March i, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



625 



the valley, and lying opposite to a huge gorge in 

 the mountains, fr in whioli the planters obtain their 

 daily supply of ice in the Bunimer, lies Palumpore, 

 the heacl-quartfr station of the Tea district, with its 

 Government offices, rest-house, dispensary, planters' 

 club, and beautifnl little chnrch. Palumpore, which 

 is 4,000 feet above the sea-level, enjoys an excelUnt 

 climate for eight or nine mouths in the year ; during 

 the other months the heat nnd rains nre somewhat 

 disagreeable, although ndmirably adapted to the growth 

 of Tea. The beautiful little station is situated on a 

 series of genely sloping knolls of green turf, thickly 

 studded with Cheel trees [Pinus longifolia), and has 

 the universal Kangra background of mighty mount- 

 aius. The place is greatly indebted to the exertions 

 of .'^ir Douglas Forsjth, who did a great deal for it 

 and its immediate neighbourhood whilst he was the 

 Commissioner of the district. His attempt to establish 

 an aununl fair at P.alumpore. tn induce traders from 

 Yarkand and other distant provinces of Central Asia, 

 to open up trade with British India, is a matter of 

 history ; and the causes of its failure are written in 

 the records of the diplomatic offices of England and 

 Russia. When laud has been selected and purchased 

 (no easy task in a district where, by a mistake in 

 the settlement, a gi'eat portion of the waste, or un- 

 cultivated lands suitable to Tea were given to the 

 natives, and wheie the bargains have for the most 

 part to be made with the wily intriguing Hindoo), 

 and whilst it is being cleared of jungle and prepared 

 for a Tea garden, the seed for the future plantations 

 must be town. The oricinal seed which was uspd in 

 the district was introduced by Dr. Jameson, the offici- 

 al Government pioneer of Tea cultivation, who selected 

 Hotfa, Bawarnah, and Negreta as gardens, and sowed 

 that seed which he had brought from the Dehrah 

 Doou, and which became so reproductive in the sod 

 of the Kangra Valley that it now supplies the plant- 

 ers of its native Doon, and many of the youngci 

 Tea distiicts. H. H. the Maharajah of Cashmere has 

 of late been a large purchaser of seed, for, not con- 

 tent with energetically pushing on the growth of vines 

 and hops, his Highness seems bent at the same time 

 on producing something with which his people may 

 cheer themselves and escape inebriation. The seed is 

 carefully removed from all Tea bushes in the garden 

 during October and November by boys, girls, and 

 women. A large yield of seed is an indication of 

 something wrong in cultivation, or season, or soil. 

 The planter's object is to grow as much new, vigor- 

 ous leaf as possible, and cultivation suited to leaf 

 production is not productive of an abundance of seed 

 or fruit ; and, therefore, all that advertising dealers 

 and brokers tell the public about flower and seed is 

 simple nonsense to those who understand the business, 

 aud have ever seen Tea grown and made. The ripe 

 S'cJ, which is picked in the autumn, has not shed 

 its outer husk, and is sown entire as it comes from 

 the bush in neatly-made nursery drills a foot apart 

 and 4 inches deep, a shaded spot being selected for 

 the seed bed, that it may be protected from the cold 

 of winter and the parching heat of the full summer's 

 sun. As the necessary decay of the seed takes place 

 in germination, the outer husk decays and feeds the 

 young plant. Although this care is necessary in rais- 

 ing seedlings in the comparatively temperate climate 

 of Kangra, the hot steaming climate of Assam, where 

 Tea is indigenous, produces all vegetation in such 

 luxuriance that the seed has but to be dibbled into 

 the land which it is permanently to occupy like a 

 row of beans. 



