384 



large fortunes are being made by persons engaged 

 in tea cultivation in India; and I should be very glad 

 to make one of these fortunes myself. Now if I 

 make this fortune, and spend it in India, I benefit 

 India I help to enrich her, first by my outlay, and 

 second by the expenditure of my profits. But if 

 it is my pleasure to enrich some other country with 

 the fortune which I derive from India, I do not 

 .see why I, or why any other man similarly situated, 

 .should not be made to pay something for the luxury 

 of living abroad. 



An acre of land in Assam, the richest tea dis- 

 trict in India, costs, to purchase it in fee-simple, 

 .five shillings. To clear, plant, and cultivate it 

 for six years costs about 30. The produce up to 

 the sixth year may be estimated at 800 Ibs. This 

 is worth, after deducting all expenses of manufac- 

 ture .40; the acre thus repaying the whole of 

 the outlay, and leaving a balance of 10 over 

 and above. But an acre of tea under good cul- 

 tivation, will, when the plants are in full bearing, 

 or after the sixth year, produce annually 500 Ibs, 

 of manufactured tea, and at present market rates, 

 this may be sold at a clear profit of 2o. Tea, 

 if planted in low wet soil, is liable to be attack- 

 ed by crickets, and another small insect which 

 injures the trees : but in proper teelah, or undulating 

 land, it is free from these destroyers. We are yet 

 unaware, moreover, of any disease or blight to 



