THE
CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE
OF
TEA.

THE
CULTIVATION & MANUFACTURE
OF
TEA,

BY
LIEUT.-COL. EDWARD MONEY,

THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT OF WHICH SECURED THE PRIZE OF THE GRANT GOLD MEDAL AND Rs. 300, AWARDED BY THE AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF INDIA IN THE YEAR 1871.

FOURTH EDITION,
REVISED AND SUPPLEMENTED BY ADDITIONAL CHAPTERS.

LONDON:
W. B. WHITTINGHAM & CO., 91, GRACECHURCH STREET.
CALCUTTA: THACKER & CO.
1883.

PREFACE
TO
THE FOURTH EDITION.

Six new Chapters are added. So much has been done in Tea since I last wrote, I found it impossible to embody all in the former book, and so preferred to give it separately. The new Chapters treat of—

• Countries outside China and India that produce Tea.
• Tea Statistics.
• Markets for Tea outside Great Britain.
• Making Indian Tea known in the United Kingdom.
• Tea Machinery.
• Weighing and Bulking of Indian Teas at Custom House.

A separate and full Index of the subjects treated of in the additions to this Fourth Edition will be found at the end of the Book.

EDWARD MONEY.

East India Club, St. James’s Square,
July, 1883.

PREFACE
TO
THE THIRD EDITION.

The experience of four more years, which includes six months’ residence in the Neilgherries, is embodied in the following, while the whole of the letter-press of the Second Edition has been corrected and revised.

EDWARD MONEY.

London,
April, 1878.

[PREFACE]
TO
THE SECOND EDITION.

Three years’ further experience, and visiting two Tea districts I had not seen before, have enabled me to amend whatever was faulty in the First Edition. The whole has been revised, and much new matter is added throughout. A new Chapter at the end on the Past, the Present, and the Future of Indian Tea will, it is hoped, be found interesting. An Index (a great want to the First Edition) is added, so that all information on any point can be at once found. The manufacture of Green Tea, of which I was ignorant when I last wrote, is given, and the advisability of that manufacture is discussed.

In its present form I hope and believe this little work will be found useful and interesting to all connected with Tea.

EDWARD MONEY.

Darjeeling,
May, 1874.

PREFACE
TO
THE FIRST EDITION.

The following Essay was written with, firstly, the object of competing for the Gold Medal and the Money Prize offered by the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India for the best treatise on the cultivation and manufacture of Tea; and, secondly, with the view of arranging the hundreds of notes on these subjects, which, in the course of eleven years, I had collected.

During all these years I have been a Tea planter, making first for myself and others a garden in the Himalayas, and for the last six years doing the same thing for myself in the Chittagong district.

Whenever I have visited other plantations (and I have seen a great number in many districts), I have brought away notes of all I saw. Up to the last, at every such visit, I have learnt something—if rarely nothing to follow, something at least to avoid. I have now tested all and everything connected with the cultivation and manufacture of Tea by my own experience, and I can only hope that what I have written will be found useful to an industry destined yet, I believe, in spite of the late panic—the natural result of wild speculation—to play an important part in India.

I have endeavoured to adapt this Essay to the wants of a beginner, as there are many of that class now, and may yet be more in days to come, who must feel, as I often have, the want of a really practical work on Tea.

To those who have Tea properties in unlikely climates and unlikely sites, I would say two words. No view I have taken of the advantages of different localities can in any way affect the results of enterprises already entered upon. But if the note of warning, sounded in the following pages, checks further losses in Tea, already so vast, while it fosters the cultivation on remunerative sites, I shall not have written in vain.

EDWARD MONEY.

Sungoo River Plantation,
Chittagong,
November, 1870.

[CONTENTS]

PRIZE ESSAY
ON THE
Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea in India.

PREMIUM, THREE HUNDRED RUPEES AND THE GRANT GOLD MEDAL.

[CHAPTER I.]
PAST AND PRESENT FINANCIAL PROSPECTS OF TEA.

Will Tea pay? Certainly, on a suitable site, and in a good Tea climate; equally certainly not in a bad locality with other drawbacks.

Why, then, has Tea only paid during the last few years (?) Simply because nothing will pay, which is embarked on without the requisite knowledge; and this was pre-eminently the case with Tea.

Nothing was known of Tea formerly, when everybody rushed into it; not much is known even now. Still, with those drawbacks and many others, the enterprise has survived, and it is very certain the day will never come that Tea cultivation will cease in India.

I believe there is nothing will pay better than Tea, if embarked on with the necessary knowledge in suitable places, but failing either of these success must not be hoped for.

It was madness to expect aught but ruin, under the conditions which the cultivation was entered on in the Tea-fever days. People who had failed in everything else were thought quite competent to make plantations. ’Tis true Tea was so entirely a new thing at that time, but few could be found who had any knowledge of it. Still, had managers with some practice in agriculture been chosen, the end would not have been so disastrous. But any one—literally any one—was taken, and tea planters in those days were a strange medley of retired or cashiered army and navy officers, medical men, engineers, veterinary surgeons, steamer captains, chemists, shop-keepers of all kinds, stable-keepers, used-up policemen, clerks, and goodness knows who besides!

Is it strange the enterprise failed in their hands? Would it not have been much stranger if it had not?

This was only one of the many necessities for failure. I call them “necessities” as they appear to have been so industriously sought after in some cases. I must detail them shortly, for to expatiate on them would fill a book.

No garden should exceed 500 acres under Tea. If highly cultivated one of even half that size will pay enormously, far better than a larger area with low cultivation. Add, say, 400 acres for charcoal, &c., making 900 or say 1,000 acres the outside area that can be required, and the outside that should ever have been purchased for any one estate. Instead of this, individuals and Companies rushing into Tea bought tracts of five, ten, fifteen, and twenty thousand acres. The idea was that, though it might not be all cultivated, by taking up so large an area all the local labour where there was any would be secured. Often, however, these large tracts were purchased where local labour there was none, and what the object there was is a mystery. I conceive, however, there was a hazy idea that if 500 acres paid well, 1,000 would pay double, and that eventually even two or three thousand acres would be put under Tea and make the fortunate possessor a millionaire. In short, there were no bounds, in fancy, to the size a garden might be made, and thus loss No. 2 took place when absurdly large areas were bought of the Government and large areas cultivated.

The only fair rules for the sale of waste lands were those of Lord Canning, which the Secretary of State at home, who could know nothing of the subject, chose to modify and upset. Instead of Rs. 2-8 per acre for all waste lands (by no means a low price, when the cost of land in the Colonies is considered) and that the applicant for the land (who had, perhaps, spent months seeking for it) should have it, the illiberal and unjust method of putting the land up to auction with an upset price of Rs. 2-8 was adopted, the unfortunate seeker, finder, and applicant, through whose labour the land had been found, having no advantage over any other bidder. The best, at least the most successful plan in those days, though as unfair and illiberal as the Government action, was to wait till some one, who was supposed to know what good Tea land was, applied for a piece, and then bid half an anna more than he did, and thus secure it. It paid much better than hunting about for oneself, and it was kind and considerate on the part of Government to devise such a plan!

In those fever days, with the auction system, lands almost always sold far above their value. The most absurd prices, Rs. 10 and upwards per acre, were sometimes paid for wild jungle lands. Tracts, which natives could have, and in some cases did lease from Government for inconceivably small sums, representing, say, at thirty years’ purchase, 4 annas per acre, were put up for auction with a limit of Rs. 2-8, and sold perhaps at Rs. 8 or 10 per acre. Had the Government given land gratis to Tea cultivators the policy would have been a wise one. To do what they did was scarcely acting up to their professed wish “to develope the resources of the country.”

