38 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



Where only the lower parts of slopes are planted, the plants 

 do very well. The upper part being jungle the wash is not 

 great, and the plants benefit much by the rich vegetable 

 matter the rain brings down from above. I have often seen 

 very fine plants on the lower part of slopes, where the upper 

 has been left in jungle, and I should not hesitate to plant 

 such portions if the slope was moderate. 



Where teelah land, in Eastern Bengal, or sloping land in 

 the Himalayas, Chittagong, or elsewhere, has to be adopted, 

 aspect is all-important. A good aspect in one climate is bad 

 in another. In Assam, Cachar, Chittagong, and all warm 

 places, choose the coolest ; at high elevations (temperate climes) 

 the warmest. 



In the Himalayas, moreover, the warmer aspects are, as a 

 rule, the most fertile ; vice versa in warm localities. Many a 

 garden, which would have done very well on the moderate 

 slopes chosen had only the proper aspects been planted, has 

 been ruined by planting all sides of teelahs or hills indiscri- 

 minately. The southern and western slopes of plantations in 

 warm sites are generally very bare of plants. Not strange 

 they should be so, when the power of the reflected rays of 

 the afternoon sun is considered. Again, in cold climates 

 plants cannot thrive on northern aspects, for their great want 

 in such climes is heat and sunshine. Let the above fault 

 then be avoided in both cases, for though, doubtless, a garden 

 is more handy, and looks better in one piece planted all 

 over without any intervening jungle, even patches of jungle 

 look better, and are decidedly cheaper, than bare cultivated 

 hills. 



Of flat land, after what I have written, I need not add 

 much. It is of two kinds, table and valley land ; the former 

 is very rare in Tea districts, at least of any extent, which 

 makes it worth while to plant it. There are two gardens in 

 Chittagong on such flat table land, and they are both doing 



