describe. The London brokers have always since then applied the name “namuna” to this class of Tea. The leaf may have, perhaps, the ordinary greyish blackish aspect, with generally a greenish tinge. In the pot it produces a very pale liquor, but on tasting it its quality belies the poor thin appearance of the infusion. It is very strong, stronger by far than ordinary Pekoe; in flavour, say, about half-way between a Flowery Pekoe and a Green Tea, quite distinct from the Flowery Pekoe flavour, possessing somewhat of the rasping bitterness of the Green Tea class with the flavour a little refined. The out-turn is generally green, sometimes has some brownish leaves mixed. Any of the black leaf Teas may be of this Class, from the Pekoe to the lowest dust, and all throughout the scale, if the flavour be distinct and pure, may have their value enhanced from 4d. to 10d. per lb.
Similar in every respect, except one, is the Oolong kind. The one wanting quality is the strength, sometimes, by-the-bye, the flavour is a little different. It may have the greenish, greyish blackish leaf (though generally the green leaves are distinct from black ones, the Tea thus being composed of greyish blackish leaves with a few green ones intermixed), always has the pale liquor, generally the greenish infused leaf; but sometimes it is sadly intermingled with black leaves, as it is a Tea whose flavour is frequently burnt out, though its weakness and green appearance are no doubt often caused by deficient firing. Teas of this kind on the average sell below the ordinarily-flavoured Teas of the same class of leaf.
In Teas of ordinary flavour the following rules hold good:—The darker the liquor the stronger the Tea, and the nearer the approach of the colour of the infused leaf to a uniform salmony brown, the purer the flavour. Whenever we see any black leaves mixed with it (the out-turn) the Tea has been over-fired, and we may either expect to find the strength burnt out of it, or else to find it marred by having a burnt or smoky flavour incorporated with it. When you come across an altogether black or dirty brown out-turn, you may be certain of pale liquor containing little or no strength and no flavour to speak of, unless sometimes it be sour. This is a quality which I shall now touch upon, and regret that I cannot with any certainty give any reliable information whereby the planter may guard against this greatest of faults. It may have various grades,—slightly sourish, sourish, and sour, depreciating the value of the Tea, say, from 3d. to 1s. 6d. per lb. The flavour of a sour Tea is hardly capable of description. It is not so acid as sour milk, in fact, not acid at all, rather a sweet flavour than otherwise being blended with the sourness. It is extremely unpleasant in its more developed grades, and cannot be easily understood except by actual tasting. To the uninitiated this fault is only perceptible in the more strongly marked instances, but to one of the trade the least tendency to it not only condemns the parcel at once, but also causes him to suspect any other lots made at the same or any other time by the same grower, and it is a curious but unaccountable fact that some two or three gardens (or growers?) almost always produce Teas having this fault. I will not cite all the different explanations that have been offered on this subject; I will simply quote the one which seems to have gained most ground, and leave those more competent than myself to express any opinion on the subject. The cause assigned to which I refer is that the Tea leaf after being picked is allowed to remain too long in the raw state before being fired, during which time it undergoes a process of fermentation; some then say that this causes sourness, while others maintain that the fermentation is absolutely necessary for the production of a Black Tea. The fact that we never meet with sourness in a Green Tea, one feature in the preparation of which being that it is fired almost immediately on being gathered, goes to corroborate this view.
Burntness I have already referred to. As I said before, it may either destroy the strength and flavour altogether, or sometimes, without destroying the strength, add an unpleasant burnt flavour to it. When the Tea has the flavour of smoke about it, it is called smoky or smoky burnt. By being burnt, a Tea may be deteriorated in value, say from 2d. to 1s. per lb. The symptoms of burntness are a dead black leaf (as opposed to the greatly-desired greyish, blackish colour) having a burnt smell which often entirely neutralises the natural aroma of the Tea. In looking over a broker’s character of a parcel of Teas, you may occasionally meet with the terms “fresh burnt,” “brisk burnt,” or “malty burnt.” These phrases do not carry a condemnatory meaning with them. The meaning of the word burnt, as used here, would be better expressed by the term “fired.” The term “malty” means of full rich flavour, perhaps from the aroma of this class of Tea resembling somewhat that of malt. Teas of the three above descriptions, you may have noticed, often fetch very good prices. The meaning of the word “full,” applied to a liquor, is hardly appreciable except by tasting. It does not signify strength or flavour, but is opposed to thinness. A Green Tea may be strong or of good flavour, but its liquor is never full. Fulness is generally characterised by a dark liquor. The quality known as “body” in a wine is somewhat akin to fulness in a Tea. We speak of a “full” leaf Tea in contradistinction to a broken leaf. “Chaffy” is generally used in connection with Bohea and other brown leaf classes of Tea. A light (in weight) brown, open or flat leaf, in fact, one resembling chaff, would be called chaffy. The lower classes of Tea, especially the dusts, are often described as “earthy” in flavour. By this a coarse low flavour is understood, perhaps often caused by the admixture of real dust.
When the make of a Tea is spoken of as a “well made,” “fairly made,” &c., leaf, the effect of the manipulation or rolling is referred to. We may have a “well made even,” or a “well made mixed large and small,” leaf. We may have a “straight” or “curled,” or, as the latter is generally expressed when applied to a large leaf Tea, “twisted” leaf. It may be “flattish made,” indicating that though the leaf is not open it wears a flattish aspect, or it may be open, which betrays a want of sufficient or skilful manipulation. A “wiry” leaf is small, perfectly rolled, and very thin (in diameter), generally rather curled, so as in fact to resemble small pieces of bent wire. It will be seen at once that only the finer Teas can have a wiry leaf, principally the Orange Pekoes and Pekoes. Sometimes we meet with a fine Souchong that may be thus described.
Green Teas.
As in the North-west Provinces Green Teas form the bulk of the produce, it will be well to give a short description of them, though the tenor of my remarks below will show the general opinion as to the desirability of making them.[54]
Gunpowder is the most valuable description, its price ranging from 2s. 8d. to 3s. 8d. per lb. Instead of possessing the long and thin finished leaf, which is the desideratum of Black Teas, it is rolled into little balls more or less round, varying from one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch in diameter. Sometimes it is not altogether composed of round leaf, but has some long leaf mixed.
When the Tea is of the shape of Gunpowder, but is larger than the size above quoted, it is called Imperial. Prices of Imperial are from 10d. to 2s. 6d.
Amongst Green Teas Hyson may be taken as the parallel of Souchong of the black leaf descriptions. Undoubtedly there is often much young Pekoe leaf in it, but all chance of discriminating it in the finished leaf is done away with by the change in colour. Hysons sell from 1s. 2d. to 3s. 6d.
Young Hyson is smaller than Hyson, occasionally slightly broken. It fetches from 7d. to 2s. 6d.