Since the above was written, new rules have been published for the sale of waste lands. The objectionable auction system is continued, and the upset price is much enhanced, as follows:—

Schedule of Rates of Upset Prices.

It is not likely that Government will sell much land at such exorbitant rates.[1]

Security of title, it is generally thought, is one of the advantages of buying land from the State; but I grieve to state my experience is that the reverse is the case, and will so remain until the following is done:—

First. The Government should learn what is and what is not theirs to sell. Such an absurdity, then, as Government ascertaining, years after the auction, that they had sold lands they had no right to sell, could not be.

Secondly. That before land is sold it be properly surveyed and demarcated; and what might so easily have been done, and which alone would have compensated for much of bad procedure in other respects, that the simple and obvious plan before the sale, of sending a European official to show the neighbouring villagers and intending purchasers the boundaries of the land to be sold, be resorted to.

This last simple expedient would have saved some grantees years of litigation, and many a hard thought of the said grantees against the Government. It would naturally occur to any one at all conversant with the subject; but, alas! in India this is often not the condition under which laws are made.

But there is another difficulty at the back of all this.

Though the Waste Land Rules enact that the Government, and not the grantee, shall be the defendant in any claim for land within a lot sold, practically the said enactment in no way saves grantees from litigation. Claimants for land always plead that it is not within the boundaries of the land sold, and ergo the grantee is made the defendant to prove that it is. The villagers never having been shown the boundaries by any Government official (for it is not enacted in the Waste Land Rules), the question whether the land claimed is within or without the boundaries is an open one, not always easily decided, and the suit runs its course.

I even know of cases where, though survey has been charged for at the exorbitant rate of four annas an acre, the outer boundaries of the lot have never been surveyed at all, but merely copied from old Collectorate maps, which showed the boundaries between the zemindaree and waste lands.[2] Is it strange, then, if buying lands from Government is often buying litigation, worry, loss of time and money.

In many countries, for example Prussia (there I know it is so, for I have tested it again and again), there are official records which can and do show to whom any land in question belongs. This may scarcely be practicable in India, but surely the question of title being, as it is, in a far worse state in India than in most countries, any change would be for the better. Anyhow, the present mode the Government adopts in selling lands is a grievous wrong to the purchasers. Words cannot describe the worry and loss some have suffered thereby, and it might all be so easily avoided.

I have above detailed two of the drawbacks Tea had to contend with in its infancy; the absurdly high price paid for land was the third.

Again, companies and proprietors of gardens wishing to have large areas under cultivation gave their managers simple orders to extend, not judiciously, but in any case. What was the result? Gardens might be seen in those days with 200 acres of so-called cultivation, but with 60 or even 70 per cent. vacancies, in which the greater part of the labour available was employed in clearing jungle for 100 acres further extension in the following spring. I have seen no garden in Assam or Cachar with less than 20 per cent. vacancies, many with far more; and yet most of them were extending. I do not believe now any garden in all India exists with less than 12 per cent. vacancies, but a plantation as full as this did not exist formerly.

As the expenditure on a garden is in direct proportion to the area cultivated, and the yield of Tea likewise in direct proportion to the number of plants, it follows the course adopted was the one exactly calculated to entail the greatest expenditure for the smallest yield. This unnecessary, this wilful extension, was the fourth and a very serious drawback.

Under this head the fourth drawback may also be included—the fact that the weeds in all plantations were ahead of the labour; that is to say, that gardens were not kept clean. This is more or less even the case to-day; it was the invariable rule then. The consequence was two-fold—first, a small yield of Tea; secondly, an increased expenditure; for it is a fact that the land fifty men can keep always clean, if the weeds are never allowed to grow to maturity and seed, will take nearer one hundred if the weeds once get ahead. The results, too, differ widely: in the first case the soil is always clear; in the second clear only at intervals. The first, as observed, can be accomplished with fifty, the latter will take nearly double the men.

The fifth drawback I shall advert to again later, viz., the selection of sloping land, often the steepest that could be found, on which to plant Tea. The great mischief thus entailed will be fully described elsewhere. It was the fifth, and not the least, antagonistic point to success.

Number six was the difficulty in the transport of seed to any new locality, for nine times out of ten a large proportion failed; and again the enormous cost of Tea seed in those days, Rs. 200 a maund (Rs. 500 at least, deducting what failed, was its real price). This item of seed alone entailed an enormous outlay, and was the sixth difficulty Tea cultivation had to contend with. It was, however, a source of great profit to the old plantations, and principally accounts for the large dividends paid for years by the Assam Company.

Again, many managers at that time had no experience to guide them in the manufacture of Tea; each made it his own way, and often turned out most worthless stuff. There is great ignorance on the subject at the present time, but those who know least to-day, know more than the best informed in the Tea-fever period. Indian Tea was a new thing then; the supply was small, and it fetched comparatively much higher prices than it does now. Still much of it was so bad that the average price all round was low.

Tea manufacture, moreover, as generally practised then, was a much more elaborate and expensive process than it is now.

This will be explained further on, under the head of “Tea Manufacture;” I merely now state the fact in support of the assertion that the bad Tea made in those days, and the expensive way it was done, was the seventh hindrance to successful Tea cultivation.

Often in those days was a small garden made of 30 or 40 acres, and sold to a Company as 150 or 200 acres! I am not joking. It was done over and over again. The price paid, moreover, was quite out of proportion to even the supposed area. Two or three lakhs of rupees (20,000l. or 30,000l.) have been often paid for such gardens, when not more than two years old, and 40 per cent. of the existing area, vacancies. The original cultivators “retired” and the Company carried on. With such drags upon them (apart from all the other drawbacks enumerated) could success be even hoped for? Certainly not.

I could tell of more difficulties the cultivation had to contend with at the outset, but I have said enough to show, as I remarked, “that it was not strange Tea enterprise failed, inasmuch as it would have been much stranger if it had not.”

Do any of the difficulties enumerated exist now? And may a person embarking in Tea to-day hope, with reasonable hope, for success? Yes, certainly, I think as regard the latter—the former let us look into.[3]

People who understand more or less of Tea are plentiful, and a good manager, who knows Tea cultivation and Tea manufacture well, may be found. It will scarcely pay to buy land of the Government at the present high rates, but many people hold large tracts in good Tea localities, and would readily sell.

There is plenty of flat land to be got, so no evil from slopes need be incurred.

Tea seed is plentiful and cheap.

The manufacture of Tea (though still progressing) is simple, economical, and more or less known. Anyhow a beginner now will commence where others have left off.

Of course to buy a made garden cheap is better than to make one; but the result in this case is of course no criterion of what profit may be expected from Tea cultivation.

As many of the items to be calculated under the heads of cultivation, manufacture, and receipts will be better understood after details on these subjects are gone into, I shall reserve the consideration of “how much profit Tea can give” to the end of this treatise.

[CHAPTER II.]
LABOUR, LOCAL AND IMPORTED.

When the very large amount of labour required to carry on a plantation is considered, it is evident that facilities for it are a sine quâ non to success. Assam and Cachar, the two largest Tea districts, are very thinly populated, and almost entirely dependent on imported labour.[4] The expense of this is great, and it is the one, and consequently a great drawback to those provinces. The only district I know of with a good Tea climate and abundance of local labour is Chittagong.[5] Several other places have a good supply of local labour, but then their climates are not very suitable.

