July i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



33 



TEA: NEWS FROM THE INDIAN DISTRICTS. 



Splendid weather for tea is reported from Julpigoree, 

 very hot and moist and the chota Inn-fat over. Unfort- 

 unately, however, tea and human beings are differently 

 constituted, and fever has been sadly prevalent, as also 

 cholera in a lesser degree. 



OUK Tezpur correspondent writes : —The past week has 

 been a favourable one for tea ; but excessive rain has 

 made it too cold for good leaf, aud red spider is spreading. 

 A few sunny days will, however, improve matters, aud, 

 generally speaking, prospects for the season are good. 



DAB.1KELIN0. — The choin Inirsat has not quite taken tis 

 departure, as showers have fallen in the station almost 

 every day recently. The temperature has gone up a 

 good deal within the last few days throughout the district 

 and there has been a line, bright sun out when rain w.is 

 not falling. To show your readers how very partial the 

 rainfall is in these hills, it may be mentioned that at 

 the Darjeeling Observatory over 22 inches of rain have 

 been registered already this year, while at a place nearly 

 due east from here and about six miles distant as the 

 crow flies, the rainfall since the beginning of January 

 has not quite reached 11 inches. Here is a fact connected 

 with rod spider which is of interest. A small patch of a 

 garden which had been infested by this blight for several 

 years was deep ho'id early last October, pruned at the 

 usual time, and then not hoed again until the raiu had 

 begun. The result has been th.it spider has completely 

 disappeared from this patch. Tho experiment is of 

 course, on far too small a scale to build any theory on, 

 but it might be worth while to try this plan on other 

 gardens and watch the result. Mr. Blaudford'a theory 

 that heavy snow in the interior of the Himalayas meant 

 a short rainfall certainly held good- in this district last 

 year. Snow was unusually heavy in the interior last 

 winter, and snow fell unusually low and late. It remains, of 

 course, to be seen whether the same rule will hold good 

 iu this year of grace. 



Assam. — Here we are sitting with the thermometer at 

 75' in the shade at 3 p.m., and the tirst quarter of the 

 month of May has gone astern. It is difficult to realize 

 that the year is so far advanced. Most of us have only 

 just commenced punkahs ; but it is more with a view to 

 driving away mosquitoes than in order to cool the air. 

 Kvetybody has been crying out about tliu weather, and ^vith 

 good reason ; for we have had an exceptionally damp 

 April. Eain fell on nineteen out of the thirty days and 

 tlie remaining eleven were mostly cloudy* aud dull. 10*73 

 inches of raiu fell during tho month, against 5'82 in April 

 lSS-1, 4-27 in 1SS3 and 339 in 1»82. The thermometer 

 ranged between 81' and CO . The average highest temper- 

 ature being IS" and average lowest G7'. There was a violent 

 gale on the 9th which did some damage to buildings and 

 stopped the traflic on several of the roads, by blowing 

 down trees. One planter had an exceedingly narrow escape ; 

 he was driving along in his buggy when a large tree was 

 blown over and came down with a tremendous crash on tlie 

 road immediately behind him. The horse took fright and 

 bolted for some distance. There wtro also several hail- 

 storms which knocked off some of the young tea shoots in 

 several gardens. On the second of this mouth the weather 

 cleared aud we had two glorious days, all tho weather 

 propheti fand their name is Icgionl declaring that we were 

 to have a prolonged spell of scorching accompanied by 

 blights and pests. Oue the night of the 4th, however, it 

 clouded over and, by the 9th, 3'30 inches had been added 

 to the rainfall. Although we bAve had «o little sun during 

 the last six weeks, and the occasional stiff breezes have 

 opened up the leaf, making it banji, nearly all the gardens 

 about here are considerably ahead of last year and, should 

 the weather be favourable, ought to make a good May 

 also. 



Tkzpuk. — Again I have to chronicle a week of very 

 favorable weather for tea — the little rain we have had has 

 fallen at night and the days have been bright and warm. 

 The month promises to be a very good one as compared 

 with May last year and most gardens are getting well 

 ahead. Ked spider is unfortunately still spreading, but 

 that seems to be the normal state of affairs for this time 

 of the year aud need not perhaps be remarked upon, Tho 

 Bta Buu is exveptionaUy cuul aud hvalthy eu fur, 

 5 



Messrs. Gow, Wilson and Stanton, Tea Brokers, have 

 published a diagram " showing the quarterly import and 

 delivery of Java tea, with the price of the leailiug de- 

 scriptions for the past five years," the chief features of 

 interest being distinguished by lines printed in peen and 

 in red. As they remark — " The trade in Java tea has 

 exhibited a steady increase in both the imports and 

 deliveries during the above period, which is shown by 

 the total annual figures, herewith subjoined: — 



1880. 1S81. 1882. 1883. 18S4. 



lb. lb. lb. lb. lb. 



