The first idea prevailing about Tea was that it should be planted on slopes. It was thought, and truly, that the plant was impatient of stagnant water, and so it is, but it is not necessary to plant it on slopes in consequence. Pictures of Chinese, suspended by chains (inasmuch as the locality could not be otherwise reached), picking Tea off bushes growing in the crevices of rocks, somewhat helped this notion; and when stated, as it was, that the Tea produced in such places was the finest, and commanded the highest price—which was not true—intending planters in India went crazy in their search for impracticable steeps! Much of the failure in Tea has arisen from this fact, for a great part of many, the whole of some, gardens have been planted on land so steep that the Tea can never last or thrive on it. This is especially the case in parts of the Darjeeling district.
Sloping land is objectionable in the following respects. It cannot be highly cultivated in any way (I hold Tea will only pay with high cultivation), for high cultivation consists in frequent digging, to keep the soil open and get rid of weeds, and liberal manuring. If such soil is dug in the rainy season, it is washed down to the foot of the hill, and if manure is applied at any time of the year, it experiences the same fate when the rain comes. As it cannot be dug, weeds necessarily thrive and diminish the yield by choking the plants.
The choice is therefore of two evils: “low cultivation and weeds,” or “high cultivation which bares the roots of the plants in a twelvemonth.” Of the two, the first must be chosen, for if the latter were pursued, the plants, getting gradually more and more denuded of soil, would simply topple over in two or three years. But choosing the lesser evil, the mischief is not confined to the bad effects of low cultivation. Dig the land as little as you will, the great force of the rains washes down a good deal of soil. The plants do not sink as the soil lowers, and the consequence is that all Tea plants on slopes have the lower side bare of earth and the roots exposed. This is more and more the case the steeper the slope. These exposed roots shrivel up as the sun acts on them, the plant languishes and yields very little leaf.
Attempts are made to remedy the mischief by carrying earth up from below yearly, and placing it under the plant; but the expense of doing this is great, and the palliation is only temporary, for the same thing occurs again and again as each rainy season returns.
The mischief is greater on stiff than on sandy soils, for on the former the earth is detached in great pieces and carried down the hill. I know one garden in Chittagong, a large one, where the evil is so great, that the sooner the cultivation is abandoned the better for the owners.
A great many gardens in India, indeed the majority, are on slopes; a few in Assam, the greater number in Cachar, some in Chittagong, and almost all the Himalayan plantations. Such of these as are on steep slopes will, I believe, never pay, and instead of improving yearly (as good gardens, highly cultivated, should do even after they have arrived at full bearing) such, I fear, will deteriorate year by year.
Plantations on moderate slopes need not fail because of the slopes. The evils slight slopes entail are not great, but the sooner the fact is accepted that sloping cannot vie against flat land for the cultivation of Tea the better.
Where only the lower parts of slopes are planted, the plants do very well. The upper part being jungle the wash is not great, and the plants benefit much by the rich vegetable matter the rain brings down from above. I have often seen very fine plants on the lower part of slopes, where the upper has been left in jungle, and I should not hesitate to plant such portions if the slope was moderate.
Where teelah land, in Eastern Bengal, or sloping land in the Himalayas, Chittagong, or elsewhere, has to be adopted, aspect is all-important. A good aspect in one climate is bad in another. In Assam, Cachar, Chittagong, and all warm places, choose the coolest; at high elevations (temperate climes), the warmest.