Hyson skin consists of the bold broken leaf of Hyson and Young Hyson. A small broken Green Tea is seldom sent on the home market. The reason of this is obvious. When we consider that Hyson skin only fetches from 7d. to 1s., it is apparent that anything approaching a dust would give very little chance of a profit. I have seen one or two parcels, too much broken to come under the title of Hyson skin, sell at 3d. to 6d. per lb. in London. It would be well if some of the Indian planters would take a lesson from the Chinese, and not send home their very low Teas, black or green, as they are very difficult of sale in London, and in many cases cannot pay the cost of packing and shipping. The Chinese make a great quantity of their broken Teas into Brick Tea, and send it into the Central Provinces of Asia, where it meets with a ready sale. I do not see why this should not be done by the Indian growers. There is a large consumption of Tea on the other side of the Himalayas, not very far from Darjeeling and Assam. I hear also that in the neighbourhood of the growing districts, especially in the North-west Provinces, the natives are beginning to consume largely, and will pay 8 as. to 1 rupee for a Tea that could not possibly fetch more than 1s. to 1s. 6d. per lb. in England. Whether the natives of India, as a whole, do or do not take to drinking Tea will have a material effect on the future prospects of the article.
Before dropping the subject of Green Teas, I will say a word or two as to the expediency of making Green Tea. I have questioned several experienced people on the subject, but none can tell me their especial object in manufacturing their leaf into Green Tea. One gentleman told me that he thought it was because their Tea-makers (Chinamen) knew better how to make greens than blacks. I have carefully examined the leaf of several of the North-west Green Teas, and, noticing their English sale prices, consider that they would have sold on the average at least 3d. per lb. higher had they been made into Black Tea. The best way to test this would be to have a Green and a Black Tea made from the same leaf, and then to value the one against the other. I regret that I have never had the opportunity of doing this. We notice that the largest and most experienced producers never make Green Tea.[55]
I must not pass over Caper without a short description. It is a Tea which is made in large quantity in China, though I have only seen one parcel of Indian growth. It forms a link between the black and green descriptions. The colour of the leaf is a very dark green; in form it is similar to a gunpowder, Imperial, or round leaf Congou. The liquor is pale, and the out-turn green; flavour perhaps nearer to that of a green than of a Black Tea.
[CHAPTER XXVI.]
BOXES. PACKING.
By far the best Tea boxes are the teak ones made at Rangoon. The wood is impervious to insects of all kinds, even white ants. Sawn by machinery the pieces sent to compose each box are very regular. The plank is half inch, and each chest made up measures inside 23 by 18 by 18½ inches, and necessarily outside 24 by 19 by 19½ inches. The inner cubical contents are 7,659 cubic inches, and this suffices for above one maund of fine, and under a maund of coarse Tea.
Each box is composed of fourteen pieces—viz., for the two long sides three each, for the two short sides two each, two for the bottom, and two for the lid. By the arrangement of three pieces in the long sides, and two only in the short sides, the centre piece of each long side is attached to both the short end pieces, and thus great strength in the box is ensured, there being no place where it can possibly separate at the joints.
These boxes are not made to “dovetail.” Each piece (and they are sawn with mathematical regularity as to length, breadth, and thickness) must be nailed to its neighbour. The best nails for this are the kind called “French Pins,” 1¾ inches long.
The wood is sold at Rangoon in bundles, and could be landed in Calcutta for about Re. 1-8 or 1-12 per box. The boxes need not be made up till shortly before they are wanted, and in this form, of compact bundles of short pieces, are very convenient for transport and stowage.
Of course in many districts these boxes are not procurable, and local ones must be made. If so, use hard wood, and make your boxes about the size given above, for small boxes add much to the cost of freight.
Let the planks be ⅝ inch thick, for ½ inch, that is, 4/8 inch boards are not strong enough, except they are of teak or any other very good wood.
Take care the joints of the several pieces composing the sides and ends do not coincide at the corners, for if they do the box is very apt to come asunder.
The best way to arrange the pieces is as described above in the Rangoon boxes.
“A form” must be made on which the inner leaden case shall be constructed, that is, a well-made smooth box, to fit exactly into the box you pack in. It must be some 3 inches higher than the interior of the original box, and have bars running across inside, for handles to lift it up, and let the lead case slip off it, after it (the lead case) is finished.
Solder your lead case, over your form, in the way to waste least lead. In the Rangoon boxes described, two large, two small sheets,[56] and one piece, 22 by 9 inches (let in between the two large sheets) suffices, and there is little or no waste.
The lead case ready, hold up the form by the inner rods, and let the case slide off. Put it at once into the packing-box, taking care no nails protrude inside, or anything else which will hurt it, and thus prepare all the boxes for the break of Tea you are about to pack.
One great advantage the Rangoon boxes, and in fact all machine-sawn boxes, have is their equal, or nearly equal, weight. Purchasers of Teas, at the public auctions, require “the tare” of boxes to be as near the same weight as possible. If the tares differ, say more than half-a-pound, the Tea will be depreciated in value.[57] It is well there should be about the same weight of Tea in all the boxes that contain any one kind, but this is not essential, which equality in tares is.
Your boxes all ready and lined with lead, choose a fine day for packing. Do this whether you finally dry the Tea in the sun or over the dholes; for even in the latter case it is well to avoid a damp day.
But before you pack you must bulk. That is, you must mix all the Tea, of any one kind, so intimately together that samples taken out of any number of chests shall agree exactly. This can be done by turning out all the Tea on a large cloth placed on the floor, and turning it over and over. No two days’ Teas are exactly alike, and you have perhaps a month’s Teas to pack; it is therefore necessary to mix them well.
Though I know many planters think the fumes of charcoal necessary and beneficial for the last drying, I do not. I have tried both sun and charcoal, and no difference was perceptible. The former costs nothing, is more commodious, and I always apply it when possible. The sun cannot burn the Teas; the charcoal, if the heat is too great, may.
Whether you use sun or charcoal, put the Tea hot into the boxes. The only object of the final drying is to drive off the moisture, which the Tea will certainly, in a more or less degree, have imbibed since its manufacture. Even the large zinc-lined bins which should be fitted up in all Tea stores, and in which the Tea is placed after manufacture, will not entirely prevent damp, so in all cases a final drying is necessary.
Keep it in the sun, or over the charcoal, until it is hot throughout, hot enough to ensure all the moisture having been driven off. Then put into the box enough to about one-quarter fill it. Now let two men rock the box, over a half-inch round iron bar, placed on the ground, until the Tea has well settled. Then place a piece of carpet over the Tea, the exact size of the box, and let a man stand inside and press it down a minute or two with his feet. Now fill up nearly another quarter, and press it again over the carpet as before. Repeat this, putting less and less into the box each time, as you near the top, until it is quite full, but do not rock it at all the last two or three times, only press it with the feet as described. No patent screw press, or anything else, will pack the Tea better or more closely than this plan, and when the men are practised at it, you will find there will not be a difference of more than two or three lbs. in the Teas of any one kind put into the boxes.[58]
The box full, just even with the top, and well pressed down to the last, lay over the Tea a piece of the silver paper, which is found inserted between each sheet in the lead boxes. This prevents any solder or resin getting on the Tea when soldering the top. Now fit on the lead sheet top, solder, and nail on the wooden lid.
Weight of Tea in each box.—The boxes ready lined, with a lead cover loose, must be all weighed before the Tea is packed, and again after they are filled and soldered down, but before the wooden lid is put on. The difference of these weights, minus the weight of the little solder used in fastening down the top lead (for which allow say one pound to give a margin also), will be the net weight of Tea in each box.
