514 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



explain why this is so, aud thus prevent the commencement of speculations 

 which must end in loss and disappointment. 



It is of great importance to be able to define accurately when a plant may 

 be said to suit a particular climate. It is not enough that it live and send out 

 leaves : it must be able to produce flowers aud seeds aud to elaborate the peculiar 

 secretions and products on which its qualities depend. Indian hemp has growu 

 in England, even, to the height of ten feet, with thick stems, vigorous leaves, 

 and abundance of flowers, but it did not produce the resinous matter upon 

 which its supposed value as a medicinal agent depends. 



The rhubarb of Turkey, which, as regards size and vigor of the plant, 

 thrives well in England, does not produce a root of any medicinal value, or of 

 the same quality as that grown in Chinese Tartary, from which, though known 

 as "Turkey rhubarb," it is derived. 



The leaves of the tea plant are harmless, or but slightly stimulating in certain 

 latitudes, while they become narcotic and unwholesome in others. This fact 

 can be explained by the study of the connexion which exists between climate 

 and vegetation — a question to be solved by the botanist and meteorologist. It 

 is science only that can explain the failure of attempts to cultivate the tea 

 plant in Madeira and in the Indian archipelago, while a variety of the Chinese 

 plant is now cultivated in the upper districts of India with great success. 



The introduction of tea culture into India — a culture which is likely to become 

 of vast importance — had its origin in the observation made by English residents 

 that a kind of tea plant was indigenous in Assam. The discovery had been 

 made ten years previous, but from the absence of competent botanists, aud 

 consequent ignorance of the true character of the plants, it was not turned to 

 profitable account. It is to the published opinions of Dr. Royle, who, from a 

 consideration of the similarity of latitude, climate and vegetation, as far as any 

 information could be obtained, w^as of the opinion that tea could be successfully 

 cultivated in the Himalayan mountains, we are to ascribe the practical adoption 

 of plans that have been, after a long and arduous struggle, attended with com- 

 plete success. Basing his opinion upon the known varieties in climate cor- 

 responding to varying elevations, he suggested the propriety of experimental 

 planting in certain districts in the mountains elevated about 5,000 feet above 

 the sea. 



The success attending the experiment, when fully established on a sound 

 basis, produced a remarkable demand for laud, and applications for grants poured 

 in, and were complied with by the government on most liberal terms. In 

 Assam alone there are now upwards of 160 plantations owned by sixty com- 

 panies and individuals, which occupy 20,000 acres of land actually under tea 

 cultivation, bearing an estimated annual crop of 2,000,000 pounds of tea; 

 while grants of land to the amount of 123,000 acres for tea-growing had been 

 made up to the end of 18G3. In Cachar, an adjacent province, more than 

 6,000 acres have been brought under cultivation, and the crop is estimated at 

 nearly 400,000 pounds of tea. In the northwest provinces, and in the Punjab, 

 Avhere the Chinese tea plant is cultivated, the rate of progress appears to be 

 most remarkable, where the statistics, which may be called marvellous, prove 

 the movement to be a national one. The native princes, the Maharaja of 

 Cashmere, the Raja of Nadawn, and several other Ilajas, English and native 

 planters, among the Himalayas, are entering largely into the culture, and the 

 demand for seed and plants has been so great that in 1862 eighty-nine tons of 

 the former and tv/o million four hundred thousand of the latter were distributed 

 gratis by the government, yet the demand was not supplied.* All that has 

 been done and is doing fur tea culture in India is but a feeble foreshadowing 



* Tea fultivatjon, cotton, and other agricultural experiments in India — a review by W. 

 Nassau Lees, LL.D 



