1. On land and cultivation.—From the observations already made upon the various tea farms which I have visited in the Himalayas, it will be seen that I do not approve of low flat lands being selected for the cultivation of the tea shrub. In China, which at present must be regarded as the model tea country, the plantations are never made in such situations, or they are so rare as not to have come under my notice. In that country they are usually formed on the lower slopes of the hills, that is, in such situations as those at Guddowli, Hawulbaugh, Almorah, Kutoor, &c., in the Himalayas. It is true that in the fine green tea country of Hwuy-chow, in China, near the town of Tunche, many hundred acres of flattish land are under tea cultivation. But this land is close to the hills, which jut out into it in all directions, and it is intersected by a river whose banks are usually from 15 to 20 feet above the level of the stream itself, not unlike those of the Ganges below Benares. In fact, it has all the advantages of hilly land such as the tea plant delights in. In extending the Himalaya plantation this important fact ought to be kept in view.
There is no scarcity of such land in these mountains, more particularly in Eastern Gurhwal and Kumaon. It abounds in the districts of Paorie, Kunour, Lohba, Almorah, Kutoor, and Bheemtal, and I was informed by Mr. Batten, that there are large tracts about Gungoli and various other places equally suitable. Much of this land is out of cultivation, as I have already stated, while the cultivated portions yield on an average only two or three annas per acre of revenue.
Such lands are of less value to the zemindars than low rice land, where they can command a good supply of water for irrigation. But I must not be understood to recommend poor worn out hill lands for tea cultivation,—land on which nothing else will grow. Nothing is further from my meaning. Tea in order to be profitable requires a good sound soil,—a light loam, well mixed with sand and vegetable matter, moderately moist, and yet not stagnant or sour. Such a soil, for example, as on these hill sides produces good crops of mundooa, wheat or millet, is well adapted for tea. It is such lands which I have alluded to as abounding in the Himalayas, and which are, at present, of so little value either to the Government, or to the natives themselves.
The system of Irrigation applied to tea in India is never practised in China. I did not observe it practised in any of the great tea countries which I visited. On asking the Chinese manufacturers whom I brought round, and who had been born and brought up in these districts, whether they had seen such a practice, they all replied, "no, that is the way we grow rice: we never irrigate tea." Indeed, I have no hesitation in saying that, in nine cases out of ten, the effects of irrigation are most injurious. When tea will not grow without irrigation, it is a sure sign that the land employed is not suitable for such a crop. It is no doubt an excellent thing to have a command of water in case of a long drought, when its agency might be useful in saving a crop which would otherwise fail, but irrigation ought to be used only in such emergent cases.
I have already observed that good tea land is naturally moist, although not stagnant; and we must bear in mind that the tea shrub is not a water plant, but is found in a wild state on the sides of hills. In confirmation of these views, it is only necessary to observe further, that all the best Himalayan plantations are those to which irrigation has been most sparingly applied.
In cultivating the tea shrub, much injury is often done to a plantation by plucking leaves from very young plants. In China young plants are never touched until the third or fourth year after they have been planted. If growing under favorable circumstances, they will yield a good crop after that time. All that ought to be done, in the way of plucking or pruning before that time, should be done with a view to form the plants, and make them bushy if they do not grow so naturally. If plucking is commenced too early and continued, the energies of the plants are weakened, and they are long in attaining any size, and consequently there is a great loss of produce in a given number of years. To make this more plain, I will suppose a bush that has been properly treated to be eight years of age. It may then be yielding from two to three pounds of tea per annum, while another of the same age, but not a quarter of the size, from over-plucking, is not giving more than as many ounces.
The same remarks apply also to plants which become unhealthy from any cause; leaves ought never to be taken from such plants; the gatherers should have strict orders to pass them over until they get again into a good state of health.
2nd. On climate.—I have already stated that eastern Gurhwal and Kumaon appear to me to be the most suitable for the cultivation of the tea plant in this part of the Himalayas. My remarks upon climate will therefore refer to this part of the country.
From a table of temperature kept at Hawulbaugh from November 28th, 1850, to July 13th, 1851, obligingly furnished me by Dr. Jameson, I observed that the climate here is extremely mild. During the winter months, the thermometer [Fahr.] at sunrise was never lower than 44 deg., and only on two occasions so low, namely on the 15th and 16th of February, 1851. Once it stood so high as 66 deg. on the morning of February 4th, but this is full ten degrees higher than usual. The minimum in February must, however, be several degrees lower than is shown by this table, for ice and snow were not unfrequent; indeed, opposite the 16th of February in the column of remarks, I find written down a very frosty morning. This discrepancy no doubt arises either from a bad thermometer being used, or from its being placed in a sheltered verandah. We may, therefore, safely mark the minimum as 32 deg. instead of 44 degrees.
The month of June appears to be the hottest in the year. I observe the thermometer on the 5th, 6th and 7th of that month stood at 92 deg. at 3 P.M., and this was the highest degree marked during the year. The lowest, at this hour, during the month was 76 deg., but the general range in the 3 P.M. column of the table is from 80 deg. to 90 degrees.