Cultivation. — 1 he periodical raius commence in the 

 Kangi'a district on or about June 15, and, if they 

 be not too heavy, the seedlings may be transplanted 

 to their places in the garden at the beginning of 

 July, For this planting out, arrangements will have 



been made during the winter months. In rich soils, 

 where the growth of the bushes will be ciuick and 

 luxuriant, the seedling? are put in at greater distance 

 from each other thau in poorer soils, where the bushes 

 will be longer in approaching each other. Acocrding 

 to soil, these pits, 2J ft. deep by Ih ft. wide, are dug 

 in rows varying from 5 ft. by 5 ft. iu good soil, to 

 3 ft. by 4 ft. in poor soil, and into each of these pits 

 from ten to twelve seedlings are planted. The coolies 

 who put them in are drilled by a jemadar, or bead- 

 man ; who takes his place and orders from the planter 

 himself ; and so well is the work done iu this way 

 that the plants are rarely an inch out of the direct 

 line, or of the proper depth in the soil. Under the 

 magic wand of English energy, what was but now 

 virgin soil 'of the forest or the village common, or 

 the arable land of the natives, i% a young Tea plant- 

 ation, and yet ready to be plucked, but growing 

 wondrously fast, needing to be carefully terraced to 

 keep the soil up, if it be ou a slope, and to be 

 sometimes irrigated in hot, dry weather. In three 

 years the plants in good soil begin to be jirofitable, 

 and need no further waterings, although they are not 

 in full bearing for, perhaps, seven or eight years. 

 During their minority each plant requires cultivation, 

 constant hoeing, fairly liberal manuring, and judici- 

 ous pruning. In November the winter cultivation of 

 the mature bushes begins. Divisions of men — the 

 strongest and possibly the least intelligent— are told 

 off to hue the garden throughout 1 ft. deep ; and 

 this hoeing work should go ou all the year round with 

 variations at different seasons of the depth of hoeing. 

 Pruning. — Simultaneously with the hoeing, so that 

 all that is cut oflf the bushes may go back and be buried 

 in the soil, the pruning commences. As pruning is one 

 of the most important works on a plantation, so is 

 it one en which there is the greatest difference of 

 opinion. A great many experiments have been 

 made in the art, and probably planters have not yet 

 learned all the science of the subject. Ten years ago 

 an indiscriminate slashing off of the top of the bush 

 and cutting three or tour large holes into the body 

 of the plant, to let in light aud air, was the stylo 

 of pruning most in vogue, chiefly ou account of its 

 fancied economy. By this method of pruning number- 

 less shoots no doubt sprung up in the spring, but 

 from the very fact of their being so numerous, the 

 bush was choked up as to all after-growth, and be- 

 came a mass of unproductive crows'-feet. Thorn prun- 

 ing - was next tried, aud it may answer admirabl.v iu 

 a cold climate, but certainly it is not the proper 

 method for shrubs in hijjh temperature, such as 'Tea 

 requires, for they need protection from the sun aud 

 from tUctric and winter hail, without which the wood 

 branches and the sap dries. (Joppiciug, as a last re- 

 medy for old woody plants, was then tried ; but the 

 remedy is a most severe one ; the plant loses much 

 strength by the inevitable bleeding which takes place, 

 and cou'equently the new shoots it makes are wfak 

 and feeble. A new method of piuning which has 

 been intio uced into the valley is at present the ap- 

 proved ore. The old, white, gnarled wood, and all 

 the " whip-cord," is cut cff entirely an inch or two 

 below the surface of the soil in such a way as shall 

 cause the bush to bleed as little as possible. Then 

 all the long, strangling shoots are cut back, no mat,- 

 ter how good their material may be ; and lastly, all 

 the shoi ts are cut back close to the finest and grow- 

 ing from the axilla of the leaf, which is left to act 

 as shelter. Bushes of about 4 ft. in height are the 

 most convenient for boys and girls to pick from, and 

 seme of the finest bushes in the Kangra Valley gardens 

 are of this height, and 6 or 7 ft. in diameter. Prun- 

 ing operiitious arc going on from Kevember to the 

 cud of the first week in March. Boys in India are 

 almost always sharper and more active and willing 



