The Indian Tea Plantations. 333 



present about tAvo lakhs (£25,000) of rupees. We hear that 

 all of them are admirably adapted for tea ; and as soon as the 

 plant is brought generally under cultivation, as must be the 

 case, we doubt not the revenue will be increased cent, per 

 cent., if not considerably more. In the Beeas, Paklun, Kangra, 

 and Rilloo valleys, there is, we are assured, nearly as much 

 land adapted for tea cultivation as would, if thus used, supply 

 the whole European market. The principal products now 

 cultivated are rice, wheat, and sugar ; the latter is described 

 as wretchedly poor, being very small, and containing but 

 little saccharine matter. We are told that much as has been 

 written and said of the Dhera Dhoon and its capabilities, it 

 falls far short of the Kangra and Rilloo valleys. " They are 

 undoubtedly," says a correspondent who has opportunities 

 of examining them, " the Eden of our hill territories. In 

 the Dhoon water is, in many places, scanty ; here there is 

 much more than is required. -Here and there you meet large 

 streams containing a body of water superior in quantity to 

 that supplying the Dhoon canals, yet considered of so small 

 importance as to be nameless. In every direction the valleys 

 are intersected by kucha canals." We learn, therefore, with 

 much satisfaction, that many sites for tea plantations have 

 already been selected in these valleys, one In Paklun, now a 

 waste, some 4 miles by 3. In the Kangra valley, the largest 

 site as yet chosen is a waste plain, upwards of a mile long, 

 near Dhui'msala. It is clear, that in a very few years, these 

 valleys must become important on account of their tea culti- 

 vation, as our friend says that the smaller sites selected by 

 Mr Jameson are too numerous to mention. At present, tea 

 is imported from Yarkund, in Noorpoor, packed in bulk (as 

 our local readers may ascertain by inspection of the tea- 

 blocks to be sold on the 27th at the Begum's house, on ac- 

 count of Goverimient, and from thence to the Punjab). It 

 is much valued by the natives, and the finer sorts are sold 

 as high as six rupees, a proof that the use of tea would be- 

 come much more general, in that as in other quarters, pro- 

 vided it was sold at a lower and I'easonable rate. In order 

 to insure the success of the experiments now about to be car- 

 ried out, on tlie lil.eral scale alrcadv mentioned, wo have 



