3S5 



rhich the tea plant is subject. In the Himalayan 

 Hills, droughts have done mischief, and therefore 

 the means of irrigation are indispensible. But with 

 ordinary precautions,the tea crop is perhaps safer than 

 any other agricultural crop grown in India. That 

 property in tea, then, is highly valuable to proprie- 

 tors, and a safe and very remunerative investment 

 for Capitalists, there can be no doubt. 



The crop of tea from Assam and Cachar, alone, 

 this year, will be 2,500,000 Ibs. Next year it will 

 not be less than 3,000,000 Ibs. The working 

 expenses on this quantity of tea, ought to be 

 under 100,000; but looking to the number of 

 plantations not yet yielding, and the very exten- 

 sive operations in progress, the outlay of capital 

 in the tea districts of India will certainly exceed 

 200,000, and that, for the most, in parts of the 

 country where some little time ago, money was not 

 known. But tea in India is in its infancy ; and 

 what is now produced, is but an earnest of what 

 can, and will be produced, as soon as labor and seed 

 are more plentiful. When, however, we consider 

 that grain and other produce has in some parts 

 of Assam risen three hundred per cent, in four 

 years (see p. 177); that the wages of labor, within 

 the same period, have more than doubled ; and that 

 thriving towns and stations are springing up, 

 ( where/ to use the words of the present Lieutenant- 

 Governor of Bengal, r a few years ago the voice 



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