I4S 



THE TROPICAL AGRtCULTURIST. 



[August i, 1882. 



of lU- Cliinese royal palace to the culiivatioii of the 

 mu'briTv tree-called in Chinese the 'golden tree —and 

 to the keeping of silkworms. Without ^aitmg to dis- 

 cuss the prolwbilities of this item of folklore, which 

 has po-sibly us luucli foimdalion ui fact as most 

 other popular uotious ou simiUr subjects, we proceed 

 to known facts. The mulberry plant is a u«tive of 

 Persia frem which country ihe secret of silk manu- 

 factnre was introduced into Italy via ConstantmoiV.e, 

 and over Europe, becoming domiciled in the soutii ot 

 France as a great manufacturing iudustiy before the 

 close of the iilteenth century. This is a brief hist- 

 orical summary of an arucle now used in nearly all 

 countries as a luxury in apparel, but on y behtting 

 those of a higher social gradation, or those whose 

 means permit of the indulgence of wearing such a 

 comparatively costly textile fabric. Sericulture is now 

 exten-ively practised in various parts of the world, 

 temperate and tropical. The conditions which favour 

 the plant are prejudicial to the insect, and vice versa. 

 The mulberiy thrives better in a cold climate, which 

 imolies a larger size of tree bearing a more abundant 

 crop of leaves than in warm regions. But m these 

 latter the silkworm develops more rapidly and ob. 

 tains maturity in less than half the period m the 

 former or colder localities. This is an overwhelming 

 advantage, as it minimizes attendance and risk by 

 a saving of nmre than three weeks. Cards of seed 

 carried from China and Japan have been found to 

 reproduce successfully in those countries wheie the 

 mulberry can be cultivated. The silkworm has been 

 introduced into various parts of America with favour- 

 able results : but the most interesting sericultural ex- 

 periments of the period are those now undertaken 

 in reference to the acclimatization of the insect and 

 plant in Australia and Ceylon, in both of which 

 countries there are rea>onable grounds for believ- 

 ing that silk-growing may in tin-.e prove n profit- 

 able industry. "In liurope Ihe silkworm takes about 

 fnrty-five days to obtain maturity, but it has been 

 fnund bj experience that in the temperature of Colombo 

 only from twenty-three to Iwenty-tive days are re- 

 qaired." This quotation supports what we have al- 

 ready stated on this subject. It is a most important 

 consideration, as the shorter period reduces the liability 

 of loss from disease, and other well-known causes 

 which prey upon the worm, as well as lessening 

 the coat and trouble in looking after it. We have 

 been induced to dwfll upon this subject from the 

 apparent fact that local products, which at one period 

 were almost exclusively conQned to China, have been 

 produced siiccefsfnlly elsewhere, and, in some instances, 

 left China far behind ir. the competition. This is 

 particularly conspicuous in the matter of porcelain 

 wares, ahe chief exports, of China are, as our readers 

 aie doubtless aware, tea and silk. India is fast as- 

 suming a position in reference to China t.>a that, 

 iiid"ing from the pi ogress made during the past few 

 decades, there is every pofsibiliiy in the immediate 

 future of its becoming something more than a power- 

 ful rival. In silk, China will hiive to dread a more 

 widespread comp. tition. It forbodes ill, as regards the 

 future of this industry in China, that sericulture is 

 commencing to he develojied in iuteriropical ceunt- 

 iiei», which will preclude Chai;i from niouopoiiziug 

 the advantai;e she possesses re cheapness of production. 

 It has been already acknowledged that silk growi ig 

 cannot be remuneratively cnrried on hy white la-ijonr 

 in Australia, which obje tion does not exist or militate 

 against the industry in Southern Europe. The con- 

 ditions are. of course, dififtrent in Ceylon, where 

 coloured labour is the only agency that could I'C em- 

 ployed for the purpose, and it is chietly from such 

 countries that China and Japan have to dread rivalry. 

