KovEMBER 2, 1885J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



305 



PEODUCTION OF TEA IN INDIA: 

 QUALITY AXD PBICES. 



Some time ago we quoted from the Calcutta 

 Kmilhhman a notice of the official report tor 1884 

 of tea cultivation in Assam, and now wo take over 

 an elaborate article from the Pioneer, in which some 

 thing more than cultivation is dealt with. There 

 is considerable ability and equal inconsistency dis- 

 played by the writer. He first shows that the 

 lands held for tea cultivation have doubled in six 

 years, and that, from the tendency of separate 

 estates to aggregate in the hands of Companies, 

 economy in workiBg will be more and more se- 

 cured, and yet he ends by anticipating the col- 

 lapse of the Indian tea enterprise in the face of 

 competition from China tea which is heavily burd- 

 ened (besides its inferior quality) with export duties 

 plus multitudinous squeezes ! The addition of 

 30,000 acres in one year does not look like being 

 conquered in the race, even although prices in 

 1884 were unprecedentedly low. On the other hand, 

 cost of production and manufacture has been so 

 economized that on teas produced at a cost of 

 about lOd, a prjtit of M per lb. is estimated. The 

 area taken up by tea-planters in Assam is somewhat 

 less than a million of acres, giving an average of 

 about 1,000 acres for each property, but as only 

 lyO.OOO acres are under tea, in all stages of giowth, the 

 average per estate of cultivated acreage is only about 

 •200 acres. The yield per acre of land in bearing, 

 which, a few years ago, was reckoned at 2801b., 

 has been increased to 30.5. The estimates are now 

 subjected to such checks that they can be fairly 

 relied on. Counting Ceylon, the yield of Indian 

 tea is increasing at the rate of five millions of 

 pounds per annum, and the Pioneer is at a loss 

 to know where a miUiou additional consumers 

 per annum is to come from. But the writer forgets 

 that in Britain the consumption of tea per caput 

 has increased, and is likely to increase, considerably 

 beyond increment to population. That Australia 

 should soon grow its own tea, we consider, looking 

 at tlie labour difficulty, a wilder idea even than 

 that of the process now going on being reversed, and 

 China forcing Indian teas out of the market. The writer 

 himself says : " It seems on the whole improbable 

 that tea cultivation in India will seriously decrease," 

 and he adduces the provision of a better and swifter 

 cla=.s of steamers and the extension of railway facilities 

 as good reasons for this belief. We prefer the 

 optimism of the Pioneer to it3 pessimism. To the 

 article from the Pioneer, v!ea.dA two Ivom the Indian 

 Tea Gazette as well as a paragraph speaking highly of 

 a new sifter. 



The writer of "The Tea that Pays" takes the 

 commonsense view that it is medium and not very 

 fine teas which will pay the producer, but surely 

 twenty year old estates cannot be so worn out as 

 is represented. We observe, however, that the man- 

 ager of Singell, one of the oldest estates in 

 the Kurseong division of the Daijeeling district, 

 is thus quoted in the report of the Company: — 



" Want of soil," the Manager says, " is another cause 

 of decrease in the outturn. In a garden that has 

 been in existence as long as this, the loss of soil from 

 wasli and other causes becomes very apparent, and 

 to correct this, as far as possible, is a work tlie im- 

 portance of which can hardly be ovcn'ated." 

 But oUmate and season must have very nmch to 

 do with the quality of tea, judging from what tea 

 planters «Tite. for instance : — 



Joili u, jc.th Augaet,— Our Jorhat cowespontlent 



33 



WTites : — We have been having a good deal of rain this 

 last week, whirh though faroiirahle for ieaf has not ^teiii 

 cwiduci- • to good utaunfactare. hetif coming in v'ct in 

 dilpi::t]t to wither, and it has to be kept perhap? fcr 

 two days n-hen it d -'rs up rather tiian iritt,,'rs an 1 girfH 

 a dull j'ernieutatiun in the enp. Tins last week h: s 

 been rather a poor one for outturn, but the wcaMii r 

 is more promising now for good flushes. 

 Again : — 



N. Lakhimpiir, 15th August. — Leaf has been nmn'mi 

 rather xtij' during the past week, arid luoldni/ a hit 

 hardisi/ in most gardens. 



And in a review of the season lS81-8ij, the paper 

 from which we quote attributes disa.strous effects 

 to the failure of the ehiitii biirsot nr little monsoon 

 and to the great lieat which acconii>aiiied rain when 

 at length it came. Tlie tea biu-lics were not able to 

 renew their withered rootlets until comparatively late 

 in the year. Tlie rain when it came was excessive : in 

 Sylhet beyond jirecedent. Low jn'ices were not solely 

 due to inferior lea, but to a reaction from tlie China 

 war and the budget scare. Teas produced in the 

 second half of the year we are told, are always 

 more mellow and ripe than those of earlier growth ; 

 but the great point for Iiulinn planters to keep 

 in view is to produce their teas at n price irliirli n'ill 

 defi/ competition. How the demand of tlie English 

 brokers for extra tine teas and this advice are to 

 be reconciled, is the difficulty, but the writer in 

 the Planters' (iazctte, contra the Pioneer, sees no 

 reason why with tlie experience of past years " n-e 

 slwiitil not he able to nin our Cliinesc neiglihours out 

 of the market," notwithstanding the receipt of 

 several driers by the Hongs in China. What we 

 in Ceylon as well as in India have to do is to 

 produce good quantities of tea per acre which will 

 go into consumption on its own merits, without 

 either adulteration or blending, with as few dis- 

 tinctions of quality as possible. To this end 

 simplicity of machinery as well as etiiciency, es- 

 pecially in the important operations of sorting 

 and sifting, are desiderated. The writer in the 

 Planters' Gazette evidently has not seen Jackson'a 

 leaf-breaker, and we confess neither have we. 

 We do not think the coolies can influence the 

 use of machinery to the extent attributed to them. 

 The more we consider the matter, the more, cert- 

 ainly, do we share the sentiments of Mr. .Armstrong 

 as to short travelling of tea on tlie sifting machine, 

 and those of the Indian wi-iter wo quote as to 

 the loss of aroma inevitable from long exposure 

 to the atmosphere (and to handling) in the final 

 manipulations by coolies. 



PADDY (RICE) CULTIVATION IN CEYLON. 



The fact, that Moormen and Chetties, who know 

 the real value, and relative value of Rs. and 

 cents, as payii g investments, think it a fortune 

 to be owner! of paddy fields, ptove.! that it is 

 all gammon, and downright nonsense to tell us 

 that paddy cultivation is not paying, more e«ppci- 

 ally, as to a largo number ofpeanants, out of town, 

 labour has no marketable value. Men work in paddy 

 6ekls not 80 much for money, but for food and 9.ike 

 of company.* 



But we should like to put down our thoughts why there 

 is such a large import of grain from India. The larger 

 number of people who consv.me the import are the coolies 

 in our estates, and the town people cbirliy conipoeod 

 of Moors, Chetties, Portuguese, Dutch and Knglish 

 descendants and others who as natives neitiier po8ses.«:ed 

 lands nor inherited them. All over the interior the 

 native paddy affords the rice, which is the staple food 

 of the Natives. 



* This is an amusing .sample of the native style of 

 non-seqnitur, because labour lias no ninrketable ^•alue^ 

 thircfore paddy cultivation pays.— Kn, 



