The seed of indigenous, hybrid, and Chinese is like in appearance, and cannot be distinguished. Thus, when seed formerly was got from a distance, the purchaser was at the mercy of the vendor.
High cultivation improves the class of a Tea plant. Thus, a purely China bush, if highly cultivated and well manured, will in two or three years assume a hybrid character. High cultivation will therefore improve the class of all the plants in a garden; but the cheapest and best plan with low class Chinese plants is to root them out and replace them with others, as will be explained hereafter. Low class seedlings should also be rooted out of nurseries.
I cannot conclude this chapter better than by giving an extract from the “Government Records” alluded to in a previous chapter, and I add a few remarks at foot, as otherwise the reader might be puzzled with some opinions expressed which are so much at variance with the generally received opinions on Tea to-day.
Kinds of Tea Plants cultivated.—“When Government resolved on trying the experiment of cultivating Tea in India, they deputed Dr. Gordon to China to acquire information respecting the cultivation and manufacture of Teas, and to procure Tea seeds. Aided by Dr. Gutzlaff he procured a quantity of seeds from the mountains in the Amoy districts. These seeds were sent to the Calcutta Botanical Garden, where they were sown in boxes. On germinating they were sent up the country in boats, some to Assam and some to Gurhmuktesur, and from thence to Kumaon and Gurhwal. From these plants date the commencement of the Tea plantations in the Himalayas.[17] Tea was first made in Kumaon in 1841, and the samples sent to England, and were pronounced to be of good quality, fitted for the home markets, and similar to the Oolong Souchong varieties. Thus Messrs. Thompson, of Mincing Lane, report on a sample sent by us to Dr. Royle in 1842: ‘The samples of Tea received belong to the Oolong Souchong kind, fine-flavoured and strong. This is equal to the superior black Tea generally sent as presents, and better for the most part than the Chinese Tea imported for mercantile purposes.’[18] By many it was supposed that there were different species of the Tea plant, and that the species cultivated in the south districts of China was different from that met with in the north. To solve this mystery, and at the same time procure the best varieties of the Tea plant, Mr. Fortune was deputed to China. By him large numbers of Tea plants were sent from different districts of China celebrated for their Teas, and are now thriving luxuriantly in all the plantations throughout the Kohistan of the North-west Provinces and Punjab. Both green and black Tea plants were sent, the former from Whey Chow, Mooyeen, Chusan, Silver Island, and Tein Tang, near Ningpo, and the latter from Woo-e San, Tein San, and Tsin Gan, in the Woo-e district.
Several varieties.
Assam species.
“That the Assam plant is a marked species is true, it being distinguished by its large membranous and lanceolate leaf, small flower, and upright growth.
“It is a very inferior plant for making Tea, and its leaves are therefore not used.[19] Though the plants received from the different districts of China do not differ from those first sent to the plantations, it is highly important to know that the Tea plants from well-known green and black Tea districts of China now exist in the plantations, as it is stated that local causes exert a great influence in the quality of the Teas as much as the manufacture does. The expense, therefore, incurred in stocking the Government plantations with the finest kinds and varieties of Tea plants procurable in China, though great, will be amply repaid. From them superior kinds of Tea are produced.”
The above extract is a sample of the said “Records.” They abound in errors and highly coloured statements, which induced many to embark in Tea on unfavourable sites, and “the red book” (it is bound in a red cover) is not exactly blessed by the majority of the Himalayan planters!