36 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



CHAPTER VII. 



LAY OF LAND. 



THE first idea prevailing about Tea was that it should be 

 planted on slopes. It was thought, and truly, that the plant 

 was impatient of stagnant water, and so it is, but it is not 

 necessary to plant it on slopes in consequence. Pictures of 

 Chinese, suspended by chains, (inasmuch as the locality 

 could not be otherwise reached) picking Tea off bushes grow- 

 ing in the crevices of rocks, somewhat helped this notion ; 

 and when stated, as it was, that the Tea produced in such 

 places was the finest and commanded the highest price, 

 which was not true, intending planters in India went crazy in 

 their search for impracticable steeps ! Much of the failure in 

 Tea has arisen from this fact, for a great part of many, the 

 whole of some gardens, have been planted on land so steep 

 that the Tea can never last or thrive on it. This is especially 

 the case in parts of the Darjeeling district. 



Sloping land is objectionable in the following respects. 

 It cannot be highly cultivated in any way (I hold Tea will 

 only pay with high cultivation), for high cultivation consists 

 in frequent digging, to keep the soil open and get rid of 

 weeds, and liberal manuring. If such soil is dug in the rainy 

 season, it is washed down to the foot of the hill, and if 

 manure is applied at any time of the year, it experiences the 

 same fate when the rain comes. As it cannot be dug, weeds 

 necessarily thrive and diminish the yield by choking the 

 plants. 



The choice is therefore of two evils : ' low cultivation and 

 weeds,' or ' high cultivation which bares the roots of the 