Each coolie imported costs Rs. 30 and upwards (it used to be much more) ere he arrives on the garden and does any work. After arrival he has to be housed; to be cared for and physicked when sick; to be paid when ill as when working; to have work found for him, or paid to sit idle when there is no work; and in addition to all this every death, every desertion, is a loss to the garden of the whole sum expended in bringing the man or woman. Contrast this with the advantages of local labour. In many cases no expense for buildings is necessary, as the labourers come daily to work from adjacent villages, and in such cases no expense is entailed by sick men, for these simply remain at home. There is no loss by death or desertions. When no work is required on the garden, labour is simply not employed. All this makes local labour, even where the rate of wages is high, very much cheaper than imported.

The action of Government in the matter of imported labour has much increased the difficulties and expense necessarily attendant on it. It is a vexed and a very long question which I care not to enter into minutely, for it has been discussed already ad nauseam; still I must put on record my opinion, after looking very closely into it, that the Government has not acted wisely, inasmuch as any State interference in the relations of employer and employed (outside the protection which the existing laws give) is a radical mistake. As for the law passed on the subject to the effect that a coolie who has worked out his agreement and voluntarily enters into a new one shall be, as before, under Government protection, and his employer answerable as before to Government, for the way he is housed, treated when sick, &c., it is not easy to see why such enactments are more necessary in his case than in that of any other hired servant or labourer throughout all India.

All evidence collected, all enquiries made, tend to show that coolies are well treated on Tea estates. It is the interest of the proprietors and managers to do so, and self-interest is a far more powerful inducement than any the Government can devise. The meddling caused by the visits of the “Protector of Coolies”[6] to a garden conduces to destroy the kind feelings which should (and in spite of these hindrances often do) exist between the proprietor or manager and his men. I do not hesitate in my belief that imported coolies on Tea plantations would be better off in many ways were all Government interference abolished.

I do not decry Government action to the extent of seeing the coolies understand their terms of engagements, and are cared for on their journey to the Tea districts; but once landed on the garden, all Government interference should cease.

The idea of the State laying down how many square yards of jungle each coolie shall clear in a day, how many square feet he shall dig, &c., &c.! Can any certain rates be laid down for such work? Is all jungle the same, all soil the same; and even if such rates could be laid down, how can the rules be followed? Bah! they are not, never will be, and the whole thing is too childish for serious discussion.

It is not difficult to sit at a desk and frame laws and rules that look feasible on paper. It is quite another thing to carry them out. Over-legislation is a crying evil in India, but there is still a worse, namely, legislation and official action on subjects of which the said officials are utterly ignorant.

I have said enough to show imported labour cannot vie with local, nor would it do so were all the evils of Government interference removed. I therefore believe Tea property in India will eventually pay best where local labour exists. This will naturally be the case when other conditions are equal, but so great are the advantages of local labour, I believe it will also be the case in spite of moderate drawbacks.

[CHAPTER III.]
TEA DISTRICTS AND THEIR COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES, CLIMATE, SOIL, ETC., IN EACH.

The Tea districts in India, that is, where Tea is grown in India to-day, are—[7]

• 1. Assam.
• 2. The Dehra Dhoon.
• 3. Kumaon (Himalayas).
• 4. Darjeeling (Himalayas).
• 5. Cachar and Sylhet.[8]
• 6. Kangra (Himalayas).
• 7. Hazareebaugh.
• 8. Chittagong.
• 9. Terai below Darjeeling.
• 10. Neilgherries (Madras Hills).
• 11. Western Dooars.

In fixing on any district to plant Tea in, four things have to be considered—viz., soil, climate, labour, and means of transport. When—the district being selected—a site has to be chosen, all but the second of these have to be considered again, and the lay of land, nature of jungle, water, and sanitation are also of great importance in choosing a site.

I will first, then, discuss generally the Tea districts given above as regards the advantages of each for Tea cultivation. I have seen and studied Tea gardens in all the districts named, except No. 2. What I know of the Dehra Dhoon is from what I have read, and what is generally known of the climate.

Before, however, comparing each district, we should know what are the necessities of the Tea plant as regards climate and soil. Tea, especially the China variety, will grow in very varying climates and soils, but it will not flourish in all of them, and if it does not flourish, and flourish well, it will certainly not pay.

The climate required for Tea is a hot damp one. As a rule, a good Tea climate is not a healthy one. The rainfall should not be less than 80 to 100 inches per annum, and the more of this that falls in the early part of the year the better. Any climate which, though possessing an abundant rainfall, suffers from drought in the early part of the year is not, cæteris paribus, so good as one where the rain is more equally diffused. All the Tea districts would yield better with more rain in February, March, and April; and therefore some, where fogs prevail in the mornings at the early part of the year, are so far benefited.

As any drought is prejudicial to Tea, it stands to reason hot winds must be very bad. These winds argue great aridity, and the Tea plant luxuriates in continual moisture.

The less cold weather experienced where Tea is, the better for the plant. It can stand, and will grow in, great cold (freezing point, and lower in winter, is found in some places where Tea is), but I do not think it will ever be grown to a profit on such sites. That Tea requires a temperate climate was long believed and acted upon by many to their loss. The climate cannot be too hot for Tea if the heat is accompanied with moisture.

Tea grown in temperate climes, such as moderate elevations in the Himalayas, is quite different to the Tea of hot moist climates, such as Eastern Bengal. Some people like it better, and certainly the flavour is more delicate; but it is very much weaker, and the value of Indian Tea (in the present state of the home market, where it is principally used for giving “body” to the washy stuff from China) consists in its strength. Another all-important point in fixing on a climate for Tea is the fact, that apart from the strength the yield is double in hot, moist climes, what it is in comparatively dry and temperate ones. A really pleasant climate to live in cannot be a good one for Tea. I may now discuss the comparative merits of the different Tea districts.

Assam.

This is the principal home of the indigenous plant. The climate in the northern portions is perfect, superior to the southern, as more rain falls in the spring. The climate of the whole of Assam, however, is very good for Tea. The Tea plant yields most abundantly when hot sunshine and showers intervene. For climate, then, I accord the first place to Northern Assam. Southern Assam is, as observed, a little inferior.

The soil of this province is decidedly rich. In many places there is a considerable coating of decayed vegetation on the surface, and inasmuch as in all places where Tea has been or is likely to be planted it is strictly virgin soil, considerable nourishment exists. The prevailing soil also is light and friable, and thus, with the exception of the rich oak soil in parts of the Himalayas, Assam in this respect is second to none.

As regards labour we must certainly put it the last on the list. The Assamese, and they are scanty, won’t work, so the planters, with few exceptions, are dependent on imported coolies; and inasmuch as the distance to bring them is enormous, the outlay on this head is large, and a sad drawback to successful Tea cultivation.

The Burhampootra—that vast river which runs from one end of Assam to the other—gives an easy mode of export for the Tea, but still, owing to the distance from the sea-board, it cannot rank in this respect as high as some others.

Cachar.

The indigenous Tea is also found in a part of this province. The climate differs but little from Assam. In one respect it is better; more rain falls in the spring.

The soil is not equal to Assamese soil; it is more sandy, and lacks the power. Again, there is much more flat land fit for Tea cultivation in Assam, and there can be no doubt as to the advantage of level surfaces.

As regards transport Cachar has the advantage, for it has equally a water-way, and is not so distant from Calcutta.

The labour aspect is much the same in the two provinces, both being almost entirely dependent on imported coolies; but Cachar is nearer the labour fields than Assam.

However, after discussing separately the advantages of each province, I propose to draw up a tabular statement, which will show at a glance the comparative merits of each on each point discussed.

