37© 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[November i, 1882. 



migrants from the densely populated districts of Sul- 

 tanpore, and other of the more crowd-d pu-ts of 

 Oudh. These people must lead a hard lif^ of it in 

 their homes, when they leave ihnir native villages 

 and travel so far for such sma'l wages. The men 

 usuiilly leave their wives and families behind, until 

 after a couple of years they can save twenty to fifty 

 rupees, when they frequently take leave and go to 

 their homes, bringing then- household god3--their 

 lares and peno/cf— with them on their return. Thus 

 the Doon villages are quietly bi-ing peopled by these 

 useful Poorbeahs, who as a rule, have no very high 

 caste, and become steady cultivators of their own 

 little leased farms. In arranging for labour, it is not 

 necessary to make any contract, the coolies being 

 engaged as monthly servants, and provided with free 

 houses. There the contract ends, as, of course, the 

 labourers get free medical attendance and medicine, 

 and where ground is available, are also allowed to 

 cultivate small patches of vegetables. In the 

 better conducted gar lens, they are encouraged 

 to do this, as a plentiful supply of fresh vegetable 

 diet, tends to keep them healthy. The prices of 

 labor are as follows : — 



R. 

 4 

 5 

 3 

 o 



per month. 

 8 

 

 



Field hands — 



Factory hands — 



Women — 



Boys and girls 1 8th to — 

 Women are employed at light work when there is no 

 plucking, such as carrying manure, weeding nurseries, 

 classing tea", &c. During the leaf season, women, 

 boys, and girls usually make more than the men, as 

 all leaf jjlucking is piece-work, the customary rate 

 being three pies per pound, which is Rl'4 per 

 maund. These Poorbeahs are very fair workers, and 

 as a rule give little trouble, if treated at all fairly 

 well. This labour question is one which gives the 

 North- West planter an immense advantage over his 

 brethren who obtain their labour under the cover of 

 legal enactment ; for about seven rupees per month, 

 he can have labour to tne extent of one man and-a- 

 half per acre, which would cost an As.'sam planter 

 from R12 to 15 per month. Thus it is that up- 

 country planters having gardens yielding generously, 

 can turn out their teas for four annas per lb, a price 

 which more than eompen-sates them for the heavy 

 carriage between their gardens and Calcutta. 



[Ceylon cannot possibly complete with the Dhnon in 

 regard to cost of labour, and yet, if the Dera 

 estates a""^ """ yielding profits, there has been a 

 chan the better within the past few years. — 



Ed.]^'' for 



Th® °ourse of cultivation is very regular, the rainy 

 season being punctual, and from one year's end to 

 another the routine of one month, is exactly the same 

 for every year. Towards the end of Novimber, or 

 earlj' in December, when the season's crop is all 

 classified and packed, pruning begins and while this is 

 going on, manure is brought from the various pits 

 where it has been stored, and is piled along the walks 

 of the garden. The best men are set to the pruning, 

 while the ordinary field bands commence the annual 

 deep hoeing, trenching it is called, but erroneously so, 

 it being only an extra deep hoeing, and this is 

 perhaps the only job which breaks the pliinter's temper. 

 He knows perfecily well that much of his next 

 season's crop depends on this hoeing being done 

 thoroughly, and to ensure its eiBciency, he usually 

 gives a small nirik. — [Task. En. C. O ] However, 

 unless close personal supervision be given, he 

 will be disappointed. The order we will sny, is for 

 a 15-inch hoeing, as a rule he will be content with 

 twelve, but calls it fifteen to keep the men'up to the 

 work. A 12-iuch perpendicular hoeing would work 

 wondera with next year's leaf, but the coolie will 



persistently give him a 12-inch slope, and by sloping 

 even by more than ordinary, will sometimes present 

 for measurement and examination a 15-iuch slope, but 

 by the well-known rule of the hypotheuuse, the planter 

 knows that a 12-inch slopn at au angle of 45°, means 

 only a perpendicular depth of eiglit inches and-a-half. 

 This is not the place to moralise on the immense 

 importance of a good deep hoeiufi, we shall, however, 

 return to the subject on some future occasion. About 

 the middle of January the pruning ought to be done, 

 when a number of the bigger lads are set to work 

 opening out the roots, preparing for the manure, this 

 the women and boys carry from the walks, in small 

 baskets, each containing the supply for one plant, 

 say obout ten seers. It is astonishing how quickly 

 a large number of coolies get over such work in 

 the cool [often very cold. — Ed. C. O.] weather of 

 January or February. A second batch of men with 

 hoes go behind the basket; women, and cover up the 

 manure around the roots. This work goes on till the . 

 end of February, when the whole month of March 

 remains to prepare for the coming season. This month 

 is usually occupied in putting the walks in order,- 

 in attending to repairs in the factory and coolie lines, 

 and in getting into working order the factory plant. 

 As we have said, the leaf is ready with astonishing 

 punctuality, one or two days on either side of 

 1st April. 



THE COOLIE OR CHEAP LABOUR 

 QUESTION, 

 is the .subject of considerable agitation in Queensland 

 at present, and it may be doubted whether the op- 

 position which is being offered to the introduction of 

 Indian coolies as of Chinese would not be extended 

 to our Smhalese so soon as they made their appear- 

 ance. Brisbane, the capital, is the headquarters of 

 the opposition. There the woi'king classes naturally 

 object to the competition of cheap labour ; but they 

 do not sufficiently realize the impossibility of cultiv. 

 ating sugar or other tropical produce in the northern 

 division of the colony by the agency of European 

 labourers even if such were available. The Ministry 

 appears to be in a quandary, and have just laid before 

 Parliament correspondence with tlie Indian authorities 

 which closed on the 21st .June last. Under the ar- 

 rangements made with a representative of the Queens- 

 land Government and Mr. Buck, Officiating Secretary 

 to the Government of India, an employer would have 

 to pay £18 for each emigrant, and give a bond of 

 £12 for his return passage. "It is under-stood," says 

 Mr. Buck, "that the chief protector of immigrants 

 at Brisbane, in whom the control of Indian immi- 

 gi-ants is vested by the draft regulations, is a per- 

 manent Government ofiicial, charged with the general 

 siiperintendence of all immigration affairs," and Mr. 

 Buck further points out the necessity of that officer 

 having had Indian experience, and a knowledge of 

 the Indian language. The Queensland premier, Mr. 

 Mcllwraith, closed the correspondence in a letter from 

 which the following is an extract : — 



" Under the reguUti ms, as approved by the Go- 

 vernor-general, there is nothing to prevent time-ex- 

 pired immigrants from engaging themselves as domes- 

 tic servants, &c., to town residents and others entirely 

 unconnect'd with tropical agricultural pursuits, the 

 effect of which would he that these immigrants would 

 not only come into active competition with European 

 labuureis, but they wonlil escape that supervision at 

 the bands of the Government protectors which not 

 only the Indian Government but the Government of 