 ~- K^hina Mail, 



ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OP TEA. IN INDIA. 



[Our ow'n notes to this article taken from Dr. 

 Hunter's " Indian Empire," will be recognized by 

 the uf-ual Ed. Those signed "Ed. /. T, (t." are by 

 the Editor of the Indian Tea Gaz£ttf.—'Eri.'\ 



The cultivation of tea in India commenced within 

 the memory of men slill living, and the industry now 

 surpasses even indiyo as a field for European capital. 

 Unlike coffee-planting, the enterprize owes its origin to 

 the initiation of Government, and it has never attracted 

 the attention of the natives. Early travellers reported 

 that the tea-plant was indigenous to the southern 

 valleys of the Himalayas ; but they were mistaken 

 in the identity of the shrub, which was the Osyris 

 nepalensis. The real tea (Thea, viridh), a plant akin 

 to the camellia, grows wild in Assam, being commonly 

 fonnd throughout the hill tracts between the valleys 

 of the Brahmaputra and the Barak. It there some- 

 times attains the dimensions of a large tree ; and from 

 this, as well as from other indications, it has been 

 plausibly inferred that Assam is the real home of the 

 plant, which was thence introduced at a prehistoric 

 date into China. The discovery of the tea. plant grow- 

 ing wild in Assam is generally attributed to two 

 brothers named Bruce, who brought back specimens 

 of the plant and the seed, after the conquest of the 

 Province from the Burmese in 1826. In January 1S34, 

 under the Governor-Generalship of Lord VVilliam 

 Beutinck, a committee was appointed "for the pur- 

 pose of submitting a plan for the introduction of tea- 

 culture into India." In the following year, plants and 

 Bead were brought from China, and widely distributed 

 throughout the country. Government itself under- 

 took the formation of experimental plantations in 

 Upper Assam, and in the sub-Himalayan districts of 

 Kiimaun and Garhw^l in the North-Weatern Provinces. 

 A party of skilled manufacturers was brought from 

 China, and the leaf which they prepared was favourably 

 reported upon in the London market. Forthwith 

 private speculation took up tlie enterprize. The As- 

 sam Tea Company, still by far the largest, was formed 

 in 1839, and received from the Government an ex- 

 tensive grant of land, with tlie nurseries which had 

 been already laid out. In Kuinauu, retired members 

 of the civil and military services came forward with 

 equal eagerness. Many fundamental mistakes as to 

 site, soil and methods of manufacture were made in 

 those early days, and bitter disappointment was the 

 chief result. But while private enterprizes bnguished, 

 Government steadily persevered. It retained a portion 

 of its Assam gardens in its own hands until 1849, 

 when the Assam Company began to emerj^e from their 

 difficulties. Government also carried on the business 

 in Kumaun under ihe able management of Dr. Jame- 

 son, as late as 1855 * 



The real progress of tea-planting on a great scale in 

 Assam dates fiom about 1S51, and was greatly assisted 

 by the promulgation of the \\aste-Laud Rules of 

 18ri4. By 1859, there were .already 51 gardens in ex- 

 istence, owned by private iudividnals ; and the enter- 

 prize had extended from its original headquarters in 

 Lakhimpur and Sibfagar as far down the Brahmaputra 

 as Kanirup, In 1856 the tea-plant was discovered 

 wild in the district of Cachar in the Barak valley, 

 and P^uropean capital was at once directed to that 

 quarter. At about the same time tea-jolanting was 

 introduced into the neighbourhood of the Himalayan 

 sanitarium of Darjeeling, among the Sikhim Himalayas. + 



* Entirely with the China variety or apecies (?). — Ed. 



t Again the China tea was that used. All the older 

 hill gardens were planted with the China bushes, and it 

 is only mthin a comparatively recent period that Assam 

 hybrid plauts have been introduced. Most of the Terai 

 estates have been planted with the superior tea. — Ed. 



