264 Tea: Its Cultivation, &e. [Sess. 
regard to India and the other tea-producing countries. This 
information, as well as some interesting statements dealing 
with the consumption of tea, I obtained from a Report on Tea 
Culture in Assam for 1900, and a Return made to the House 
of Commons in August 1900. Both of these documents were 
courteously placed at my disposal by the Commercial Intelli- 
gence Branch of the Board of Trade in London. In the 
fourth section is a brief narrative of the discovery of tea and 
its subsequent developments. For this I have drawn on 
some literature I had access to. 
When the tea plant is cultivated with a view to its com- 
mercial use, it is grown in tracts of well-cultivated land. 
These are termed gardens, and vary in size from two or three 
hundred to two thousand acres. Most of the Assam tea is 
grown in the valleys, rich soil and a hot moist atmosphere 
being necessary for its full development. When the Govern- 
ment gave land to the early planters on condition of their 
clearing it and sowing it in tea, the seed was sown so 
indiscriminately that plants were sometimes very scattered 
and sometimes very crowded. Experience has taught that 
plants for their wellbeing require a certain amount of free 
space, and they are now planted at regular intervals of about 
four to four and a half feet apart. 
Although the tea plant in its uncultivated state attains 
the dimensions of a tree, in its cultivated state it is a bush 
no higher than about 24 feet, and is kept pruned down to - 
that size for convenience in plucking. It is three years old 
before the leaf is plucked for manufacture, and full bearing of — 
leaf does not take place till the bush is six to eight years old. 
From about the middle of December the work of pruning is 
done, and this is commenced practically as soon as the bushes 
have stopped throwing out new shoots. The purpose of prun- | 
ing is to promote the growth of young shoots, and to do it so © 
that there will be as large a yield as possible. The lighter prun- 
ing is done by women, the heavier by men, who also do the 
hoeing and other heavy work connected with the cultivation. 
With the advent of the rainy season in March, the bushes — 
begin to throw out shoots. The top part of the shoot only is— 
plucked, and includes the bud and one or two of the young 
4 