Imports ...2,019,000 1,217,(100 2,159,000 3,0SG,0n0 r.,5,'-9,0n() 

 Deliveries... 2.012,000 1,314,000 1,786.000 2,893.UOO 2,7U9.00a 



These statistics prove that Java teas have been gradu- 

 ally gaining favour iu the London market, for the deliveries 

 have continued to increase etpially with the imports, while 

 in some years they consideraHly exceeded them." Prices 

 during the five years have varied as follows ; — " Fair '* 

 Pekoe started in 1880 at about Is 6d., and soon fell 

 to Is. 4d., but in the subsequent year the lvalue roso 

 to Is. 8ii., after which it gradually descended to Is 4d., 

 and again touching Is Cd in 1883, it dropped to Is 3d per lb. 

 by the close of 1884. " Medium " Pekoe similarly varied ; 

 commencing at Is 2d in 1880, f.illing to lO.W before tho 

 expiiation of that year, rising to Is 4d at the end of 

 1881 and the opening of 1882, and, after many short ups 

 and downs, closing last year at Is per lb. Pekoe Sou- 

 chong of medium to fair quality rauged from Is Ogd 

 in 1880 down to Old early in 1861, and ouly once more 

 advancing to Is., in the first quarter of 1882 almost 

 continually declined in price until the end of 1884, 

 when it was onl\' S^d. Souchong has followed the satne 

 downward course, selling in 1880 at Is, being worth only 

 9d later in the same year, and though realizing lid in 

 the last quarter of 1881, this kind of tfa has since fallen 

 by degrees to the low level of 7d jter lb. Messrs. Gow, 

 Wilson, aud Sfanton observe that — " The gr.idual fall of 

 prices must, however, be disappointing to importers, but 

 this has not been in any way peculiar to Java teas, and 

 applies equally to all other tea imlustries, many of which 

 suffered to an even more serious extent. Some consol- 

 ation may, nevertheless, be drawn from the fact that thuso 

 gardens, both in India or Ceylon, aud in Java, have suf- 

 fered least wliieh havo sent home the best liquoring teas; 

 anil we may add that more attention is now being paid 

 by buyers to the quality of tho liquor than has ever be- 

 fore been the case, while teas for mere appear.nucc — that 

 is, with handsome leaf and poor cup — are every year be- 

 ing looked upon with less favour. M.-^ny of the best gard- 

 ens iu Java have recognized this fact, and turned their 

 attention to proilucing teas with fine llavour and useful 

 strength, iu which cndravour they have met wifh con- 

 siderable success; such invoices always command the atten- 

 tion of tho trade, aud meet with the, hi'st reception, averag- 

 ing naturnll.v the highest prices." Altogether tho diagram 

 is well worth studying by that branch of the traiie most 

 interested iu Java tea, and both i>la;ilors anil munut'act> 

 uror.s may also glean, from the reniaiks which accom- 

 pany it, some useful hints as to the best modes of pi'Cr 

 paring and " firing" the teas for the English market. — 

 Indiin Fantera' Gazette. 



Kangka Valley Tea rEosvECT.s.— Tho tea maunfaclur- 



iug season is now well on. Till within the last day or two 



the weather has been nio.«t unfiivnurable, three or four bail' 



storms having rut up some of the gardens, and there having 



been constant falls of snow on the hills, which resr themselves 



up just bchiml the valley, tho .mow itself being only about 



four miles distant as the crow flies. The appearance of 



the upper rai. go is wintry, aud it has not been so white at 



thin month of the year within memory of man. Tho con- 



sequence of this Unseasonable weather is that tho first flush 



has nearly all gone hanji, ami as in the Knngra Valle.v this 



crop represents fully a third, and often a larger pircent- 



age, of the jcar'a outturn, tho dnmiigo done by tho cold 



an be estimated. The more hopeful planters loiik forward 



to a bumper May anil June crop, but close plucking and 



banji heads on tbo bushes arc but a poor preface to a big 



second flush, Oardins will probably all come round in tho 



rains, which is a con,«oliition for those who still regard last 



ye.U''B ' outturn to date ' with eyes of fond but foiled ad- 



I miration. Personally, however, it is satlBfactory to note 



tbe vusillutiug therujumuter duiug itu little couittituliuiml 



