[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.