PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF INDIAN TEA. I/; 



the blunders made in other gardens were avoided, it is evident 

 that their position, if it could be ascertained, would give the 

 true picture needed. 



There is one class of plantations which it would be by no 

 means fair to include. I mean those gardens bought for a 

 mere song during the panic. On many of these necessarily 

 enormous profits have been made, but it proves nothing, 

 inasmuch as the profits, to be legitimate profits for criticism, 

 should on the debit side include the whole cost incurred in 

 making the plantation. To form a fair appreciation of the 

 profits Tea planting can give, we must select gardens con- 

 structed after knowledge on the subject was attained, where 

 good management, combined with economy in all details, has 

 been carried out, and where the necessary natural conditions 

 for success exist and such are rare. 



But first let me explain what I mean by the ' necessary 

 natural conditions for success.' Manageable areas ; flat or 

 nearly flat land for the garden ; a good class of indigenous 

 and hybrid plants ; local labour, or anyhow a good proportion 

 of this ; facilities for manuring ; a good soil ; a good Tea 

 climate ; and cheap means of transport constitute these, and 

 where they exist I hold Tea must, and does, pay well. I don't 

 believe in plantations of 600 or 800 acres ; some of these pay, 

 but they would pay much better if reduced in size. A garden 

 of 300 acres, yielding even at the rate of four maunds an 

 acre, will pay much better than another of 500 acres, yield- 

 ing but two-and-a-half or three maunds. 



The reason is obvious, the larger produce is against a 

 smaller expenditure. Were I to commence a Tea plantation 

 to-day, it should not exceed 300 or 400 acres in size. This 

 passion for large areas is the rock on which, more than any 

 other, Tea Companies have wrecked themselves ; experience 

 has already shown this, and will show it more, as time goes 

 on. 



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