THE TEA PLANT 



Frost. 

 Rainfall. 



Situation 

 and Soils. 



Hills 



versus Plains. 



Exposure. 



Requirements 

 of Tea Plant. 



CAMELLIA 



THEA 



Cultivation 



point without damage. Frost, however, always blackens the leaves, and, 

 if severe, damages the younger twigs on the bush. As to rainfall, the 

 distribution is of more importance than the amount. Sixty inches per 

 annum, well distributed, is ample. The best Indian tea areas receive 

 about one hundred inches, though there are many on which a much 

 greater amount falls. This rainfall should, however, occur, as far as 

 possible, throughout the year. A long drought, at any season, is fatal, 

 and this fact has had a good deal to do with the comparative failure of 

 both Chittagong and Chota Nagpur as tea districts. 



Situation and Soil. Equally important with the climate in 

 determining the suitability or otherwise of .a locality for tea culture 

 is the character of the situation and of the soil. Early in the history 

 of Indian tea there was a considerable prejudice, doubtless drawn from 

 the accounts of Chinese travellers, in favour of planting on hills or steep 

 slopes. But there was really nothing in the preference : if the soil ia 

 suitable, it is better on flat than on sloping land, especially if the latter 

 faces south or south-west ; if the land is not suitable, it is certainly no 

 more so on a hillside than on the level. Nowadays it is recognised that 

 the flatter the land the better, other things being equal. 



There are two points in connection with the physical texture of the 

 soil which are essential, if tea is to be successfully grown. It must first 

 be well drained, and secondly it must be easily penetrable by the tea- 

 roots. A hard and waterlogged soil are equally fatal to successful 

 tea culture : in the former case the bushes cease to yield, and become 

 the prey of disease ; in the latter they die out. It may be said that 

 tea will grow in almost any soil provided it be well drained, but it flourishes 

 best in a light, sandy, deep loam. If the physical texture of a clayey 

 soil is such as to give it the porous and soft character required (as is often 

 the case in South India and in a large area in the Duars), it may form ex- 

 cellent land for tea culture. There are two classes of soil specially to 

 be avoided : first a stiff clay, of any kind or colour, impervious to rain 

 and which cakes or hardens in the sun : and second a very loose soil over- 

 lying gravel, which in the absence of regular and very constant rain will 

 ultimately produce a stunted bush yielding little leaf. Wherever the 

 land is deep, moist, fairly porous, well drained or drainable at all seasons, 

 and with a sufficiency of plant- food, the tea is likely to do well, so far as 

 soil conditions are concerned. 



Chemically, tea demands a rich soil, and has usually, except in the 

 south (where old coffee land has been employed \, been planted on virgin 

 soil, either forest or grass land being utilised for the purpose. Where 

 the attempt has been made to put it out on soil previously used for the 

 cultivation of sugar-cane or cotton, it has almost uniformly grown very 

 badly. It refuses to flourish where houses have long stood, even though 

 the soil may be quite rich, but this is possibly largely due to the hardening 

 and compacting of the soil. Exception being made of special conditions 

 such as that just described, and provided the physical character of the 

 land is equally good, the luxuriance of tea seems to vary directly with 

 the amount of organic matter and nitrogen in the soil. In virgin soils 

 these two constituents seem, in India, to be closely proportioned to one 

 another. Excess of vegetable matter leads to the production of a large 

 crop of weak, watery tea without flavour ; on the other hand, a soil deficient 

 in these constituents produces only a small crop, and, moreover, the 



220 



Soils to be 

 avoided. 



Virgin 

 SoU. 



Composition. 



