The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom / Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.

by P. L. Simmonds

This arrangement seems to have failed either from want of knowledge, or from design, or perhaps partly from both of these causes. More lately, a larger number of plants have been planted, but I regret to say with nearly the same results.

But results of this discouraging kind are what any one, acquainted with the nature of the tea plant, could have easily foretold, had the treatment, intended to be given it, been explained to him. Upon enquiry, I found the villagers had been managing the tea lands just as they had been doing their rice fields, that is, a regular system of irrigation was practised. As water was plentiful, a great number, indeed nearly all, the plants seem to have perished from this cause. The last planting alluded to had been done late in the spring, and just at the commencement of the dry weather, and to these plants little or no water seems to have been given; so that, in fact, it was going from one extreme to another equally bad, and the result was of course nearly the same.

I have no hesitation in saying that the district in question is well adapted for the cultivation of tea. With judicious management, a most productive farm might be established here in four or five years. Land is plentiful, and of little value either to the natives or to the Government.

2nd, at Kutoor.—This is the name of a large district 30 or 40 miles northward from Almorah, in the centre of which the old town or village of Byznath stands. It is a fine undulating country, consisting of wide valleys, gentle slopes, and little hills, while the whole is intersected by numerous streams, and surrounded by high mountains. The soil of this extensive district is most fertile, and is capable of producing large crops of rice, on the low irrigable lands, and the dry grains and tea on the sides of the hills. From some cause, however, either the thinness of population or the want of a remunerative crop,[15] large tracts of this fertile district have been allowed to go out of cultivation. Everywhere I observed ruinous and jungle-covered terraces, which told of the more extended cultivation of former years.

Amongst some hills near the upper portion of this district, two small tea plantations have been formed under the patronage and superintendence of Captain Ramsey, Senior Assistant Commissioner of Kumaon. Each of them cover three or four acres of land, and had been planted about a year before the time of my visit. In this short space of time the plants had grown into nice strong bushes, and were in the highest state of health. I never saw, even in the most favoured districts in China, any plantations looking better than these. This result, Captain Ramsay informed me, had been attained in the following simple manner:—All the land attached to the two villages with which the tea farms are connected, is exempted from the revenue tax, a sum amounting only to 525 Rs. per annum. In lieu of this, the assamees (cultivators) of both villages assist with manure, and at the transplanting season, as well as ploughing and preparing fresh land. In addition to this, one chowdree and four prisoners are constantly employed upon the plantations. The chief reason of the success of these plantations, next to that of the land being well suited for tea cultivation, may, no doubt, be traced to a good system of management; that is, the young plants have been carefully transplanted at the proper season of the year, when the air was charged with moisture, and they have not been destroyed by excessive irrigation afterwards. The other zemindaree plantation at Lohba might have been now in full bearing had the same system been followed.

From the description thus given, it will be observed that I consider the Kutoor plantations in a most flourishing condition. And I have no doubt they will continue to flourish, and soon convince the zemindars of the value of tea cultivation, providing three things, intimately connected with the success of the crop are strongly impressed upon their minds; viz., the unsuitableness of low wet lands for tea cultivation; the folly of irrigating tea as they would do rice, and the impropriety of commencing the plucking before the plants are strong, and of considerable size. I am happy to add, that amongst these hills there are no foolish prejudices in the minds of the natives against the cultivation of tea. About the time of my visit, a zemindar came and begged two thousand plants, to enable him to commence tea growing on his own account.

It is of great importance, that the authorities of a district, and persons of influence, should show an interest in a subject of this kind. At present the natives do not know its value; but they are as docile as children, and will enter willingly upon tea cultivation, providing the "Sahib" shows that he is interested in it. In a few years the profits received will be a sufficient inducement.

In concluding this part of my Report, I beg to suggest the propriety of obtaining some of the best varieties of the tea plant which have been introduced lately into the government plantations from China. Dr. Jameson could, no doubt, spare a few, but they ought to be given to those zemindars only who have succeeded with the original variety.

Having described in detail the various government plantations, and also those of the zemindars which came under my notice in the Himalayas, I shall now make some general remarks upon the cultivation of tea in India, and offer some suggestions for its improvement.

GENERAL REMARKS.