924 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[JtfNE I, 1885. 



ary Assam tea does not come creditably through 

 this course of treatment, it does not follow that 

 Assam pruniugs would not do so ; and wheu we 

 remember that the experiment would cost nothing, 

 it seems to argue a want of euterprize on the part 

 of the planters of Kamrup, if this opening for their 

 waste produce is offered to them year after year and 

 no advantage is taken of it. The case 13 peculiarly 

 one where the initiative can usefully be taken by 

 official agency, and the Agricultural Department in 

 Assam is now making fresh endeavours to bring 

 the wants of the Bhutias into contact with the tea 

 industry of that province ; but of course nothing can be 

 done without the co-operation of the planters, on whose 

 part some degree of inventiveness and enterprise is 

 absolutely necessary if a beginning is to be made at all. 

 The mere trade with Bhutan, of course, is an in- 

 significant matter. The whole population of the 

 country probably falls short of one hundred thousand 

 souls. But Bhutan is the medium of communication 

 with Tibet, and Tibet consumes about six milliond 

 of pounds of Chinese tea annually, and wouls 

 consume as much more if it could begot. Without ,n 

 any way trying to force our trade on Tibet (than 

 which a greater mistake could scarcely be made), 

 common sense demauds that where we find articles of 

 Tibetan merchandise offered for sale in the markets of 

 Assam, we should give our own produce in exchange 

 It is not necessary to enter into any negotiations about 

 the right of passage of Indian tea through Bhutanese 

 or Tibetan territory, or to begin any correspondence 

 with a view to disarming or overcoming libetan or 

 Chinese exclusiveness. It is not by diplomatic press- 

 ure nor by commercial or political missions that inter- 

 course with Tibet is to be opened up, but by simply 

 placing in the hands of the Bhutias, who act as our 

 intermediaries in this matter, the one commodity winch 

 both they and the Tibetans chiefly desire, in that 

 peculiar form which is familiar to them and which they 

 are prepared to appreciate. We may safely trust to 

 the Bhutias to carry our tea to Tibet, if they approve of 

 it themselves. It has been proved, as we think, satis- 

 factorily that, even supposing political jealousies re- 

 moved and the roads thrown open, the direct export- 

 ation of tea from Darjeeling or any other Indian district 

 to Tibet would be costly to a prohibitive degree. But 

 we know as a fact that the Bhutias carry on a trade 

 with Tibet, and are only too glad of any opportunities 

 for its extension, because tbey make it very well, 

 though we could not do so. We need not, therefore, 

 trouble ourselves with calculations as to the comparative 

 cost of placing Indian and Chinese tea on the Tibetan 

 frontier, as if the question were one of coolie-hire at 

 so much per maund for so many hundred miles of road. 

 The Bhutia traders will assuredly find means to 

 offer Iudian tea to their Tibetan customers at remuner- 

 tive rates, if we can first induce them to buy 

 for themselves. It is, indeed, scarcely credible that 

 the present anomalous state of things can go on in- 

 definitely, with Indian tea-planters complaining of 

 overstocked markets, while their nearest market, and 

 one of their largest, is shut against them, not so much 

 by any deliberate policy of exclusiveness, as by a 

 want of adaptation between the article produced on 

 Indian tea-gardens and the requirements of the Tibetan 

 tea drinker. We cannot believe that such a difficulty 

 as this will prove insurmountable The Indian Tea 

 Association itself reminds us that much greater obstacles 

 have been overcome by the tea industry in Assam. Turn- 

 in" back fifty years to one of the first reports on the manu- 

 facture of tea and on the extent and produce of the tea, 

 plantations in Assam by Mr. C. A. Bruce, the reputed 

 discoverer of tea in the Assam Valley, who then held the 

 office of Superintendent of Tea Culture, we see how 

 humble and tentative were the beginnings of an industry 

 which has Binceassumed such magnificent proportions, and 



created, as it were, the prosperity of a province. Mr. 