Chittagong.

This is a comparatively new locality for Tea. The climate is better than Cachar in the one respect that there is less cold weather, but inferior in the more important fact that much less rain falls in the spring. In this latter respect it is also inferior to Assam, particularly to Northern Assam. There is one part of Chittagong, the Hill Tracts (Tea has scarcely been much tried there yet), which, in the fact of spring rains, is superior to other parts of the province, as also in soil, for it is much richer there. On the whole, however, Chittagong must yield the palm to both Assam and Cachar on the score of climate, and also, I think, of soil. For though good rich tracts are occasionally met with, they are not so plentiful as in the two last-named districts. Always, however, excepting the Hill Tracts of Chittagong; there the soil is, I think, quite equal to either Assam or Cachar.

As regards labour (a very essential point to successful Tea cultivation), Chittagong is most fortunate. With few exceptions (and those only partial) all the plantations are carried on with local labour, which—excepting for about two months, the rice-time—is abundant.

For transport (being on the coast with a convenient harbour, a continually increasing trade, ships also running direct to and from England), it is very advantageously situated.

Chittagong possesses another advantage over all other Tea districts in its large supply of manure. The country is thickly populated, and necessarily large herds of cattle exist. The natives do not use manure for rice (almost the sole cultivation), and, consequently, planters can have it almost for the asking. The enormous advantages of manure in Tea cultivation are not yet generally appreciated: it will certainly double the ordinary yield of a Tea garden. A chapter is devoted to this subject.

Terai below Darjeeling.

I have seen this, and the Tea in it, since I wrote the first edition of this Essay.

The soil is very good for Tea. The climate is also a good one, but there is not as much rain in the early part of the year as planters could wish. Much difficulty exists about labour, owing to the very unhealthy climate. As the jungle is cleared, however, this last objection will be in a measure got over. As it stands now, it is perhaps the most unhealthy Tea locality in India.

Communication will be very easy when the Northern Bengal Railway is finished, which it will be immediately.

Except in the point of salubrity (which is, however, an important one), I think this locality a favourable one for Tea.

The Dehra Dhoon.

I have heard the first Tea in India was planted here. The lucky men, two officers, who commenced the plantation, sold it, I believe, in its infancy, to a company for five lakhs of rupees. What visions did Tea hold forth in those days!

In climate the Dehra Dhoon is far from good. The hot dry weather of the North-west is not at all suited to the Tea plant. Hot winds shrivel it up, and though it recovers when the rains come down, it cannot thrive in such a climate. One fact will, I think, prove this. In favourable climates, with good soil and moderate cultivation, 18 flushes or crops may be taken from a plantation in a season. With like advantages, and heavy manuring, 22 or even more may be had. In the “Selections from the Records of the Government of India” on Tea, published in 1857 (a book to which many owe their ruin), the following appears, showing how small are the number of flushes in the North-west:—

Method of gathering Tea Leaves.—The season for gathering leaves generally commences about the beginning of April, and continues until October; the number of gatherings varies, depending on the moistness and dryness of the season. If the season be good, that is to say, if rain falls in the cold weather and spring, and the general rains be favourable, as many as five gatherings may be obtained.

Three general gatherings.

When this was written, the experience detailed related to Dehra Dhoon, the Kumaon, and Kangra gardens, and we see that five flushes or gatherings are thought good. It however makes matters in this respect (far from a general fault in the said “Records”) worse than they are. Ten and twelve flushes, with high cultivation, can be got in the North-west. But what is this as against twenty and twenty-five?

Labour is plentiful and cheap. The great distance from the coast makes transport very expensive.

Kangra.

This is a charming valley, with a delightful climate more favourable to Tea than the Dehra Dhoon, still it is not a perfect Tea climate. It is too dry and too cold. The soil is good for Tea, better than that of the Dhoon, but inferior to some rich soils in the Himalayan oak forests. Local labour is obtainable at cheap rates. Distance makes transport for export very difficult; but a good local market now exists in the Punjab, and a good deal of Tea is bought at the fairs, and taken away by the wild tribes over the border. With the limited cultivation there, I should hope planters will find a market for all their produce. Manure must be obtainable (manure had not been thought of for Tea when I visited Kangra), and if liberally applied, it will increase the yield greatly.

Kangra is strictly a Himalayan district, but the elevation is moderate, if I remember right, about 3,000 feet, and the land is so slightly sloping it may almost be called level. A great advantage this over the steep lands, on which most of the Himalayan gardens, many in Cachar, and some in Assam and Chittagong, are planted.

Kangra is not the best place for a man who wants to make money by Tea; but for one who would be content to settle there, and content to make a livelihood by it, a more desirable spot with a more charming climate could not be found. Land, however, is not easily procured.

The Teas produced in Kangra are of a peculiarly delicate flavour, and are consequently highly esteemed in the London market.

Darjeeling.

This, too, I have seen since I published the first edition of this Essay. The elevation of the station, 6,900 feet, is far too great; but plantations lower down do tolerably well (that is, well for hill gardens). The climate, like all hill climates, is too cold. As regards transport the Darjeeling plantations will be well situated when the railroad now constructing is finished. Like elevations in Darjeeling and Kumaon are in favour of the former, first, because the latitude is less; secondly, because Darjeeling has much more rain in the spring. I believe, therefore, that the hill plantations of Darjeeling have a better chance of paying than the gardens in Kumaon, but, as stated before, no elevated gardens, that is, none in the Himalayas, have any chance in the race against plantations in the plains, always providing the latter are in a good Tea climate.

In two respects, however, Darjeeling is behind Kumaon. The soil is not so good, and the land is much steeper. It is more than absurd, some of the steeps on which Tea is planted in the former; and such precipices can, I am sure, never pay. Gardens, barely removed above the Terai (and there are such in Darjeeling), can scarcely be called “elevated,” and for them the remarks applied to the Terai are more fitting. As a broad rule it should be recognised that the lower Tea is planted in the Himalayas the better chance it has.

All the plants in the Darjeeling gardens, with but few exceptions, are China.

The China plant makes by far the best Green Tea, and I believe the Darjeeling gardens would pay much better than they do if they altered their manufacture from black to green. (See further on, under the head of Hazareebaugh, what has been done in this way.) All Himalayan gardens should, in my opinion, make Green Tea (Kumaon has awoke to the fact), for all have China plants, and can therefore make far better Green Tea than can be produced from the Hybrid which is so general in plain gardens.[9]

Kumaon.

It was in this district (a charming climate to live in, with magnificent scenery to gaze at) I first planted Tea in India, and I much wish for my own sake, and that of others, I had not done so. I knew nothing of Tea at the time, and I thought a district selected by Government for inaugurating the cultivation must necessarily be a good one. No hill climate can be a good one for Tea; but the inner part of Kumaon, very cold, owing to its elevation, high latitude, and distance from the plains, is a peculiarly bad one. Yet there it was Government made nurseries, distributed seed gratis, recommended the site for Tea (see the “Records” alluded to), and led many on to their ruin by doing so. The intention of the Government was good, but the officers in charge of the enterprise were much to blame, perhaps not for making the mistake at first (no one at the first knew what climate was suitable), but for perpetuating the mistake, when later very little enquiry would have revealed the truth. I believe it was guessed at by Government officials long ago, but it was easier to sing the old tune; and a very expensive song it has proved to many.[10]

I need scarcely, after this, add that I do not approve of Kumaon for Tea. An exhilarating and bracing climate for man is not suited to the Tea plant. The district has one solitary advantage—rich soil. I have never seen richer, more productive land than exists in some of the Kumaon oak forests, but even this cannot in the case of Tea counter-balance the climate. Any crop which does not require much heat and moisture will grow to perfection in that soil. Such potatoes as it produces! Were the difficulties of transport not so great, a small fortune might be made by growing them.

