192 Scientific Intelligence — Botany. 



on an extended scale, the work in which the Government are now 

 actinof the part of pioneers. We cannot undertake to give an ab- 

 stract of this report, further than to mention, that the nurseries in 

 Dr Jameson's charge occupy altogether 162 acres, all under culture. 

 Of these, rather more than 30 acres were added during last year. 

 That, in addition to the plants i-eserved for manufacturing purposes, 

 these nurseries have lately yielded two and a-half lac of seedlings, 

 ready for transplanting at the time the report was furnished, and of 

 which the greater part has been appropriated for the additional land 

 selected in. the Dherah Dhoon. A crore and upwards of seeds have 

 been acrain sown, which will give a large additional stock for trans- 

 planting. About twelve maunds of tea have been manufactured, both 

 green and black varieties, from such plants as were of sufficient size 

 for plucking. This, consequently, does not shew the total amount 

 that 162 acres will yield; because, it must be remembered, that a 

 tea shrub does not come into full bearing before the eighth year, and 

 the oldest of these plantations were established, we believe, only ele- 

 ven years since, while others have been added to, as mentioned above, 

 during 1847. Perhaps this return scarcely gives one-twelfth of what 

 the yield of nurseries of the present size will be when all the plants 

 have arrived at maturity, seeing that an acre of land, covered with 

 full-bearing plants, should yield a maund of tea in a manufactured 

 state ; and this, it is estimated, will not only pay the expense of culti- 

 vating, allowing the produce to yield three rupees a seer — by no means 

 a hio-h rate — but give a fair profit to compensate for the loss of in- 

 terest on capital during the earlier period of their growth. The re- 

 port gives full particulars regarding the mode of growing the plant, 

 and the proper season for plucking and gathering leaves. The num- 

 ber of hands who are now being trained up in this department, and 

 in that of manufactux'ing, will prove most useful auxiliaries to the 

 European planter on a future, and, we trust, not distant day ; his 

 capital and energy, in combination with their skill and experience, 

 will probably eft'ect a change which can scarcely fail to prove bene- 

 ficial to all concerned. The introduction of this culture will be the 

 means of encouraging the settlement of Europeans ; of throwing a 

 large amount of capital into what is at present a poor country, add- 

 ing thereby to the comfort of the population genei'ally, especially the 

 agricultural section ; and of augmenting considerably the small sum 

 at present yielded to the State, in the shape of revenue, by these 

 hill provinces. Moreover, the advantages arising from the intro- 

 duction into the markets of Upper India of a wholesome beverage, 

 sufficiently cheap for the consumption of the middling classes of the 

 native communiy, and for supply to the commissariat, for the use of 

 our European soldiery, are too palpable to need demonstration. In 

 this light alone, the experiments now in progress must be viewed 

 with interest and pleasure. But it is not solely to the provinces of 

 Kumaon and Gurhwal that we have to look. Further inspection has 