Thin iron hooping, put round both ends of the boxes, much increases their strength, and is not expensive.[59]
Stamp each box on its lid and on one end.[60] Use for this zinc plates, with the necessary marks cut out in them. A brush run over these with the colouring matter does the work well and quickly.
Let the stamp comprise the kind of Tea, the plantation or owner’s mark, the number of the box, and the year; for instance—
The invoice you send with the break must give for each box the number, the gross weight, the tare, the net Tea, and the kind of Tea, with a declaration at foot that the Teas of each kind have been respectively well bulked and mixed together before packing.
Remember the larger the quantity of Tea, of any one kind, to be sold at one auction, the higher the price it will probably fetch. Sell, if possible, twenty or thirty chests of one kind of Tea at the same time, for small quantities as a rule sell below large, both in Calcutta and London.
Equality of tares is the most important point to attend to in packing Teas. It may be difficult, but with machine-sawn boxes, nearly the same weight, any difference must be made up with extra hooping, lead, solder, or nails. Anyhow it must be done, so that no tares shall differ more than half-a-pound (see foot-note page [149]).
[CHAPTER XXVII.]
MANAGEMENT. ACCOUNTS. FORMS.
System and order, a good memory, a good temper, firmness, attention to details, agricultural knowledge, industry, all these, combined with a thorough knowledge of Tea cultivation and Tea manufacture, are the requisites for the successful management of a Tea plantation.
To find men with all these qualities is, I allow, not very easy, still they do exist, and such a one must be had if success in Tea is looked for.
Before the work is given out each day, the manager should decide exactly what is most required, and apply it to that. He should write down, when distributing the men, the works, and the number employed on each. This paper he should carry in his pocket, and he can then verify the men at work at each or any place when he visits it during the day.
The writer, the moonshee, and the jemadar (if there is one), should write similar papers when the coolies are mustered in the morning, and the manager should detail to each of these men which work they are particularly responsible for. This should also be shown in the “Morning Paper.”
Each of the above men then measures out the work to the coolies; visits it once or oftener in the day, and measures all that remains undone at night. A daily report of the work is kept, written by the writer in the evening.
The two forms given below are those I have adopted. The latter is suited to local labour paid daily, but it can easily be altered to suit either local labour paid monthly or imported coolies.
This is the Morning Paper.
| Work to be done on | 188 . | ||||
| Detail | No. of Garden | In whose charge | Headman on the Work | Probable number | Actual number |
| Total Coolies | |||||
The column of “Probable numbers” is given so that before it is known exactly how many men will be present for work they can be divided in the most likely way.
Each headman (called “Mate,” “Mangee,” &c., in different districts) is best designated by a letter or number. In neither form would there be room to put in names at length.
The form below written in the evening is made into a book for each month. The advantages of it for after reference are great, and it can of course be altered to suit the kind of labour employed on any garden.
| Work on | for | 188 . | |||||
| Detail of Work | No. of Garden | Mangees | Chupp | Coolies | Measurement and Remarks | ||
| As. | |||||||
| Total at Work | × 3 = | ||||||
| Command | × 2½ = | ||||||
| Sick | × 2 = | ||||||
| Absent | × 1½ = | ||||||
| Total | × 1 = | ||||||
| Picking Leaf = | |||||||
| Making Tea = | |||||||
| Tea Sorting = | |||||||
| Cut = | |||||||
| Total = | |||||||
The following is the plan I recommend for the leaf-picking and the Tea accounts.
The leaf of each picker is best measured in the field, and, as loads are collected, brought to the factory by one or two men throughout the day. It entails a loss of time, and further a depreciation in the leaf, if it is kept long in a close mass in one basket, which is the case when each picker brings his or her leaf to the factory twice a day. The pickers are paid so much per basket, holding in any case 2½ lbs. I find the most convenient plan is to give the mangee in charge of the pickers tickets of any kind for this, which tickets are changed for money in the evening. As each load of leaf comes in through the day it is weighed, and this gives a check on the tickets given by the mangee or mate. This is the meaning of the two columns in the form below, “tickets by leaf” and “tickets paid.”
In the form the first column of “leaf results” shows the condition of the leaf when picked, whether wet (W) or dry (D). Unless this were noted the proper amount of Teas the leaf ought to make could not be known, and there would be no check against theft, which is carried on to a great extent in many gardens.
As explained previously, only the sections ready in each garden are picked. The sections are not entered in the form, only the number of the garden. The flushes now noted are the 20th, in some the 21st, or 22nd in others.
The Tea is calculated from the leaf. It should be 25 per cent. if the leaf is picked dry, and 22 per cent. if picked wet. As each load comes in a memorandum is made as to whether it is dry or wet, and the figures in the column “Tea should be” are thus found.
The Tea is weighed the morning after it is made and entered in the column “Tea made.” The percentage it bears to the leaf is then calculated and entered in the account column.
After sifting the whole is weighed again, and the result entered in the column “Tea after sifting.” Doing this is very important, for it checks theft. Directly after it is weighed this second time it is put in the bins in the store.
Daily Leaf and Tea Account.
| Tea Results. | Leaf Results. | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Tea should be | Tea made | Per cent. | Tea after it is sifted | State of leaf | Tickets | Flushes | Total leaf | ||||
| By leaf | Paid | Number of Garden | 20 | 21 | 22 | |||||||
| October Sunday, 1st | „ | „ | „ | „ | 220W 600D | 410 | 360 | 3 | „ | 170 | „ | 820 |
| 5 | 310 | „ | „ | |||||||||
| 7 | 112 | „ | „ | |||||||||
| 8 | „ | „ | 228 | |||||||||
| Monday, 2nd | 198 | 200 | 24 | 199 | D | 462 | 440 | 3 | „ | 515 | „ | 925 |
| 9 | 410 | „ | „ | |||||||||
| Tuesday, 3rd | 231 | 230 | 25 | 233 | W | 200 | 180 | 1 | 430 | „ | „ | 800 |
| 2 | „ | „ | 160 | |||||||||
| 3 | „ | 210 | „ | |||||||||
| Wednesday, 4th | ||||||||||||
| Thursday, 5th | ||||||||||||
| Friday, 6th | ||||||||||||
| Saturday, 7th | ||||||||||||
| Total for the week | „ | Mds. lbs. 1632 | ||||||||||
If this system is carried out, no Tea (exceeding a pound or so) can be stolen without its being at once missed, and the importance of this cannot be exaggerated. Tea proprietors do not guess how much is lost in this way. Maunds upon maunds might be stolen in many gardens, and unless the theft were accidentally discovered there is nothing in the Tea accounts to show it to the manager.
I have suppositiously filled up the three first days of the form. The 820 lbs. leaf picked on Sunday is made into Tea on Monday. The 198 is written down Sunday evening. On Tuesday morning, when the Tea is weighed and found to be 200 lbs., that is entered in the Monday line, as also the percentage. On Tuesday evening, after it is sifted and made into different Teas, it is weighed again and found to be 199 lbs., and so entered.