Could any part of Kumaon answer for Tea it would be the lower elevations in the outer ranges of the hills, but these are precisely the sites that have not been chosen. Led, as in my own case, partly by the Government example, partly by the wish to be out of sight of the “horrid plains,” and in sight of that glorious panorama the snowy range, planters have chosen the interior of Kumaon. Some wisely (I was not one of them) selected low sites, valleys sheltered from the cold winds; but even their choice has not availed much. The frost in winter lingers longest in the valleys, and though doubtless the yield there is larger, owing to the increased heat in summer, the young plants suffer much in the winter. The outer ranges, owing to the heat radiating from the plains, are comparatively free from frost, but there again the soil is not so rich. Still they would unquestionably be preferable to the interior.

Labour is plentiful in Kumaon and very cheap—Rs. 4 per mensem. Transport is very expensive. It costs not a little to send Tea from the interior over divers ranges of hills to the plains. It has then some days’ journey by cart ere it meets the rail, to which 1,000 miles of carriage on the railroad has to be added.

Since the above was written, Kumaon has secured a good local market, and I believe sells most of its Tea unpacked to merchants who come from over the border to buy it.

It has also improved its position greatly by making Green Teas, for which, as observed before, the China plant is so well fitted. With those two advantages, though the climate is inferior, I suspect that Tea there now pays better than in Darjeeling.

Gurhwall is next to Kumaon, and so similar that I have not thought it necessary to discuss it separately. The climate is the same, the soil as a rule not so good. There is one exception though, a plantation near “Lohba,” the Teas of which (owing, I conceive, to its peculiar soil) command high prices in the London market. The gardens, both in Kumaon and Gurhwall, have been generally much better cared for than those in Eastern Bengal. As a rule they are private properties managed by the owners.

Hazareebaugh.

This district I have resided in since I wrote the first edition of this Essay. The climate is too dry, and hot winds are felt there. A great compensation, though, is labour; it is more abundant and cheaper in this district than in any other. The carriage is all by land, and it is some distance to the rail. But the Tea gardens at Hazareebaugh can never vie with those in Eastern Bengal, inasmuch as the climate is very inferior. The soil is very poor.

Neilgherries.

The climate is superior to the Himalayan, for the frost is very slight. Were, however, more heat there in summer, it would be better.

Some of the Teas have sold very well in the London market, for as regards delicacy of flavour they take a high place.

The soil is good, but the temperate climate which holds on these “blue mountains” is not favourable to a large produce.

Western Dooars.

When the second edition of this work was printed, this district was unknown as Tea locality.

My attention was directed to it in 1874; I was the second who planted Tea in it, and I have now completed a garden there.

As regards climate, soil, and lay of land, it is perfect, and I believe it will eventually prove the most paying district in India for Tea.

The Northern Bengal Railway, just opened, gives it great advantages for transport.

Having now discussed each district, all of which, except the Dehra Dhoon, I have seen, I give, in further elucidation, Meteorological Tables. For those not mentioned in the tables I have failed to acquire the necessary information.

My thanks are due to Dr. Coates, at Hazareebaugh, for his kindness in supplying me with much of the data from which the following tables are framed:—

TABLE OF ELEVATION AND TEMPERATURE OF TEA LOCALITIES.

N.B.—The exact temperature of other Tea Districts not being known, I have confined myself to these; but general remarks on the elevation and temperature of other Tea localities will be found elsewhere.

N.B.—The letters in the columns, between December and the year, refer to months; thus, D. J. F. is December, January, February. The figures show the average temperature during those months.

TABLE OF LATITUDE, LONGITUDE, AND RAINFALL OF TEA LOCALITIES.

N.B.—The exact rainfalls of other Tea Districts not being known, I have confined myself to these; but general remarks on the rainfall in other Tea localities will be found elsewhere.

I will now endeavour to draw up a tabular statement of the respective advantages of the various Tea districts as regards climate, labour, lay of land, soil, facilities of procuring manure and transport.

In importance I regard them in the order given. I place labour before soil, because the fact is, in all the provinces suitable and good soil for Tea can be found somewhere; and therefore, while soil is all important in selecting a site, it is secondary to labour in deciding on a district. Lay of land comes after labour. When my information on any point is not sure I place a note of interrogation. Where advantages are equal, or nearly so, I give the same number, and the greater the advantage of a district on the point treated in the column the smaller the number. Thus, under the head of Climate, Assam is marked 1.

As the following table gives no information as to which of all the districts possesses the greatest advantages, all things considered, but only gives my opinion of each under each head, and the subject closed in this way would be unsatisfactory, I may state that, in my opinion, the choice should lie between the three first and the last on the list; and my choice would be the last.

Comparative advantages of the Tea Districts in India as regards climate, labour, lay of land, soil, manure, and transport.

[CHAPTER IV.]
SOIL.

To pronounce as precisely on soil as to climate is not easy. The Tea plant will grow on almost any soil, and will flourish on many. Still there are broad general rules to be laid down in the selection of soils for Tea, which no one can ignore with impunity.

When first I turned my attention to Tea, I collected soils from many gardens, noting in each case how the plants flourished. I then sat down to examine them, never doubting to arrive at some broad practical conclusions. I was sadly disappointed. I found the most opposing soils nourished, apparently, equally good plants. I knew not then much about Tea, and judged of the Tea bushes mostly by the size (a very fallacious test); still, after-experience has convinced me I was more or less right in the conclusion I then came to, that several soils are good for Tea.

Nothing, then, but broad general rules can be laid down on this point, for I defy anyone to select any one soil as the best for Tea, to the exclusion of others.

A light sandy loam is perhaps as good a soil as any out of the Himalayas. It ought to be deep, and the more decayed vegetable matter there is lying on its surface the better. If deep enough for the descent of the tap-root, say 3 feet, it matters not much what the subsoil is, otherwise a yellowish red subsoil is an advantage. This subsoil is generally a mixture of clay and sand. Much of Assam, Cachar, and Chittagong is as the above, but, as a rule, it is richest in Assam, poorest in Chittagong.

Where the loam is of a greasy nature (very different to clay), with a mixture of sand in it, it is superior to the above, for it has more body. All good Tea soils must have a fair proportion of sand, and if not otherwise apparent, it may be detected by mixing a little of the soil with spittle and rubbing it on the hand. If the hand be then held up towards the sun, the particles of sand will be seen to glisten.

The soil so common in Kumaon, that is, light rich loam with any amount of decayed vegetable matter on it, and with a ferruginous reddish yellowish subsoil, is, I consider, the finest soil in the world for Tea. The rich decayed vegetable matter is the produce for centuries of oak leaves in the Himalayan forests, and, as all the world knows, oak only grows in temperate climes.

It was long believed that Tea would thrive best on poor soil. The idea was due to the description of Tea soils in China to be found in the first books that treated of Tea. But the fact that Tea, as a rule, is only grown in China on soil which is useless for anything else quite alters the case. If a soil is light and friable enough, it cannot be too rich for Tea.

Ball’s book “On the Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea in China” has much on Tea soils, but the opinions the author collected are sadly at variance, and on the whole teach nothing.

In conclusion, I will attempt to point out the qualities in soils in which the Tea plant delights, as also the qualities it abhors.

