CAMELLIA 



THEA 

 Trade 



Becent Keturns. 



THE TEA PLANT 



Keduction in 

 Area. 



Yield. 



Distribution. 



Capital. 



Per Acre. 



Labour. 



To Acre. 



Foreign. 



acres in Burma. In the latest report of the Commercial Intelligence 

 Department on the Production of Tea in India, the area for 1906 is stated 

 to be 531,808 acres, distributed thus : 423,828 in Eastern Bengal and 

 Assam ; 51,219 in Bengal ; 7,997 in the United Provinces ; 9,425 in the 

 Panjab, and 39,339 in South India (Madras and Travancore). Hence the 

 partition of Bengal may be spoken of as having reduced the area in that 

 province and increased that of the new provinces of Eastern Bengal and 

 Assam. It may also be said that the record years in the normal or con- 

 tinuous expansion of the tea area were 1897 and 1898, but recently the low 

 prices that have prevailed have suggested the desirability of curtailing 

 rather than increasing the area, and accordingly in 1903 a decrease of 430 

 acres was recorded. The policy presently pursued may be described as 

 the abandonment either permanently or temporarily of a percentage of 

 indifferent tea, also the reduction of the quantity taken annually from the 

 plant. Both factors have combined to improve the stock and raise the 

 quality of the tea, and have thus proved beneficial. The reduction of 

 area mentioned is therefore the balance between fallowed tea and new 

 extensions, showing a small net decrease. 



Yield But a significant feature of Indian tea-planting is the fact 

 that production has increased in a higher ratio than the expansion of 

 the area of cultivation. Since 1885 the area has increased by 85 per 

 cent, and the production by 192 per cent. This doubtless denotes im- 

 provement in cultivation and manufacture. But the published estimates 

 of production are usually considerably below the actuals, hence the trade 

 returns show higher totals than the estimates of supply. Obviously 

 there are many explanations, such as the fluctuations in seasons which 

 render averages fallacious and the returns of private concerns not being 

 as a rule furnished. On the average of the last five years the yield per 

 acre (dividing total yield by area) was in the four chief tea localities : 

 Brahmaputra valley, 401 Ib. ; Surma valley, 503 Ib. ; Duras, 476 lb.; 

 and Darjeeling, 267 lb. to the acre. But according to the report of the 

 Commercial Intelligence Department for 1906, the total production in 

 this year was 240,411,266 lb., assorted thus : Assam, 162,468,034 ; 

 Eastern Bengal, 44,602,885 ; Bengal, 15,531,692 ; Northern India (United 

 Provinces and Panjab), 3,527,863 ; and Southern India (Madras and 

 Travancore), 14,280,792 lb. 



Capital. The total registered capital invested in the industry comes 

 to 22 crores of rupees (14f millions), thus : companies registered in India, 

 Rs. 3,41,82,985, and companies registered in London. Rs. 18,39,30,135. 

 Divided by the area this capital comes to Rs. 412 (27) per acre. But 

 there is a further unknown figure representing the capital of private 

 owners (above alluded to), who, as a rule, refuse to furnish any information 

 of their business, so that the total capital has been estimated at 

 20,000,000 (see p. 218). 



Persons Employed. In 1906 the number of persons employed in the in- 

 dustry was returned at 491.457 permanently and 81,642 temporarily, or just 

 a little more than half a million, and this expressed to the area of cultivation 

 comes to about 1*08 persons to the acre. These figures do not, of course, 

 include those engaged in the carrying agencies nor those concerned in 

 cultivating locally the food, etc., of the special immigrant tea population. 



Foreign Trade. The economies due to the establishment of large 

 plantations, and the discovery of machinery to do all and more than 



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