30 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



CHAPTER IV. 



SOIL. 



To pronounce as precisely on soil as to climate is not easy. 

 The Tea plant will grow on almost any soil, and will flourish 

 on many. Still there are broad general rules to be laid down 

 in the selection of soils for Tea, which no one can ignore with 

 impunity. 



When first I turned my attention to Tea, I collected soils 

 from many gardens, noting in each case how the plants 

 flourished. I then sat down to examine them, never doubting 

 to arrive at some broad practical conclusions. I was sadly 

 disappointed. I found the most opposing soils nourished, 

 apparently, equally good plants. I knew not then much about 

 Tea, and judged of the Tea bushes mostly by the size (a very 

 fallacious test) ; still after-experience has convinced me I was 

 more or less right in the conclusion I then came to, that 

 several soils are good for Tea. 



Nothing then but broad general rules can be laid down on 

 this point, for I defy anyone to select any one soil as the best 

 for Tea, to the exclusion of others. 



A light sandy loam is perhaps as good a soil as any out of 

 the Himalayas. It ought to be deep, and the more decayed 

 vegetable matter there is lying on its surface the better. If 

 deep enough for the descent of the tap-root, say 3 feet, it 

 matters not much what the subsoil is, otherwise a yellowish 

 red subsoil is an advantage. This subsoil is generally a 

 mixture of clay and sand. Much of Assam, Cachar, and 

 Chittagong is as the above, but as a rule it is richest in Assam, 

 poorest in Chittagong. 