It loves soils friable, that is, easily divided into all their atoms. This argues a fair proportion of sand, but this should not be in excess, or the soil will be poor. The soil should be porous—imbibing and parting with water freely. The more decayed vegetable matter on its surface the better.

To be avoided are stiff soils of every kind, as also those which when they dry, after rain, cake together and split. Avoid also black-coloured, or even dark-coloured earths. All soils good for the Tea plant are light coloured. If, however, the dark colour arises from decayed vegetation, that is not the colour of the soil, and, as observed, vegetable matter is a great advantage. Judge of colour when soil is dry—for even light-coloured soil looks dark when wet. Soil which will make bricks will not grow Tea; and though I have sometimes seen young plants thrive on stiff soil, I do not believe in any stiff soil as a permanence.

Stones, if not in excess, are advantageous in all soils inclined to be stiff, for they help to keep them open. But then they must not be large, as if so they act as badly as a rocky substratum preventing the descent of the tap-root.

The reason, I take it, why Tea thrives best in light soils is that the spongioles or ends of the feeding roots are very tender, and do not easily penetrate any other.

There is more nourishment in stiffer soils, but for this reason the Tea plant cannot take advantage of it.

If a chosen soil be too stiff, it may be much improved for Tea by mixing sand with it. However, even where sand is procurable near, the expense of this is great. When done, the sand should be mixed with the soil taken out of the holes in which the plants are to be placed (see [Transplanting]), and it may be done again later by placing sand round the plants and digging it in. All this though is extra labour and very expensive, so none but a good Tea soil should ever be selected, and it is very easily found, for it exists in parts of all the districts discussed.

[CHAPTER V.]
NATURE OF JUNGLE.

I have not much to say under this head. I have heard many opinions as to the kind of trees and jungle that should exist in contemplated clearances, but I attach little or no weight to them, at all events in Bengal.

In the Himalayas it is somewhat different. There oak trees should be sought for; their existence invariably makes rich soil.[12] Fir, on the contrary, indicates poor soil. At elevations, however, the desideratum of a warm aspect interferes, for the best oak forests are on the colder side. I speak of course of elevations practicable, say three or four thousand feet; above this it is a waste of money to try and cultivate Tea.

In Bengal I do not think the nature of the jungle on land contemplated signifies much. As a rule, the thicker the jungle the richer the soil; but in seeking for a site large trees should not be a sine quâ non. Much of the coarse grass land is very good, and large trees add enormously to the expense of clearings.[13] It is not cutting them down which is so expensive, it is cutting them up and getting rid of them by burning, or otherwise, after the former is done.

I have discussed soil fully already, and need only add here that if the knowledge to do so exists, it is better to judge of soil from the soil itself than from the vegetation on it, though doubtless a fact that luxuriant vegetation indicates rich soil.

[CHAPTER VI.]
WATER AND SANITATION.

These may be discussed together and shortly.

Of course adjacent water-carriage is a great advantage for a garden, and it should be obtained, if possible, in selecting a site. The expense of land-carriage, where there is no rail, is great, and Tea cultivation requires all advantages to make it pay well.

But it is water for a garden that particularly concerns us now. It is not easy to find land that can be irrigated (this is discussed elsewhere), but no labour or expense in getting such land would be thrown away. Irrigation, combined with high cultivation in other respects, will give a yield per acre undreamt of.

In no case should a plantation be made except where a running stream is handy. Water is a necessity for seedlings, and a plentiful adjacent supply of it is a great desideratum for the comfort and health of every soul on the garden. We all know how dependent the natives are on water, and it is evident facilities in this respect will conduce much (whether the labour be local or imported) both to get and keep coolies. Norton’s tube wells—a cheap and most efficient mode of procuring water—will, I doubt not, be eventually much used on Tea plantations.

It has been observed that, as a rule, a good Tea climate is not a healthy one. There is no getting over the fact, and we can only make the best of it. The house, the factories, and all the buildings should be placed as high as possible, and not very close to each other, both for the sake of health and in the event of fire. The locality should be well drained, and cleanliness be attained in every possible way. Give the coolies good houses, with raised mechans to sleep on, and sprinkle occasionally carbolic acid powder in your own house and those of others.

Sanitation is, however, a large subject. It can be studied elsewhere. General ideas on it, and on the properties of the commonest medicines, are a great advantage to any intending Tea planter.

[CHAPTER VII.]
LAY OF LAND.

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.

In the Himalayas, moreover, the warmer aspects are, as a rule, the most fertile; vice versâ in warm localities. Many a garden, which would have done very well on the moderate slopes chosen had only the proper aspects been planted, has been ruined by planting all sides of teelahs or hills indiscriminately. The southern and western slopes of plantations in warm sites are generally very bare of plants. Not strange they should be so, when the power of the reflected rays of the afternoon sun is considered. Again, in cold climates plants cannot thrive on northern aspects, for their great want in such climes is heat and sunshine. Let the above fault, then, be avoided in both cases, for though doubtless a garden is more handy, and looks better in one piece planted all over without any intervening jungle, even patches of jungle look better, and are decidedly cheaper, than bare cultivated hills.

Of flat land, after what I have written, I need not add much. It is of two kinds, table and valley land; the former is very rare in Tea districts, at least of any extent, which makes it worth while to plant it. There are two gardens in Chittagong on such flat table land, and they are both doing very well. Table land cannot be too flat, for the natural drainage is so great no stagnant water can lie.[14]

Valley land is not good if it is perfectly flat. It will then be subject to inundation and stagnant water. There is nothing that kills the plant so surely and quickly as the latter. Even quite flat valleys can be made sweet by artificial drainage, but to do this a lower level, not too far distant, must exist, and the danger is not quite removed then. Valleys in which no water-course exists, and which slope towards the mouth alone, are to be avoided, for the plants near the mouth always get choked with sand. The best valleys are those with a gentle slope both ways, one towards the lowest line of the valley, be it a running water-course, or a dry nullah which carries off rain, the other towards the mouth of the valley. Such valleys drain themselves, or at least very little artificial drainage is necessary. A valley of this kind, with a running stream through it, is most valuable for Tea, and if the other advantages of soil and climate are present it is simply a perfect site. Such however are not frequent. If in such valleys, as is generally the case, the slope from the head to the mouth is enough, the running stream can be “bunded” (shut up) at a high level, and brought along one side at a sufficient elevation to irrigate the whole.

I have never seen but one garden in a valley that fulfils all these conditions exactly. It is in Chittagong; the soil is good, labour plentiful, and manure abundant. It ought to do great things, for the possibility of irrigating plants in the dry season (which, as observed, is very trying in Chittagong) will give several extra flushes in the year.

Of course in the wet season on such land the water must be allowed to resume its natural course.

Narrow valleys are not worth planting. No narrow tracts of land, with jungle on both sides, are worth the expense of cultivation, for the continual encroachment of the jungle gives much extra work. The plants, moreover, in very narrow valleys get half-buried with soil washed down from the adjacent slopes. Narrow valleys are therefore, in any case, better avoided.

To conclude shortly, flat lands can be highly cultivated, steep slopes cannot. Tea pays best (perhaps not at all otherwise) with high cultivation—ergo, flat lands are preferable.

[CHAPTER VIII.]
LAYING OUT A GARDEN.

By this I mean, so dividing it when first made into parts, that later the said parts shall be easily recognised, and separately or differently treated, as they may require it.