 Bruce was then engaged in reconnoitring ti acts of in. 

 digenous tea-plant in an unexplored country which did 

 not even belong to the British Government, and his ut- 

 most ambition was to produce from ten such tracts 35,000 

 pounds of tea. The jungles through which Mr. Bruce 

 wandered are now orderly and populous tea-gardens, 

 and his 35,000 pounds of tea have been multiplied 

 a thousand fold. To the same eDergy which has 

 brought about these results we may look for a timely 

 occupation of all the markets that are necessary to 

 the 'maintenance and advancement of the great indus- 

 try of which he was the pioneer. The winning over 

 of Tibetan custom ought not to prove an impractic- 

 able taBk to the enterprise and perseverance which 

 have achieved the reclamation of Assam. — Pioneer. 



THE "SAW" TREE. 



ALBIZZIA ST1PULATA. 



It is now some fifteen years or so since the beneficial in- 

 fluence of the Saw tree was first suspected. 



In the good old times, however, there was less need 

 to look up any matter of this kind, and hence the know- 

 ledge gained by a few was not utilized. As prices fell and 

 dividends became small by degrees and beautifully less, 

 the subject received more attention and means were taken 

 here and there to plant these trees among the tea, with a 

 beneficial result, as at Ahmguri, by Mr. J. Buckingham. 



As a rule, the tree grows with a fairly clean stem 20 to 30 

 feet in the bole, forking frequently into two nearly equal 

 branches, carrying little or no foliage. The spread of these 

 branches is generally considerable, giving a flat topped 

 appearance, and the ascending axis, so conspicuous in 

 the Simol (or cotton) and the Boghu (or kodom) is 

 quite absent, and the general aspect at a distance is 

 not unlike the letter Y. 



By some persons the benefit derived from the tree 

 has been attributed to " shade," but this can hardly be 

 the cause because the mass of foliage compared to the 

 size of the tree is small, and the leaflets are small and 

 scattered, giving indeed very little real shadow below. 

 A feature by which the Saw can be recognized is that 

 which gives the specific name, i.e., the deep red, or at 

 times green stipules, which in young shoots are large and 

 arise at each side of the leafstalk, and which eventually 

 drop off. The bark is grey and marked by horizontal 

 furrows, not unlike the Siris, and is half-inch thick reddish 

 inside. The sapwood from three to five inches thick, is 

 white and soft, decaying rapidly if exposed to weather. 

 The heartwood of old trees on the contrary is lasting, and 

 though light, stands exposure. It is coloured a brownish 

 purple irregularly waved with lighter streaks, and dark 

 strings. Like the heartwood of all the group to which it 

 belongs, it is very cross. Saw is a remarkably light wood 

 and it is also very lasting. 



It seeds profusely in January or February, the seeds 

 being little discs about one-eighth to three-sixteenths of 

 an inch across, eight or ten in a flat pod half-au-inch 

 wide, by four inches long, at first purple color, and dry- 

 ing to a drab. The Saw has no distinct and conspicuous 

 tap root, the absence of the descending axis repeating the 

 absence of the ascending. It has however large laterals 

 that dividing, more or less repeat the growth above ground, 

 though apparently having nothing peculiar about them, 

 as likely to facilitate drainage more than would the roots 

 of most other trees. It is difficult to see how the idea 

 arose that the benefit due to this tree in particular must, 

 or may be due to drainage, as this benefitis at times con- 

 spicuous on the very eclye of a klnid or steep slope, where 

 drainage is naturally at' such a maximum as to completely 

 obscure any drainage effect due to tree roots, however, 

 favourably inclined that way. But it is hardlv necessary 

 here to demonstrate that this tree really does improve the 

 growth of tea and increase the outturn per acre, as also 

 the proximity of the other trees as decidedly retard it: 

 the thing is to find out the cause. 



By some, the effect is said to be due to " shade," but 

 the majority of planters will at once, and truly, say that 



