CHAPTER V 



TEA IN INDIA AND OTHER COUNTRIES 



THE first practical suggestion for the establishment 

 of tea plantations in India was made in 1788 by Sir 

 Joseph Banks to the East India Company ; but his 

 suggestions were not acted upon until 1833, when 

 experimental plantations were laid out in the district 

 of Kumaon, in the Himalayas the seeds and plants 

 used being imported from China. No sooner had the 

 experiments been initiated than attention was drawn 

 to the statement that a tea plant indigenous to Assam 

 had been discovered some years before, and that this 

 variety was probably more suited to cultivation than 

 the Chinese plant. The announcement was received 

 with a certain amount of scepticism on the part of 

 experts, but a travelling commission was sent to Assam 

 to settle the matter. Although an undoubted tea-plant, 

 now known as Thea assamica, was found to occur 

 abundantly, it was regarded as a degenerate form of the 

 Chinese variety ; the committee therefore recom- 

 mended the further cultivation of plants from China. 

 In 1837, and the years immediately following, discoveries 

 of extensive tracts of country in Assam bearing the indi- 

 genous tea were made, and in 1838 the first consignment 

 of Indian tea, consisting of 488 Ibs., was sent to London, 

 the price obtained being 9s. 5d. per Ib. These first 

 shipments had been manufactured under many dis- 

 advantages, consequently they afforded no fair criterion 

 of what might be possible in the future. The report, 

 however, of London experts was satisfactory, and 

 although the teas had different characteristics from 



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