In dry weather after sifting, owing to dust flying off, it is always a little less. In wet weather, on the contrary, it increases in weight. In the Tuesday line where “W” shows it was a wet day and the Tea 230 lbs. before sifting it, is 233 afterwards. This is owing to moisture imbibed, and it is the only objection to sifting daily, whatever the weather. The advantages of the plan, though, are so great, as explained, that I put up with this, and practically I do not find it detrimental. Of course, as previously explained, all moisture is driven off before the Tea is packed. However, to make all quite safe, after a very wet damp day, the Teas might be re-dried for a few minutes over charcoal before being put into their respective bins. I do not do this myself though, and do not think it necessary.
I hope now I have made the above form plain. It is in a book, and each page will hold one week. The total of the Tea made in the week is added up and shown at foot, and that amount is then transferred to the credit side of the Tea store account. Thus (see both forms) 16 maunds 32 lbs. is credited.
The form given on the next page is also kept in a book, and the total of right-hand side subtracted from the left gives at any time the quantity of Tea in store.
Tea Store Account.
| Receipts | Expenditure | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week ending on Saturday | Tea made in week | Total | Date | No. of Invoice | To whom | Tea in each Invoice | Total | ||||||
| Mds. | lbs. | Mds. | lbs. | Mds. | lbs. | Mds. | lbs. | ||||||
| Brought over | .. | .. | .. | 405 | 8 | Brought over | .. | .. | 351 | 14 | |||
| October | 7th | 16 | 32 | October | 3 | 15 | — | 40 | 15 | ||||
| „ | 14th | 15 | 0 | „ | 20 | 16 | — | 33 | 10 | ||||
| „ | 21st | 17 | 10 | — | — | 73 | 25 | ||||||
| „ | 28th | 14 | 40 | ||||||||||
| — | — | 63 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Carried over | Carried over | ||||||||||||
Regarding accounts between the manager and his employers, I think they should be of the simplest kind. If a man can be trusted he should be trusted; if he cannot, no system of accounts will restrain him, and he should be kicked out. A simple account current, furnished monthly, showing under few heads the receipts and expenditure, is all that can be required. It is not by any papers received from a manager that an opinion can be expressed as to how he does his work, and how the plantation progresses. A competent person visiting the garden can easily ascertain, and in default of this, and combined with this, the only true test is the balance sheet at the end of each season.
Shortly, it is not by the form, the nicety, the detail of accounts between manager and employer, that success is ensured or even forwarded. It is, as far as accounts are concerned, by the forms and system the manager adopts as between him and his subordinates, and these he should be able to show are good to the employer, or anyone deputed by him to visit the garden.
The profit shown yearly, whether it is large or small, all things considered, is, however, the only true ultimate test.
[CHAPTER XXVIII.]
COST OF MANUFACTURE, PACKING, TRANSPORT, ETC.
These are as follow:—They will vary more or less according to the district, rate of wages, &c., but in the form the tables are given, if not suitable to any case, they can easily be made so.
I have added sorting, packing, freight to Calcutta, and broker’s charges in Calcutta, to the cost, so that all is included from the moment the green leaf is picked off the trees till the hammer falls at the public auction.
Table cost of Manufacture, Sorting, Packing, Transport to Calcutta, and Broker’s Charges for each maund of Tea.
| Manufacture. | Rs. | As. | P. | Rs. | As. | P. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 head man with the pickers, say | 0 | 4 | 0 | |||
| 320 lbs. green leaf picked, at 1 pice per lb.[61] | 5 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 1 man withering above leaf, at say 4 annas | 0 | 4 | 0 | |||
| ¼ share head man in rolling house | 0 | 2 | 0 | |||
| 10⅔ men rolling above, at 30 lbs. leaf per man, and say 4 annas per man | 2 | 10 | 8 | |||
| ¼ boy clearing out ashes of Dhole house, at say 2 annas | 0 | 0 | 6 | |||
| ¼ share head man in Dhole house | 0 | 2 | 0 | |||
| 1 man firing “Dhole work” say | 0 | 4 | 0 | |||
| ¾ maund charcoal for Dhole work, at 8 annas | 0 | 6 | 0 | |||
| Lights for night work, viz., turning green leaf and dholing, say | 0 | 4 | 0 | |||
| Wear and tear of dhallas, baskets, picking baskets, fuel for artificial withering, &c. | 0 | 1 | 10 | |||
| ⸺⸺ | 9 | 7 | 0 | |||
| Sifting and Sorting. | ||||||
| 1½ boys to pick out red leaf, at say 2 annas | 0 | 3 | 0 | |||
| 1 sifting man, at say 4 annas | 0 | 4 | 0 | |||
| Wear and tear of sieves, say | 0 | 0 | 3 | |||
| ⸺⸺ | 0 | 7 | 3 | |||
| Packing. | ||||||
| 1 box | 1 | 13 | 0 | |||
| 4 sheets lead, viz., 2 large and 2 small. | 1 | 6 | 6 | |||
| Labour of lining box with lead, solder, closing lead, closing wooden box, stamping, and cost of nails | 0 | 0 | 9 | |||
| Labour of drying previous to packing, whether in sun, or over dholes, including charcoal, if the latter are used | 0 | 0 | 9 | |||
| Labour of filling the box, shaking it well, and pressing down the Tea (2 men) | 0 | 0 | 6 | |||
| ⸺⸺ | 3 | 5 | 6 | |||
| Transport. | ||||||
| Freight to Calcutta for one maund Tea, say | 1 | 12 | 0 | |||
| ⸺⸺ | 1 | 12 | 0 | |||
| Broker’s Charges in Calcutta. | ||||||
| Landing, lotting, and advertising per chest | 0 | 14 | 0 | |||
| Brokerage at 1 per cent. on the amount sale, say Rs. 70 for the maund | 0 | 11 | 3 | |||
| ⸺⸺ | 1 | 9 | 3 | |||
| Total for one maund of Tea[62] | 16 | 9 | 0 | |||
N.B.—If more than two maunds Tea are made per day, some of the items under head of “Manufacture” would be a little less. See page [70], where it will be seen that each maund of Tea is worth to the manufacturer (after deducting all costs) Rs. 50.
[CHAPTER XXIX.]
COST OF MAKING A 300-ACRE TEA GARDEN.
In the following estimate 100 acres are supposed to be planted the first year, 100 acres the second, and 100 acres the third.
To elucidate a table I shall draw up in the next chapter showing the probable receipts and expenditure on such a garden for a series of years, I shall suppose this plantation to be begun in 1875, and number the years accordingly.
The expenditure would truly, in the supposed case, begin in the latter part of 1874, but it is more convenient to regard it as commencing 1st January, 1875.
I estimate all new cultivation as planted “at stake,” that is, the seed sown in situ. Nurseries are only to fill up vacancies.
