^76 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [April i, t686. 



with several hundred people, who about this time 

 are smitien with nomadic tendencies — for coolies 

 (unless imported at great expense from Calcutta) 

 eug;t(^ed in the district sign agreements only from 

 year to year — the matter of re-engaging them re- 

 quires much tact and juilgmeut. The bounty, or bonus 

 as it is called, varies from 10 to HO rupees, and as 

 this money has generally to be paid in advance, the 

 risk is considerable. If the recipients are steady-going 

 folk, and own, as most old coolies do, halt a dozen 

 tattle and as many children, the advance is pretty 

 safe ; but there is always a certain proportion of a 

 roving disposition, unburdened with domestic care, 

 and who are averse to saddling themselves with 

 flocks and herds. Again, with a certain class of coolies, 

 chiefly those from the N. AY. province.'*, marriage is 

 merely an agreement between the parties for a year, 

 terminable by mutual consent, so that the disruption 

 of domestic ties leaves each at liberty to levant 

 with the advance and exercise " bounty jumping" 

 upon some other factory, so that, after paying away 

 four or five thousand rupees in bonus, the planter, 

 next day at muster, may find forty or fifty people 

 missing, and though, when caught, the delinquents 

 are puuiphed ^.nd sent back to work out their agree- 

 ment, the expense and anxiety of recovering the 

 runaways is considerable, and, although all planters, 

 for mutal benefit, behave as loyally as possible, it 

 is extremely difficult, when a batch of people pre- 

 sent themselves, to tell whether they are deserters 

 or not. Occasionally a planter, eager to secure one of 

 these nomadic gangs, binds them down and pays the 

 ho.jUS, 10 find out that they have already signed 

 articles elsewhere, in which case both men and money 

 are lost, for the cash is rapidly consigned to some 

 safe quarter, and prosecution is time and money 

 thrown away. An inexperienced individual, commenc- 

 ing planting on his own^J account, is particularly 

 liable to suffer in this way, and start with a loss 

 of perhaps £100 to commence with. 



As soon as the plants show indications that the 

 sap has run down, pruning has to be commenced ; 

