67 



upward of 300 Ibs. per acre, and the badly culti- 

 vated only from 50 Ibs. to 60 Ibs. per acre. 'The 

 whole plantation' he added, 'with an outlay of little 

 more than Rs. 9,000, yielded 12,562 Ibs. of Tea, and 

 25,000 Ibs. of seeds, and two millions of seedlings, 

 vast numbers of which were distributed to private 

 individuals/ 



Kegarding irrigation, to which Mr. Fortune 

 so frequently refers in his reports, dwelling with 

 much force on the assertion that the tea shrub is not 

 a water plant, and that the Chinies never irrigate, 

 it is of the utmost importance to tea planters to know 

 that present experience entirely negatives the con- 

 clusion at which Mr. Fortune would seem to have 

 arrive 1, that all irrigation is unnecessary, if not in- 

 jurious to the health of the tea plant. It is truly 

 absurd to draw comparisons between the cultivation of 

 rice and tea, and to point out that the system adopted 

 with one, is not suitable to the other. Some of the 

 native zemindars in Kamaon, possibly, did attempt 

 to grow tea, in rice lands, and in the short sighted 

 hope of getting the most out of their land, planted 

 rice between the interstices of the tea plants ; but 

 even that was denied by both the Superintendent 

 and Col. Ramsay the Commissioner, and no such 

 ignorant folly certainly was perpetrated on the 

 Government plantations. The fact, (which I have 

 before referred to,) is, that the tea plant, is a very 

 hardy plant, and will live, nay, in some soils even 