The usual custom is to begin at one end of a plantation, and dig it right through to the other. In the same way with the pruning and plucking, and I believe the system is a very bad one. Different portions of gardens require different treatment, inasmuch as they differ in soil, and otherwise. One part of a plantation is much more prolific of weeds than another—how absurd that it should be cleaned no oftener! This is only one exemplification of difference of treatment, but in many ways it is necessary, most of all in plucking leaf.

All parts of a plantation, owing in some places to the different ages of the plants, in others to the variety in the soil and its productive powers, in others to slopes or to aspect, do not yield leaf equally, that is, flush does not follow flush with equal rapidity. In some places (supposing each part to be picked when the flush is ready) seven days’ interval will exist between the flushes, in others nine, ten, or twelve; but no attention, as a rule, is paid to this. The pickers have finished the garden at the west end, the east end is again ready, and when done, the middle part will be taken in hand, be it ready or be it not! It may be that the middle part flushes quicker than any other; in this case the flush will be more than mature when it is taken, in fact it will have begun to harden; or it may be the middle part does not flush as quickly as the others; in this case it will be picked before it is ready, that is, when the flush is too young, and the yield will consequently be smaller.

I believe the yield of a plantation may be largely increased by attending to this. Every Tea estate should be divided into gardens of, say, about five to ten acres each.[15] If no natural division exists, small roads to act as such should be made. More than this cannot be done when the plantation is first laid out, but when later the plants yield, any difference between the productive powers of different parts of the same garden should be noted, and these divided off into sections. To do this latter with roads would take up too much space, and small masonry pillars, whitewashed, are the best. Four of these, one at each corner of a section, are enough, and they need not be more than 3 feet high and 1 foot square. Thus each garden may, where necessary, be divided into two sections, which, in a 300-acre estate, partitioned off into thirty gardens, would give about forty to sixty sections. No matter where a section may be, directly the flush on it is ready it should be picked. Where the soil on any one garden is much the same, and observation shows the plants all over it flush equally, it may be left all in one. I only lay down the principle, and I am very certain it works well, the proof of which is that, where I have practised it, some sections during the season give three, four, and five flushes more than others. Had the usual plan of picking from one end to the other been adopted, they would have been all forced to give the same number; in other words, the said extra flushes would have been lost, and further loss occasioned by some flushes being taken before they were ready, others after a portion of the tender leaf had hardened.

The best plan is simply to number the gardens from 1 upwards, and the sections in each garden the same way. Thus supposing No. 5 garden is divided into three sections, they will be known respectively as 5-1, 5-2, and 5-3. This is the best way for the natives, and I find they soon learn to designate each section. I have a man whose special duty (though he has other work also) it is to see each day which sections are ready to pick the following, and those, and those alone, are picked. Practice soon teaches the number of pickers required for any given number of sections, and that number only are put to the work. If a portion is not completed that day, it is the first taken in hand the next, and if any day on no sections is the flush ready, no leaf is picked the following.

Apart from leaf-picking, the garden and section plan detailed is useful in many ways. Each garden, if not each section which most requires it, is dug, pruned, or manured at the best time, and any spot on the plantation is easily designated. The plan facilitates the measurement of work, and enables correct lists of the flushes gathered to be kept. It is thus seen which gardens yield best, and the worst can, by extra manuring, be brought to equal those.

In short, the advantages are many, too numerous to detail.

Of course all this can be better done on a flat garden than on one planted on slopes, and though it may not be possible to work it out as much in detail on the latter, still a good deal in that way can be done, and I strongly recommend it.

In laying out a plantation keep it all as much together as possible, the more it is in one block the easier it is supervised, the cheaper it is worked. Still do not, with a view to this, take in any bad land, for bad land will never pay.

Let your lines of Tea plants, as far as practicable, run with geometrical regularity. You will later find, both in measuring work and picking leaf, great advantages therefrom. In gardens where the lines are not regular portions are continually being passed over in leaf-picking, and thereby not only is the present flush from such parts lost, but the following is also retarded.

If your different gardens are so situated that the roads through them, that is from one garden to the other, can be along the side of any garden without increasing the length of the road, by all means adopt that route. There is no such good boundary for a garden as a road that is being continually traversed. It will save many rupees by preventing the encroachment of jungle into a garden, and more space is thus also given for plants. It is, however, of no use to do it if a road through the middle of a garden is shorter, as coolies will always take the shortest route.

The lines of plants on sloping ground should neither run up and down, nor directly across the slope. If they run up and down, gutters or water-courses will form between the lines, and much additional earth will be washed away thereby. If they run right across the hill the same thing will occur between the trees in each line, and the lower side of each plant will have its roots laid very bare. It is on all slopes a choice of evils, but if the lines are laid diagonally across the hill, so that the slope along the lines shall be a moderate one, the evil is reduced as far as it can be by any arrangement of the plants. No, I forgot; there is one other thing. The closer the lines to each other, and the closer the plants in the lines to each other, in short, the more thickly the ground on slopes is planted the less will be the wash, for stems and roots retain the soil in its place, and the more there are the greater the advantage.

Where slopes are steep (though, remember, steep slopes are to be avoided) terracing may be resorted to with advantage, as the washing down of the soil is much checked by it.

On flat land, of course, it does not really signify in which directions the lines run, but such a garden looks best if, when the roads are straight, the lines run at right angles to them.

In laying out a garden, choose a central spot with water handy for your factory, bungalow, and all your buildings; let your Tea-houses be as close to your dwelling-house as possible, so that during the manufacturing time you can be in and out at all hours of the day and night. Much of your success will depend upon this. Let all your buildings be as near to each other as they can, but still far enough apart, that any one building may burn without endangering others. You need not construct any Tea-buildings until the third year.

[CHAPTER IX.]
VARIETIES OF THE TEA PLANT.

These are many, but they all arise from two species: the China plant, the common Tea-bush in China; and the indigenous plant, first discovered some forty years ago in Assam.

These are quite different species of the same plant. Whether the difference was produced by climate, by soil, or in what way, no one knows, and here we have only to do with the facts that they do differ in every respect. A purely indigenous plant or tree (for in its wild state it may more properly be called the latter) grows with one stem or trunk, and runs up to 15 and 18 feet high. It is always found in thick jungle, and would thus appear to like shade. I believe it does when young; but I am quite sure, if the jungle were cleared round an indigenous Tea-tree found in the forest, it would thrive better from that day. The China bush (for it is never more) after the second year has numerous stems, and 6 or 7 feet would seem to be its limit in height. The lowest branches of a China plant are close to the ground, but in a pure cultivated indigenous, from 9 inches to 1 foot above the soil the single stem is clean.

The indigenous grows quicker after the second or third year than the China, if it has not been over-pruned or over-plucked when young. In other words, it flushes quicker, for flushing is growing.

The indigenous does not run so much to wood as the China. Indigenous seedlings require to be watered oftener than China, for the latter do not suffer as quickly from drought. The indigenous tree has a leaf of 9 inches long and more. The leaf of the China bush never exceeds 4 inches. The indigenous leaf is a bright pale green, the China leaf a dull dark green colour. The indigenous “flushes,” that is, produces new tender leaf, much more copiously than the China, and this in two ways: first, the leaves are larger, and thus if only even in number exceed in bulk what the China has given; and secondly, it flushes oftener. The infusion of Tea made from the indigenous species is far more “rasping” and “pungent” than what the China plant can give, and the Tea commands a much higher price. The young leaves, from which alone Tea is made, are of a much finer and softer texture in the indigenous than in the China; the former may be compared to satin, the latter to leather. The young leaves of the indigenous, moreover, do not harden so quickly as those of the China; thus, if there is any unavoidable delay in picking a flush, the loss is less with the former. In the fact that unpruned or unpicked plants (for picking is a miniature pruning) give fewer and less succulent young leaves which harden quicker than pruned ones, the two varieties would seem to be alike. The China variety is much more prolific of seed than the indigenous; the former also gives it when younger, and as seed checks leaf, the China is inferior in this as in other respects. The China is by far the hardier plant; it is much easier to rear, and it will grow in widely differing climates, which the indigenous will not.