I shall not pretend in this to go into minute details, such as are given at page [84], for it is simply impossible to do so. The cost of making a plantation must vary greatly, being determined by climate, available labour and its rates, lay of land, nature of jungle to clear, &c., &c. In this estimate only round numbers can be dealt with. The prices I assume are average ones, neither suited to very heavy jungle, and very expensive labour, or the reverse:—
| 1st year (1875). | Rs. | Rs. |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase 700 acres land, at Rs. 8 per acre | 5,600 | |
| 40 maunds seed, at Rs. 70[63] | 2,800 | |
| Nurseries for vacancies and labour transplanting[64] | 200 | |
| First temporary buildings | 1,000 | |
| All expenditure to plant 100 acres, at Rs. 80 per acre[65] | 8,000 | |
| Cultivating the said 100 acres first year, at Rs. 50 per acre[66] | 5,000 | |
| — | 22,600 | |
| 2nd year (1876). | ||
| 60 maunds seed, at Rs. 70[64] | 4,200 | |
| Nurseries and labour transplanting[64] | 300 | |
| Repairs, buildings and some new ones still of a temporary nature | 500 | |
| All expenditure to plant the second 100 acres, at Rs. 70 per acre[65] | 7,000 | |
| Cultivating first 100 acres, at Rs. 60, second 100 acres, at Rs. 50 per acre[66] | 11,000 | |
| — | 23,000 | |
| 3rd year (1877). | ||
| 70 maunds seeds, at Rs. 70[64] | 4,900 | |
| Nurseries and labour transplanting[64] | 400 | |
| Buildings for Tea manufacture (temporary) and repairs to buildings | 3,000 | |
| — | 8,300 | |
| All expenditure to plant the third 100 acres, at Rs. 60 per acre[67] | 6,000 | |
| Cultivating first 100 acres, at Rs. 70, second at Rs. 60, third at Rs. 50 per acre[68] | 18,000 | |
| — | 24,000 | |
| Interest on first year’s outlay, two and a half years, second year’s outlay, one and a half years, third year’s outlay half year, at Rs. 5 per cent. per annum. | 5,357 | |
| Total expense to make the 300-acre garden | 83,257 |
The garden is now made at a cost, including interest on all outlay of Rs. 83,257, and I am very confident that a good 300-acre garden can, as set out, be made for that sum. The rates assumed are so liberal that a fair margin is allowed for bad seed or any other misfortune.
| 4th year (1878). | ||
|---|---|---|
| 20 maunds seed, at Rs. 70[69] | 1,400 | |
| Nurseries and labour transplanting[69] | 500 | |
| Repairs, buildings[70] | 500 | |
| Cultivating first 100 acres, at Rs. 80, second at Rs. 70, third at Rs. 60 per acre[71] | 21,000 | |
| — | 23,400 | |
| 5th year (1879). | ||
| 10 maunds seeds, at Rs. 70[72] | 700 | |
| Nurseries and labour transplanting[72] | 500 | |
| Repairs, buildings[73] | 500 | |
| Cultivating first 100 acres, at Rs. 90, second at Rs. 80, third at Rs. 70 per acre[74] | 24,000 | |
| — | 25,700 | |
| 6th year (1880). | ||
| Nurseries and labour transplanting[72] | 500 | |
| Repairs buildings[73] | 500 | |
| Cultivating first 100 acres, at Rs. 100, second at Rs. 90, third at Rs. 80 per acre[74] | 27,000 | |
| — | 28,000 | |
| 7th year (1881). | ||
| Nurseries and labour transplanting[72] | 500 | |
| Building a permanent Tea Factory and Tea Store and repairs to building[73] | 12,500 | |
| Cultivating first 100 acres, at Rs. 100, second at Rs. 100, third at Rs. 90 per acre[74] | 29,000 | |
| — | 42,000 | |
| 8th year (1882). | ||
| Nurseries and labour transplanting[72] | 500 | |
| New permanent houses for Manager and Assistant, and repairs to buildings[73] | 8,500 | |
| Cultivating first, second, and third 100 acres, at Rs. 100 per acre[74] | 30,000 | |
| — | 39,000 | |
| 9th year (1883), and all years after. | ||
| Nurseries, at Rs. 500[75] | ||
| Repairs to buildings, at Rs. 500[76] | 1,000 | |
| Cultivating the 300 acres, at Rs. 100 per acre[77] | 30,000 | |
| — | 31,000 |
Nothing is allowed for interest after the third year, for soon after that, viz., fifth year, the garden begins to give profits on the yearly operations.
All the above figures are carried out in the table in the next chapter, page [172], and how large the profits on Tea may be will there be seen.
In none of the estimates of cost, up to this, is the expense of manufacturing the Tea included. It would have been very inconvenient to do so. The cost is so much per maund of Tea, and I prefer estimating the Tea at its market rate minus the cost of manufacture shown at pages [70] and [162].
[CHAPTER XXX.]
HOW MUCH PROFIT TEA CAN GIVE.
We have already estimated the cost of making and cultivating a plantation of 300 acres. We must now ascertain how much Tea that area will give yearly.
It is a very wide question what produce an acre of Tea will give.
The following is an extract from the “Report of the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the state and prospects of Tea cultivation in Assam and Cachar,” addressed to the Government of Bengal, and dated March, 1868:—
“Average produce per acre.”
“The returns of actual produce of gardens in 1867 which we have obtained are so few in number that it is impossible to take any general average from them. The produce in these varies from three-and-a-half maunds to one-and-a-half maunds per acre, omitting the more recently formed gardens.
“From information received during our tour we have reason to believe that some gardens produce more than the highest rate per acre here mentioned; but, in the absence of returns of exact acreage and out-turn, we cannot notice these instances.
“Mr. Haworth, in his pamphlet already quoted, speaks of the produce of Cachar gardens as follows:—
“‘I believe that three maunds per acre is fully one-third more than the present average yield of gardens in Cachar, after deducting the area of plant under yielding age.
“‘There is no reason, that I am aware of, why the yield of Tea should not soon be raised to four maunds, and more gradually six maunds per acre, equal to twenty-four maunds of leaf per acre (less than one ton per acre for a green crop, which is still a very small one). Even now there are gardens in Cachar which give an average of from five to six maunds per acre this season. Some of these gardens have really no apparent advantage over their less fortunate neighbours, beyond that of a somewhat better system of cultivation and pruning; and these improvements even are to such a small degree ahead of the general practice, that I feel justified in saying I cannot place a limit on what the increased yield should be under a more rational system of cultivation, and the application of manures on a liberal scale, leaving out of consideration altogether what might reasonably be expected from a good system of drainage in addition.’
“Mr. James Stuart, Manager of the Bengal Tea Company’s gardens in Cachar, has also given two maunds an acre as the general average of Cachar gardens for the past season, including young gardens of two, three, and four years old.
“We do not think it necessary to quote in detail the opinions of all the gentlemen examined by us on the subject of average produce per acre. A garden that can give four maunds per acre is undoubtedly a good one, and we have no doubt there are such, or even better; but we do not think they are so common as to warrant our taking more than three maunds as a safe average.”
Mr. A. C. Campbell, Extra Assistant Commissioner at Burpettah, in his “Notes on Tea Cultivation in Assam,” published in the Journal of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India, part 3, vol. xii., page 309, says:—“Good Tea land can be made to yield as high as seven maunds per poora.” I forget exactly how much a poora is, but I believe it is nearly an acre.