 and when it is remembered that an acre of ground 

 contains 2.722 plants, that the primers have not the 

 slightest horticultural knowledge, and that all has 

 to be done with the knife, the supervision requisite 

 to prevent mistakes must be both vigilant and in- 

 cessant. True, much assistance is rendered by the 

 native subordinates, many of whom are intelligent, 

 and quickly pick up what is intended ; but apathy 

 and indifference are more the rule than the excep- 

 tion ; anil, though a man maj' be made to understand 

 matters of detail himself, it is very seldom that one 

 can be found either willing or able to take ths trouble 

 to impart such to each individual member of his 

 gang. Plantation roads and bridges — the latter all 

 formed either of wood or bamboo — need repairs and 

 renewing, while any defects in drainage that have 

 come to light during the raius, when operations in 

 this line are well-nigh impossible, have to be recti- 

 fied; while, if extension of the plantaiion is essayed, 

 more risky outlay in the shape of advances to con- 

 tractors has to be incurred, nothing being done in 

 Assam, or, indp.ed, in any part of India, without 

 advances. Machinery has to be overhauled, the supply 

 of chests for the coming season arranged lor, and 

 all items of expenditure connected therewith carefully 

 calculated, for in these days, when the profits on 

 tea to the manufacturer are counted by pence per 

 pound, the most rigid economy compatible with 

 efficiency has to be exercised. Building, again, takes 

 up a large portion of the planter's attention, and, 

 from the perishable nature of the material of which 

 most of the huts and houses are constructed, they 

 need extensive repairs every cold weather. Most 

 tea houses and some bungalows are, it is true, 

 constructed of masonry, and the former provided with 

 iron roofs— albeit bricks and mortar are not much 

 in favour with those who have a lively recollection 

 of the. violent enrthquake that took place on the 

 lOi^i of January, ISti'J, when the Oacbar gaol and 

 bazanr shot iito the rivpr: the church steeple came 

 down ill one solid block, aud almost every pucca 

 biiiliiing either came down with the run or was 



rendered unsafe. Hence wooden posts, mat walls, 

 and thatched roofs form the bulk of the building 

 material, and frequently, just as the factory is all 

 in order at the beginning of the working season, in 

 the dry p"irched months, a fire will lay the whole 

 in ashes in the course of an hour. Coolies are pro- 

 verbially careless with fire, and in the chilly nights 

 of the cold weather get up a blaze within their 

 huts in close proximity to the mat or reed walls, 

 without the least regard to consequences, and, when 

 an accident does occur, up goes the price of bulding 

 material for miles around the scene of the disaster 

 to 25, 50. and, if late in the season, 100 per cent, 

 the dealers knowing full well that the people must 

 be housed at whatever cost; and this contingency has 

 always to be allowed for in the estimates. Many an 

 unlucky planter has got on to the wrong side of 

 his agent's books through an untoward fire in March 

 or April. 



A well-laid-out factory, it the site will admit, presents 

 an appearance of thriving prosperity, despite small 

 profits; situated generally on the banks of or.e or 

 other of the numerous streams that interseot the 

 tea districts of Sylhet and Cachar in all directions. 

 As a rule, t)ie coolie huts are built on either side 

 of the main road, stretching up from the landing 

 place to the tea house and bungalow, each hut 

 standing in the plot of ground that the Government 

 have decreed shall be allotted to ejich family ; and 

 where the coolies have stuck to the factory they 

 were originally imported for, those small gardens are 

 crowded with all sorts of fruit trees aud vegetables 

 while, as the adjacent stream teems with fish, the people 

 can live both well and cheaply. The huts themselves 

 can be made to assume a neat and trim appearance 

 by an occasional small reward to the occupier who 

 carries the palm in this respect. Kaised upon about 

 three feet of well beaten earth, which with the reed 

 walls are neatly plastered with a mixture of cowdung 

 and clay, and whitewashed, they look, at first sight, 

 like masonry bnildings. The tea house, of whatever 

 material composed, is always a most imposing build- 

 ing from its size, the amount of space needed for 

 manufacture being very great, the tall iron chimneys 

 belonging to the roasting apparatus, projecting through 

 the roof, giNdng the structure, at first sight, the 

 appearance of a river steamer that somehow has 

 travelled inland. The interior fittings consist of large 

 withering floors, running the whole length of the 

 building, m.any factories, howe\cr, having separate 

 sheds for withering the leaf. The rolling machines, of 

 which there are some half a dozen varieties, are all 

 ingenious contrivances, but too costly for small 

 factories. These have been designed to dispense with 

 hand labour in rolling or twisting the leaf, and though 

 most profess to complete the operation, it is generally 

 found necessary to finish by baud ; but the sa^-ing 

 effected by them has been enormous, and the in- 

 creasing competition among the numerous inventors 

 will no doubt result in the production of a machine 

 that will entirely dispense with hand-labour altogether. 

 Equally worthy of notice is the patent roasting ap- 

 paratus, looking like an immense cash safe. In this 

 contrivance all risk of burning the tea, as was the 

 case when, as formerly, it was dried in sieve-; over 

 open charcoal fires, is avoided, the prepared leaf in 

 these " siroccos" as they have been named, coming 

 in contact merely with heated air ; besides the im- 

 munity from over-firing thus secured, the plonter 

 has now no need of charcoal, formerly an expensive 

 item in the cost of manufacture, as any fuel can 

 be used in the furnaces. 



The sifting machines are but modifications of the 

 common wiuuowers, and, though they have likewise 

 greatly economised hand labour in sorting the different 

 grades of tea, final hand-picking is necessary. Chests 

 are seldom made on the factory, but procuriil from 

 contractors located on the banks of the main river; 

 and throughout the year sawyers and carpenters 

 are hard pushed tn supply the over-increasing re- 

 quirements. In fact, so bri-^k is the drmand, that 

 many )ilanters have their chests sent up in sluirks 

 froni Calcutta. At no distant date there is likely 

 to be a dearth of timber, not but what there is 



