BCEHMERIA 

 NIVEA 



Assam 



CHINA-GRASS AND RAMIE 



Assam. 



Tea versus 

 Khea. 



mercial possibilities of this fibre. Capital and personal enthusiasm are 

 the essential elements of success, and it seems, therefore, likely to be 

 established whether Lower Bengal is or is not the most hopeful centre. 

 And as having a direct bearing on this issue it may be added that 

 a writer in The Englishman (Dec. 6, 1900), who signed himself " D. M. H.,'" 

 made the pertinent observation, " Until we know the cost of growing the 

 article it is not much use discussing the cleaning and manufacture."' 

 That is the crux of the whole controversy ; will it pay ? 



Assam. It is perhaps hardly necessary to repeat all the conditions- 

 and circumstances of rhea cultivation in this province, since in most 

 essentials these are identical with what have just been stated regarding 

 Bengal. One or two important differences may, however, be set forth. 

 Assam, having been a poorly populated country prior to the advent of 

 tea, much of the fertile sandy loams that in Northern Bengal have for 

 centuries been under crops were available for European enterprise and 

 rapidly became tea-gardens, instead of rice, wheat, tobacco, ginger and 

 rhea farms. Any expansion of rhea plantation in this province would, 

 accordingly, have to contend with tea, for available waste land, and with 

 European planters instead of Native landholders. Another feature, and 

 one of even greater importance, may here be stated, namely that the 

 valleys of the Brahmaputra and Surma carry culturable flat and undulat- 



Northern Trend, ing lands far to the north of the districts discussed in connection with 

 Bengal. According to my observations this northern trend is distinctly 

 advantageous. Moreover, Assam possesses in a remarkable degree the 

 features of vegetation already discussed in connection with Northern and 

 North-Eastern Bengal. As I take it, therefore, Assam is pre-eminently 

 the rhea province of India, though doubtless to this category must be 

 added the northern tracts of Burma, which are practically an extension 

 eastward of the rhea area, until it becomes conterminous with that of 

 China, Cochin-China and the Malay Peninsula. In fact it might be said 



RheaArea of the that the districts of Northern and North-Eastern Bengal, discussed above, 

 are collectively the most western section of the great Rhea, China-grass 

 and Ramie area of the world. 



Two other peculiarities of Assam may now be mentioned one highly 

 favourable, the other unfavourable. There is a climatic feature of the 

 rhea area that in Assam becomes greatly developed, namely the winter 

 rains and humidity. The cold season instead of checking growth carries 

 it forward, so that the growing season extends almost right up to the hot 

 season. In other parts of India the dryness of the atmosphere during the 

 winter months is such that growth is checked at the close of the rains. 

 The untoward aspect is that the immense natural fertility of the soil has 

 rendered the Assam people the least industrious of all the races of India. 

 As a rule a man need not work more than half the week in order to ensure 

 not merely the necessities of life, but the comforts that he and his family 

 desire. That being so, nothing in the world will induce the ordinary 

 Assamese cultivator to do more work than he pleases. It is hopeless, 

 accordingly, to look to the people of the country to engage in a new and 

 arduous piece of work, however remunerative it might be. If rhea is to 

 be established in Assam it will have to be by European capital and enter- 

 prise and through imported labour. Will this pay ? It might as a 

 by-product with tea, but we have nothing to show that it would by 

 itself. 



150 



World. 



Favourable 

 Climatic 

 Condition. 

 Winter Eains. 



The 



Labour 



Question. 



European 

 Capital and 

 Imported 

 Labour. 



Will it Pay ? 



