1901-1902. | Tea: Its Cultivation, &ec. 271 
the East India Company began the importation by bringing 
home a few thousand pounds weight of tea, which sold at 
very large prices. In the next century the importation of 
tea had inereased to some millions of pounds weight, with a 
very considerable reduction in the price—a price which would 
at the present day be considered absolutely prohibitive. 
As the specimens now exhibited have come from Assam, 
and the methods of cultivation and manufacture just described 
are those practised in Assam, we shall consider specially the 
origin of the industry in India. About the end of the 
eighteenth century some captains of the East India Company 
brought tea plants from Canton to Calcutta. These were 
planted in some gardens, and grew well, notwithstanding the 
local ignorance of their necessities for successful culture. 
_ Some little time after reports were prepared for the Company, 
_ dealing with the cultivation in India of new crops, and one of 
them was tea. Nothing, however, was done in the matter. 
The Company had a monopoly of tea, and consequently did 
not feel under the necessity of embarking in the cultivation 
and manufacture of tea in India. When renewing their 
charter in 1833, they found that they had lost their tea 
monopoly. To remedy matters, they at once commenced 
experimental gardens with a view to cultivating tea in India 
of which they would have control. The Chinese planters 
grow their tea on hillsides, and it was thought that was the 
_ proper thing for India also. Experience demonstrated that 
it would not do. The heavy rain floods washed away the 
soil from the roots and undid the work of planting. To 
obviate this, terraces were formed, and in some parts of India 
under tea these are still to be found. While the experiments 
_were being carried out, a report got into circulation that tea 
was indigenous to Assam, and not to China as was generally 
‘supposed. Various stories got abroad attributing the dis- 
covery to different people. A careful sifting followed, when 
it was found that the honour belonged to a Mr Robert Bruce, 
and this the Government confirmed by giving him a reward. 
Mr Bruce had occasion to visit Assam in 1823, and when 
_ there his botanical researches resulted in the discovery of the 
_ tea tree growing wild near Rungpore. At that time Rungpore 
__Was the capital of Assam, which was not a part of the British 