In the Report to Government by the Commissioners, quoted above, at page 9, Mr. T. Burland, after estimating the cost of cultivation per acre per mensem at Rs. 9-10-2, adds:—“With the above expenditure per acre it is probable that much more than five maunds of Tea will be obtained from an acre of fair plant.”[78]
All these estimates, however, are based on the cultivation of Tea as carried on hitherto with few exceptions, that is to say, on gardens covered with weeds for many months in the year, and to which no manure has ever been given. With such cultivation, particularly on gardens planted on slopes, I think myself that the yield will not exceed four maunds at the outside.
High cultivation and liberal manuring will, I believe, at least double the above, if the plants are of a high class. However, here I give a table on the subject which I have carefully framed.
Estimate of probable yield per acre on flat land, good soil, in a good Tea climate, and with hybrid plants, if really high cultivation and liberal manuring is carried out.
| Year | Supposed Year | Estimated yield per acre in maunds[79] |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 1875 | — |
| 2nd | 1876 | — |
| 3rd | 1877 | ½ |
| 4th | 1878 | 2 |
| 5th | 1879[80] | 4 |
| 6th | 1880 | 5 |
| 7th | 1881 | 6 |
| 8th | 1882 | 7 |
| 9th | 1883 | 7½ |
| 10th | 1884[81] | 8 |
I do not think plants reach to perfect maturity under eight or ten years.
That eight maunds per acre as estimated in the table just given can be realised, under the conditions stated, I have no doubt whatever, but I am equally certain that the size of some gardens in India must be much reduced if even five or six maunds are looked for.[82] Not only must they be reduced in size, but they must be highly cultivated, must be manured, and no vacancies allowed. However, I have dwelt on all these points before, and need not repeat here, for unless the reader is convinced before this that a large area and low cultivation won’t pay, it were waste to write more.
I now give a table showing the result for twelve years of a plantation such as I have advised.
TABLE SHOWING THE ESTIMATED RESULTS FOR 12 YEARS OF A 300-ACRE PLANTATION, IN A GOOD TEA CLIMATE, HIGHLY CULTIVATED AND LIBERALLY MANURED.
| Year and Rate of yielding in maunds | Yield in maunds of 300 acres and its Value | Yearly Results | Final Results | Remarks. | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |
| Year | Yield per acre as per page [170] | Supposed year | Rate yield of 100 acres, planted in 1875 | Rate yield of 100 acres, planted in 1876 | Rate yield of 100 acres, planted in 1877 | Total yearly yield in maunds | Value per maund | Receipt from sale of Tea | Total expenditure detailed at pages [164], [165], [166] | Yearly Profit | Yearly Loss | Total receipts to end of each year | Total expenditure to end of each year | Balance to credit end of each year | Balance to debit end of each year | |
| Mds. | Mds. | Mds. | Mds. | Mds. | Rs. 50 per maund, after cost of manufacture, packing,and transport are deducted, see pages [70] & [162] | Rs. | Rs. | Rs. | Rs. | Rs. | Rs. | Rs. | Rs. | It will be seen from this table as follows:— 1. About Rs. 90,000 of capital is necessary to make a plantation as quick as this. If made more gradually, very much less would suffice. 2. There is no yearly profit until the fifth year. 3. By the eighth year all the outlay is recovered. This table has been prepared with great care, and the authority for the figures assumed has been arrived at in previous parts. (See headings of the Cols. for the pages and note at foot.) At the following pages will be found the calculations for the figures assumed:—Col. 2, page [170]; Col. 8, pages [70] and [162]; Col. 10, pages [164], [165], [166]. I believe this table represents truly what Tea, with all the necessary advantages detailed in the next page, can do. | ||
| 1 | .. | 1875 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 22,600 | .. | 22,600 | .. | 22,600 | .. | 22,600 | ||
| 2 | .. | 1876 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 23,000 | .. | 23,000 | .. | 45,600 | .. | 45,600 | ||
| 3 | ½ | 1877 | ½ | .. | .. | 50 | 2,500 | 37,657[83] | .. | 35,157 | 2,500 | 83,257 | .. | 80,757 | ||
| 4 | 2 | 1878 | 2 | ½ | .. | 250 | 12,500 | 23,400 | .. | 10,900 | 15,000 | 1,06,657 | .. | 91,657 | ||
| 5 | 4 | 1879 | 4 | 2 | ½ | 650 | 32,500 | 25,700 | 6,800 | .. | 47,500 | 1,32,357 | .. | 84,857 | ||
| 6 | 5 | 1880 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1,100 | 55,000 | 28,000 | 27,000 | .. | 1,02,500 | 1,60,357 | .. | 57,857 | ||
| 7 | 6 | 1881 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 1,500 | 75,000 | 42,000 | 33,000 | .. | 1,77,500 | 2,02,357 | .. | 24,857 | ||
| 8 | 7 | 1882 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1,800 | 90,000 | 39,000 | 51,000 | .. | 2,67,500 | 2,41,357 | 26,143 | .. | ||
| 9 | 7½ | 1883 | 7½ | 7 | 6 | 2,050 | 1,02,500 | 31,000 | 71,500 | .. | 3,70,000 | 2,72,357 | 97,643 | .. | ||
| 10 | 8 | 1884 | 8 | 7½ | 7 | 2,250 | 1,12,500 | 31,000 | 81,500 | .. | 4,82,500 | 3,03,357 | 1,79,143 | .. | ||
| 11 | 8 | 1885 | 8 | 8 | 7½ | 2,350 | 1,17,500 | 31,000 | 86,500 | .. | 6,00,000 | 3,34,357 | 2,65,643 | .. | ||
| 12 | 8 | 1886 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 2,400 | 1,20,000 | 31,000 | 89,000 | .. | 7,20,000 | 3,65,357 | 3,54,643 | .. | ||
| Year and Rate of yielding in maunds | Yield in maunds of 300 acres and its Value | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Year | Yield per acre as per page [170] | Supposed year | Rate yield of 100 acres, planted in 1875 | Rate yield of 100 acres, planted in 1876 | Rate yield of 100 acres, planted in 1877 | Total yearly yield in maunds | Value per maund |
| Mds. | Mds. | Mds. | Mds. | Mds. | Rs. 50 per maund, after cost of manufacture, packing,and transport are deducted, see pages [70] & [162] | ||
| 1 | .. | 1875 | .. | .. | .. | .. | |
| 2 | .. | 1876 | .. | .. | .. | .. | |
| 3 | ½ | 1877 | ½ | .. | .. | 50 | |
| 4 | 2 | 1878 | 2 | ½ | .. | 250 | |
| 5 | 4 | 1879 | 4 | 2 | ½ | 650 | |
| 6 | 5 | 1880 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1,100 | |
| 7 | 6 | 1881 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 1,500 | |
| 8 | 7 | 1882 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1,800 | |
| 9 | 7½ | 1883 | 7½ | 7 | 6 | 2,050 | |
| 10 | 8 | 1884 | 8 | 7½ | 7 | 2,250 | |
| 11 | 8 | 1885 | 8 | 8 | 7½ | 2,350 | |
| 12 | 8 | 1886 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 2,400 | |
| Yearly Results | Final Results | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| Receipt from sale of Tea | Total expenditure detailed at pages [164], [165], [166] | Yearly Profit | Yearly Loss | Total receipts to end of each year | Total expenditure to end of each year | Balance to credit end of each year | Balance to debit end of each year |
| Rs. | Rs. | Rs. | Rs. | Rs. | Rs. | Rs. | Rs. |
| .. | 22,600 | .. | 22,600 | .. | 22,600 | .. | 22,600 |
| .. | 23,000 | .. | 23,000 | .. | 45,600 | .. | 45,600 |
| 2,500 | 37,657[83] | .. | 35,157 | 2,500 | 83,257 | .. | 80,757 |
| 12,500 | 23,400 | .. | 10,900 | 15,000 | 1,06,657 | .. | 91,657 |
| 32,500 | 25,700 | 6,800 | .. | 47,500 | 1,32,357 | .. | 84,857 |
| 55,000 | 28,000 | 27,000 | .. | 1,02,500 | 1,60,357 | .. | 57,857 |
| 75,000 | 42,000 | 33,000 | .. | 1,77,500 | 2,02,357 | .. | 24,857 |
| 90,000 | 39,000 | 51,000 | .. | 2,67,500 | 2,41,357 | 26,143 | .. |
| 1,02,500 | 31,000 | 71,500 | .. | 3,70,000 | 2,72,357 | 97,643 | .. |
| 1,12,500 | 31,000 | 81,500 | .. | 4,82,500 | 3,03,357 | 1,79,143 | .. |
| 1,17,500 | 31,000 | 86,500 | .. | 6,00,000 | 3,34,357 | 2,65,643 | .. |
| 1,20,000 | 31,000 | 89,000 | .. | 7,20,000 | 3,65,357 | 3,54,643 | .. |
Remarks.
