On the Tea- Plantations in India. 303 



growth.. Thus I am convinced that one might go on from one 

 tract to another." 



Most people in perusing this would suppose that Assam was 

 covered with tea-plants, and that so far from Mr Bruce exag- 

 gerating in saying you might go on for miles, the reader would 

 imagine that you might travel from one end of Assam to 

 the other through a succession of tea-tracts. For a tract the 

 reader must understand a patch ; several patches often occur, 

 too, in the same vicinity, and it is between these that strag- 

 gling plants are found. Mr Bruce, however, calls each of 

 these patches, tracts ; and the common jungle, patches. Thus 

 he says, — " All my tea-tracts about Tingri and Kahung are 

 formed in this manner, with only a patch of jungle between 

 them, which is not greater than what could be conveniently 

 filled up by thinning those that have too many plants. At 

 Kahung I have lately knocked three tracts into one, and I 

 shall probably have to continue doing the same until one 

 tract shall be made by what now consists of a dozen.'' Mr 

 Bruce's substitution of the term tract for what is in reality a 

 mere spot, is most unfortunate ; and yet it does not appear to 

 have been accidental, as he observes, — " I have never yet seen 

 the end of Juggudoo's tea-tract, nor yet Kujudoo's or Nin- 

 grew's." Now, two at least of these localities were visited by 

 the Assam deputation, and their extent measured and found 

 to be very limited, and not larger than a common cottage- 

 garden. There may be other two or three similar patches in 

 the vicinity, but it appears to us too great a stretch of the 

 imagination to say, that the plants of these isolated little 

 patches " run over the hills and join, or nearly join," similar 

 little spots in distant parts of the country ; and to infer from 

 this supposition, that the whole country is covered with tea- 

 plants, or tea-forests, as they have been very improperly styled. 

 It is easy to imagine how Mr Bruce makes up the number of 

 tea-districts in Assam to 120, when every patch of jungle in 

 which a few plants occur is considered by him a tract, 

 however closely it may be connected with several other simi- 

 lar little clumps of plants in the same vicinity. 



Any one rising from the perusal of Mr Bruce's report would 

 suppose that Assam is covered with tea-plants 3 requiring no 



