SeI'Tembek I, 1883/j THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



187 



pUuters have abuudauce of leisure. In fact, what- 

 ever subject you disouBs excpt tea, reference is 

 always made to the cohl weuther. It is thea that 

 vegetables grow aud flowers bloom, lawn-tennis courts 

 and polo-grouuda tlien become playable, fishes allow 

 themselves to be caugiit, and game gives opportunities 

 for shooting it. During the manufacturing season, 

 planters have to work very hard in a very trying 

 climate, aud they seem to fully appreciate the period of 

 comparative leisure which comes with the cold weather. 

 Tea planters in Assam are now making the same 

 mistake which many of us in Ceylon have had cause 

 to repent of so bitterly : they are trusting to one 

 product, and one only. The gardens consist of stretches 

 of tea uuiuterrupled by anytliing but patches of jungle; 

 no such things as boundaries marked by other pro- 

 ducts are known, a feature wliich has always been 

 common on coft'ee estates in Ceylon. Ceani lubberis 

 having a trial in one or two places, but on an ab- 

 surdly small scale, and what I saw had not had a 

 fair trial, but had suffered greatly from neglect. 

 Government liave made a large plantation of the in- 

 digenous so-called •' rani," rubber, which promises 

 fairly well. A lakh and-a-half of rupees are said to 

 have betn spent on it, but there is very little to 

 show for the money. This rubber tree is the Fiats 

 Iiidicvs [daslka ?— Ko. C. 0.] of which there are 

 many specimens in Ceylon, but it is not apparently 

 a very paying species to cultivate. Cardamoms have 

 been tried in one or two places on a very small scale, 

 and appear to have t;rown aud fruited in a most 

 promising way, but the cultivation has been aban- 

 doned from lack of labour to pay the necessary at- 

 tention to them. Cocoa has not yet been tried, but 

 might be worthy of attention. It is doubtful whether 

 it would stand the "cold weather, probably not, but 

 an experiment on a small scale would be interesting. 

 Liberian aud Arabian coffee are now being tried on a 

 large scale in the Nowgong district, and are most 

 promising in growth and appearance : they compare 

 favourably with anything in Ceylon, no signs of leaf- 

 disease have been detected and there is every appearance 

 of a heavy crop. There is a very curious indigenous 

 wild coffee in the jungles h'-re, which is very com- 

 mon. It does not seem to fruit much, aud I was un- 

 able to procure specimens of the bean. Aloes appear 

 to grow very freely everywhere here, but no attention 

 has been paid to their cultivation. 



The general appearance of tea gardens in Assam 

 compares uufavouiably_ with the neatly kept estates 

 in Ceylon. As lias been said before, the ground is 

 very dirty and the surface covered with clods of earth, 

 aud half rotten weeds, whilst there is generally a 

 quantity of ilook growing up in spite of constant 

 hoeing", especially near the stems of thn bushes where 

 the hoes do not touch it. Another peculiar feature 

 is the way in which the hoecs invariably cut up the 

 paths about the gardm, leaving six inch's or so in 

 the c ntre to walk on, a style of work which does 

 not improve the appearance of the place. The buildings 

 alto are a great contrast to what we are accustomed 

 to, b.'ing generally ."kutcha," that is, with walls of 

 bamboo or other perishable material, the roofs being 

 supported by wooden posts. Earthquakes, which are 

 very frequent in Assam, ra.ake it uns>fe to erect 

 masses of heavy masonry, aud though some f,iotoiie3 

 have brick walls and piers very lightly built and 

 Bupjiorting 11 light iron roof, most of them arc of 

 moie peri-hable material. One very great advantage 

 afforded by the llatuess of the land is the faedity with 

 which buildijigs can be erected, and the abundance 

 of suitable sites nllorded. In a hilly country where 

 it is selriom possible to put up a building without ex- 

 )iensive cutting and levelling, it is necessary to econom- 

 ize space to the utmost, here the large extent of 

 the buildings and tlie aiaouut of unplauted ground, 



useful for many purposes about them i'l remarkable. 

 In most cases the factories have been put up for baud 

 work, with long rows of firing stoves and ample ac- 

 commodation for rolling and sifting. The recent in- 

 troduction of machinery for these purposes and the 

 large economy of space effected by it renders the 

 buildings as a rule unnecessarily large for the work 

 now done in them. This is, however, a fault ou 

 the right sidi', want of space being a great drawback 

 in tea manufac ure. Prohibition of smoking, the ex- 

 clusion of dogs and babies, general neatness and tidi- 

 ness in fact, is a characteristic of all well regulated 

 factories in Ceylon, but it is far from being so in Assam. 

 No actual harm is done by a manager entering the- 

 factory with a pipe or cigar in his mouth, but the 

 example is bad to the coolies, and is liable to lead 

 to breaches of the strict rules of cleanliness which 

 should be enforced. The sight of children, whose 

 bodies have probably been abundantly anointed with 

 oil, allowed to roll about in close proximity to and 

 even over the tea, is not edifying, but all those, with 

 the irruptiou of dogs aud other unauthorized animals, 

 are the usual occurrences in Assam tea factories. 

 Neatness and tidiness in field work seem difficult 

 tn attain under the circumstances, and it strikes a 

 visitor that the absence of these qualities outside 

 leads to inattention to them where they are most 

 necessary and whers there is nothing to prevent their 

 enforcement. 



In all these matters, coolies and their overseers take 

 their cue from the European manager, and it he is 

 stiiet in all that relates to cleanliness and tidiness 

 they will fellow his example, but any laxity in the 

 matter is sure to be taken the fullest advantage of. 

 We have, of course, much to learn in tea planting, 

 but in this one respect at any rate India tea planters 

 may learn a lessou from their brethren in Ceylon, and 

 if they appreciate the necessity for the greatest strict- 

 ness in matters of cleanliness in the tea factories there 

 will be a distinct gain. T. C. OWEN. 



THE BRITISH NORTH BORNEO CO. 



We have received from Mr.W.D.Gibb m the full report 

 of the first half-yearly meeting of this Company, held iu 

 Lndon on 27th June. In our issue of 21st .July we quoted 

 from the Loudon Times a summary of the report 

 and proceeding, so shall now give such patrs of loc.al 

 interest as were therein omitted. Regarding labour 

 the following extract from Mr. Von Donop's report 

 was read: — "It is perhaps rather hard to blamo the 

 natives of this country for not taking agerly to work 

 seeing they have hitherto never been forced to earn 

 their livelihood, except in a very cay manner, such 

 as coUeotiug the produce of the jungle and fishing, 

 but I fancy the day will come when they will have 

 eith'r to cultivate land themselves or assist others iu 

 doing so. Though I am of opinion the present e.xisting 

 races of North Borneo will not be found suitable for 

 a planter's reqtiirenients, nevertheless, I think they may 

 bo found useful in other ways. Before this countiy was 

 ceded to the B. N. B. Company it was iu a very un- 

 settled state, and any man who was thought to be 

 rich was instantly murdered and his possessions divided ; 

 but now matters are altogether altered, and we may 

 expect to see the natives of Borneo {with education 

 aud other benefits) not only holding jjositions of trust 

 aud importance in the Company's service, but also 

 eettlinj. d iwri and giving their attiution to agricnllnr, — 

 Iu fact occupying the same position as the itiiugalese do 

 in Ceylon." Then regarding the deaths which have 

 occuired among the Company's oilioers the Chairman 

 said : — "The Company has within the last few months 

 lost three of the most efficient of their stall', two by 

 misadventure aud one by sickness. Uf the first, Mr. 

 Witti, » very energetic aud zealous txploier, iu one of 