It will be seen from this table as follows:—
1. About Rs. 90,000 of capital is necessary to make a plantation as quick as this. If made more gradually, very much less would suffice.
2. There is no yearly profit until the fifth year.
3. By the eighth year all the outlay is recovered.
This table has been prepared with great care, and the authority for the figures assumed has been arrived at in previous parts. (See headings of the Cols. for the pages and note at foot.)
At the following pages will be found the calculations for the figures assumed:—Col. 2, page [170]; Col. 8, pages [70] and [162]; Col. 10, pages [164], [165], [166].
I believe this table represents truly what Tea, with all the necessary advantages detailed in the next page, can do.
The necessities for success in Tea are:—
- 1. A good climate.
- 2. A good site.
- 3. Perfect knowledge in Tea cultivation and Tea manufacture on the proprietor’s part or that of his manager.
- 4. Seed from a high class of plants.
- 5. Local or cheap imported labour.
- 6. Facilities for manuring.
- 7. Cheap transport.
Do not dispense, though, with even one of the seven points named, for the truth is simply, that Tea will pay very well with all the above advantages, but will utterly fail without them.
Such is my advice to intending beginners. To those who have gardens, I say, reduce your areas till of the size you can really cultivate them highly, and procure manure at any cost.
I shall not have written in vain, and Tea enterprise in India will flourish, if the motto of planters in future be—
“A full area, highly cultivated.”
[CHAPTER XXXI.]
PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF INDIAN TEA.
A few words on the past, the present, and the future of Indian Tea will now conclude this Essay, and will, I hope, be acceptable to the reader.
The subject is one of growing importance, but being a new one, there are points connected with it on which the public are very ignorant, and should be enlightened.
To begin with, the following facts are not disputed by those who know anything of the subject:—
1. Indian Teas have far more body, that is strength, than Chinese Teas.
2. Indian Teas consequently command a higher price at the London sales than Chinese Teas.
3. In spite of its higher price, it is far more economical than the Chinese produce, as, generally speaking, one-third of the quantity suffices.
4. There are lands enough in India to grow all the Tea required for England’s use, and, indeed, for all her colonies.
If these are facts, and I confidentially affirm they are so, how is it that the following holds in England?
1. Indian Tea is not known to the public.
2. Except in one or two shops in London and Glasgow, unknown to the mass of the people, not an ounce of pure Indian Tea can be bought in all England.
3. That India is even a Tea-producing country is scarcely known in England.[84]
I think I can explain some of these anomalies.
Tea is an acquired taste: by which I mean, not only that the adult who had never tasted Tea would not like it when first offered to him, but also that, with those who consume it regularly, any Tea that differs in flavour from what is habitually drunk is not relished.
It matters not whether it is intrinsically better or worse, enough that the flavour is different, for that reason it is not liked.
Indian Tea differs widely from Chinese Tea, and for that reason is rarely appreciated by those accustomed to the latter.
For a long time it appeared as if this difficulty would be a bar to the general introduction of Indian Teas in England, and so indeed it would have proved, had the short-sighted policy adopted at the commencement by one or two Indian Companies that their Teas should be sold retail and pure, that is, unmixed with Chinese, been followed out. It did not avail to tell John Bull it was better Tea, that it was far stronger, that it was in no way adulterated; for he simply shook his head, the flavour was different to what use had made him familiar with, and he would none of it.
But little by little, in spite of the above, it made its way. Grocers soon found that the worst, id est, the weakest class of Chinese Teas received body and were made saleable by an addition of Indian Tea. It was not long after this that the trade discovered that pretty well all Chinese Teas were improved, if proportions of Indian Teas were mixed with them. In short, the fact was recognised by Tea vendors that Chinese Teas were weak, and much improved if mixed with Indian.
The public were thus educated to relish the superior flavour of Indian Tea, and did so, when the quantity mixed with the Chinese was not so great as to make the new flavour too prononcé. Little by little the custom of so mixing became very general, so much so that it may almost be said to-day that if Indian Teas cannot be purchased pure, no more can Chinese. A mixture of Chinese and Indian Tea, the latter small as compared with the former, is what is now generally used in Great Britain.
This is the case to-day. What will it be in the future?
As the English palate is educated to like the flavour of Indian Tea, more and more of it will be demanded in the mixture made up for the public, and though the day is distant, nay, may never arrive, on account of its greater cost, when it will be generally drunk pure, I do not myself doubt that the demand for it will go on steadily increasing for years to come, as it has for years past.[85]
It is an important query if, with a largely increased demand, the supply will be equal to it. Very far from all India has a good Tea climate, which is a peculiar one, and only exists in perfection in Assam, Cachar, Chittagong, and lands in Bengal close to the foot of the Himalayas.
But in these districts alone there are lands sufficient to supply nearly the whole world with Tea, so that it is not the lands which are wanting, though the Government prices for the lands are prohibitory and will check cultivation. But in Assam, Cachar, and the Terai below the Himalayas labour is very scarce, while in Chittagong the area fit for Tea is not large, so that I do not anticipate any very sudden increase of the cultivation, though year by year it is on the increase and will so continue.
On the other hand, I do not—for the reasons stated, viz., that Tea is an acquired taste and thus a new kind is not at first palatable—anticipate any very sudden increase in the demand. If, however, I am wrong, and from a largely increased demand the prices of Indian Teas rise, I do not doubt that the cultivation will be greatly extended, and that after an interval of four years (it takes that time for the Tea plant to produce) the supply will be equal to the then wants of the English market.
