i6 5 



CHAPTER XXX. 



HOW MUCH PROFIT TEA CAN GIVE. 



WE have already estimated the cost of making and cultivat- 

 ing a plantation of 300 acres. We must now ascertain how 

 much Tea that area will give yearly. 



It is a very wide question what produce an acre of Tea 

 will give. 



The following is an extract from the " Report of the Com- 

 missioners appointed to enquire into the state and prospects 

 of Tea cultivation in Assam and Cachar," addressed to the 

 Government of Bengal, and dated March 1868: 



" Average produce per acre" 



"The returns of actual produce of gardens in 1867 which we 

 have obtained are so few in number that it is impossible to take any 

 general average from them. The produce in these varies from three- 

 and-a-half maunds to one-and-a-half maund per acre, omitting the 

 more recently formed gardens. 



" From information received during our tour we have reason to 

 believe that some gardens produce more than the highest rate per acre 

 here mentioned ; but, in the absence of returns of exact acreage and 

 out-turn, we cannot notice these instances. 



" Mr. Haworth, in his pamphlet already quoted, speaks of the 

 produce of Cachar gardens as follows : 



" * I believe that three maunds per acre is fully one-third more 

 than the present average yield of gardens in Cachar, after deducting 

 the area of plant under yielding age. 



" ' There is no reason, that I am aware of, why the yield of Tea 

 should not soon be raised to four maunds, and more gradually six 

 maunds per acre, equal to twenty-four maunds of leaf per acre (less 

 than one ton per acre for a green crop, which is still a very small 

 one). Even now there are gardens in Cachar which give an average 