A patch of indigenous with a mature flush on it is a pretty sight. The plants all appear as if crowned with gold (they are truly so if other advantages exist), and are a great contrast to the China variety if it can also be seen near.

I have now, I think, pointed out the leading characteristics of the two original varieties of the Tea plant, and it stands to reason no one would grow the China who could get indigenous. But the truth is, a pure specimen of either is rare. The plants between indigenous and China are called “hybrids.” They were in the first instance produced by the inoculation, when close together, of the pollen of one kind into the flower of the other, and the result was a true hybrid, partaking equally of the indigenous and China characteristics; but the process was repeated again and again between the said hybrid and an indigenous or China, and again later between hybrids of different degrees, so that now there are very many varieties of the Tea plant—100 or even more—and no garden is wholly indigenous or wholly China. So close do the varieties run, no one can draw the line and say where the China becomes a hybrid, the hybrid an indigenous. Though as a rule the young leaves are light green or dark green, as the plant approaches the indigenous or China in its character, there are a certain class of bushes all hybrid, whose young leaves have strong shades of crimson and purple. Some even are quite red, others quite purple. These colours do not last as the leaf hardens, and the matured leaves of these plants do not differ from others. Plants with these coloured leaves are prolific.

The nearer each plant approaches the indigenous, the higher its class and excellence, ergo one plantation is composed of a much better class of plants than another. Had China seed never been introduced into India, a very different state of things would have existed now. The cultivation would not have been so large, but far more valuable. The propagation and rearing of the indigenous, as observed, is difficult; the China is much hardier while young. So difficult is it to rear successively the pure indigenous, perhaps the best plan, were it all to come over again, would be to propagate a high-class hybrid and distribute it, never allowing any China seed or plants to leave the nursery, which should have been a Government one. But we must take things as they are. The Government nurseries in the Himalayas and the Dehra Dhoon (there have never been any elsewhere, and worse sites could not have been chosen) were planted entirely with China seeds, the seedlings distributed all over the country, and thus the mischief was done. The Indian Tea is vastly superior to the Chinese, and commands a much higher price at home, but it is still very inferior to what it would have been, had not Chinese seed been so recklessly imported and distributed over the country.

The home of the indigenous Tea tree is in the deep luxurious jungles of Assam and Cachar.[16] There it grows into a good-sized tree. I have seen it 20 feet high. These are of no use, except for seed, until they are cut down. When this is done, they throw out many new shoots, covered with young tender leaves, fit for Tea. They are, of course, far too big to transplant, but on some sites where they were numerous, that spot was chosen for the plantation, and some of these are the best gardens in Assam and Cachar.

The indigenous plant and high-class hybrid require a hot moist climate, and will not therefore flourish in any parts of India outside Eastern Bengal. I have tried them in the Himalayas, there the cold kills them. In Dehra Dhoon and Kangra the climate is far too dry; besides, the hot winds in the former, and the cold in the latter, are prejudicial. The Terai under Darjeeling suits them. In Assam, Cachar, and Chittagong, the indigenous and the highest class hybrids will thrive, for the climate of all three is suitable, but perhaps Northern Assam possesses the best climate of all for such plants.

The Himalayan gardens consist entirely of Chinese plants mixed occasionally with a low class of hybrid. They were all formed from the Government Nurseries where nothing but Chinese was reared. Occasional importations of Assam and Cachar seed will account for the sprinkling of low class hybrids which may be found. The same may be said of Dehra Dhoon and Kangra. In some gardens in the Terai below Darjeeling a high class of plant exists. In Assam, Cachar, and Chittagong the plantations vary much, but all have some indigenous and high class hybrids, while many gardens are composed of nothing else.

It is evident, then, that the value of a garden depends much on the class of its plants, and that a wise man will only propagate the best. Only the seed from good varieties should be selected, and gradually all inferior bushes should be rooted out and a good kind substituted. When this shall have been systematically done for a few years on a good garden, which has other advantages, the yield per acre will far exceed anything yet realised or even thought of.

Government action in the matter of Tea has been prejudicial in many ways, but in none more so than when they were doing their best to foster the cultivation by distributing Chinese seed and seedlings gratis. No one can blame here (would the Government were equally free from blame in all Tea matters!), but the mischief is none the less. It will never be possible to undo the harm then done.

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!

[CHAPTER X.]
TEA SEED.

Though there is a great difference in Tea plants (see last chapter) the seed of all is the same, and it is therefore impossible to say from what class of plants it has been gathered.

When Tea seed was very valuable (it has sold in the Tea-fever days as high as Rs. 200 and Rs. 300 per maund) it was the object of planters to grow as much as possible.

High class plants do not give much seed, a plantation therefore with much on it should be avoided in purchasing seed.

The Tea flower (the germ of next year’s seed) appears in the autumn, and the seed is ripe at the end of the following October or early November.

It takes thus one year to form.

Seed is ripe when the capsule becomes brown, and when breaking the latter the inner brown covering of the seed adheres to the seed and not to the capsule.

One capsule contains 1, 2, 3, and sometimes even 4 seeds.

Though the mass ripens at the end of October, some ripen earlier; the capsule splits and the seed falls on the ground. If, therefore, all the seed from a garden is required, it is well to send round boys all October to pick up such seeds.

When the seed is picked at the end of October or early November the mass is still in capsules. It should be laid in the sun for half an hour daily for two or three days until most of the capsules have split. It is then shelled, and the clean seed laid on the floor of any building where it will remain dry. Sunning it after shelling is objectionable.

The sooner it is sown after it is shelled the better.

If for any reason it is necessary to keep it, say a fortnight or three weeks before sowing, it is best kept towards germinating in layers covered with dry mould. But if to be kept longer leave it on the dry floor as above, taking care it is thinly spread (not more than one seed thick if you have space) and collected together, and re-spread every day to turn it.

For transport to a distance it should be placed in coarse gunny bags only one-third filled. If these are shaken and turned daily during transit a journey of a week will not very materially injure the seed.

For any long journey it is best placed in layers in boxes with thoroughly dry and fine charcoal between the layers, and sheets of paper here and there to prevent the charcoal running to the bottom.

It is scarcely necessary to consider how Tea seed can be utilized when not saleable, for seed prevents leaf, and therefore it should not be grown if there is no market for it. It will, however, make oil, but the price it would fetch for this purpose would not compensate for the diminished yield of leaf it had caused. It is also valuable as manure mixed with cattle-dung, but it would not pay to grow it for this purpose either.

My advice therefore is to allow no more seed on the garden than you require for your own use (even the fullest gardens require some yearly) or than you can sell at a remunerative price.

If the object is to produce a considerable quantity of seed, set apart a piece of the plantation for it, and do not prune it at all. A large number will then be produced on that piece.

If the object is to grow as little seed as possible after the pruning in the cold weather, which destroys the greater part, send round boys to pick off such of the germs as remain.

If this is done ever so carefully, some will escape, enough say to give one maund seed from 10 acres of garden, and this as a rule is enough to fill up vacancies in a good garden.

The following figures regarding seed will be found useful, but remember the higher the class of plant the less durable the seed:—