The future of Indian Tea is, I think, a bright one, and I know nothing in which capital can be more profitably invested if the business is conducted with knowledge and experience, but to embark in it without these two requisites is ruin.
A few figures may be given here. The imports into Great Britain of Indian Teas have been yearly increasing, till in 1873 they amounted to 18,367,000 lbs., and, judging from the estimate out here of the produce this year, viz., 1874, the imports into Great Britain in 1874 will not be far short of 20,000,000 lbs.[86]
But as the annual consumption of Tea in the United Kingdom is not less than 130,000,000 lbs., India is still very far from supplying enough to give a mixture of three-fourths Chinese and one-fourth India Tea.[87]
The finest Chinese Tea sells in London in bond at 2s. 4d. to 2s. 6d., while the finest Indian in bond fetches 3s. to 3s. 6d.[88]
What, then, will be the future of Indian Tea? It is an important query. The industry is one which, if successful, might attain to wide limits, and help not a little to relieve the Indian State Exchequer, while it would afford occupation to many a class of Englishmen who at present look about in vain for employment.
Tea speculation has passed through the first two preliminary phases to which most new ventures are liable. First, we had the wild rush, the mad fever, when every man thought that to own a few Tea bushes was to realise wealth. In those days existing plantations were bought at eight and ten times their value; nominal areas of 500 acres were paid for which, on subsequent measurement, proved to be under 100; new gardens were commenced on impossible sites, and by men as managers who not only did not know a Tea plant from a cabbage, but who were equally ignorant of the commonest rules of agriculture. Boards highly paid, with secretaries still more liberally remunerated, were formed both in Calcutta and London to carry on the enterprise; and, in short, money was lavished in every conceivable way, while mismanagement ran rampant in each department. It is not strange that the whole thing collapsed: the wonder is it did not do so earlier.
The second stage was then entered upon. Numbers had been bitten, and the idea, once formed, grew apace, that Tea could not pay at all. Everyone wanted to sell, and down went all Tea shares to a figure which only increased the general panic. Many companies, and not a few individuals, unable to carry on, had to wind up and sell their estates for whatever they would fetch. Gardens that had cost lakhs were sold for as many hundreds, and the very word “Tea” stank in the nostrils of the commercial public. A few of the best companies held on, as also such individuals embarked in the speculation as could weather the storm; but some of the companies were bowed down with heavy debts, and it has been with many, from that cause, a losing race ever since.
This great smash occurred in 1867. I purpose, therefore, to examine into the future prospects of the industry, now that time has been given to test its vitality. Naturally the mistakes made at the first have not been repeated since, so the speculation has had more or less of a fair chance to show what it can do.
In the first place, the share list of Tea companies in the public prints does not at all represent the true position of Tea property to-day. It only gives the dividends declared and the value of the shares in those few limited liability companies which were able to weather the storm, but who, in common with all the others, were bowed down with debt, and are suffering up to the present time, both from that and the numberless mistakes made at the commencement of the enterprise. There are a few notable exceptions, even among the Tea companies. Some of these have done very well, pay large dividends, and are quoted at a high premium, which shows that Tea can and will pay even with the disadvantages attached to limited liability companies. I mean that in these latter work is always expensively done, and that much of the profits are swallowed up by secretaries, directors, &c., besides which, generally from interested motives, the Teas are sent home for sale which private planters know from experience is not the best plan.
But to return to the share list. The very many gardens held by firms or private individuals are absent, and inasmuch as many of these were begun more lately, and consequently, the blunders made in other gardens were avoided, it is evident that their position, if it could be ascertained, would give the true picture needed.
There is one class of plantations which it would be by no means fair to include. I mean those gardens bought for a mere song during the panic. On many of these necessarily enormous profits have been made, but it proves nothing, inasmuch as the profits, to be legitimate profits for criticism, should on the debit side include the whole cost incurred in making the plantation. To form a fair appreciation of the profits Tea planting can give, we must select gardens constructed after knowledge on the subject was attained, where good management, combined with economy in all details, has been carried out, and where the necessary natural conditions for success exist—and such are rare.
But first let me explain what I mean by the “necessary natural conditions for success.” Manageable areas; flat or nearly flat land for the garden; a good class of indigenous and hybrid plants; local labour, or anyhow a good proportion of this; facilities for manuring; a good soil; a good Tea climate; and cheap means of transport constitute these, and where they exist I hold Tea must, and does, pay well. I don’t believe in plantations of 600 or 800 acres; some of these pay, but they would pay much better if reduced in size. A garden of 300 acres, yielding even at the rate of four maunds an acre, will pay much better than another of 500 acres, yielding but two and a-half or three maunds.
The reason is obvious, the larger produce is against a smaller expenditure. Were I to commence a Tea plantation to-day, it should not exceed 300 or 400 acres in size. This passion for large areas is the rock on which, more than any other, Tea Companies have wrecked themselves; experience has already shown this, and will show it more, as time goes on.
Flat land for Tea gardens is a great desideratum. Steep lands are difficult to cultivate; the soil is continually washing away from the roots of the plants; it is impossible to manure them successfully, and the consequence of all this is that the Tea bushes do not thrive.
The Chinese plant gives a small and inferior produce, the indigenous and hybrid kind a larger and very superior one; thus I think the latter one of the “necessary conditions for success.” On the other points, with the exception of manuring, nothing need be said, inasmuch as their necessity is evident; but on the point of manure I must say a few words. The Tea plant is being continually denuded of its leaves; nothing is returned to the soil; and consequently in process of time that soil is exhausted. It was held once that manure destroyed the flavour of Tea. This idea, at variance with all agricultural experience, is now completely exploded, like many others received from the Chinamen who first came from the Flowery Land to teach the art of Tea cultivation and Tea manufacture to the Indian public. Many of them had never perhaps seen a Tea bush, anyhow in many respects theirs was faulty teaching, and all experienced planters are convinced, and it is truth, that more knowledge on Tea exists in India than China at the present time.
But to return to the subject of manure. It is, and is now generally allowed to be, a necessity to the lengthened and successful maintenance of a plantation. Means for its production are now largely adopted in Assam and Cachar, and the results will be a yield per acre the most sanguine have never dreamt of. Chittagong, on this head, has great advantages; manure in any quantity can there be procured for a trifle, and the results have shown its great value.
We have scarcely yet entered on the third stage to which any new speculation, after the two first (the wild venture, and the unreasoning panic have passed), tends; but as knowledge of the financial results of Tea plantations in the hands of private firms and private individuals increases, that third stage will dawn, if it has not done so already. It consists in a sober appreciation of the subject opposed to both the extremely exulting and depressing views passed through, and when it arrives, the great and successful future of Indian Tea will be only a question of time.
[ADDITIONS TO THE FOURTH EDITION.]
[CHAPTER XXXII.]
COUNTRIES OUTSIDE CHINA AND INDIA THAT PRODUCE TEA.
So much has the industry marched since the Third Edition was published in 1878 that I think it well to add the following pages to my book.
I will first consider the countries outside India and China which produce Tea, or wish to do so.