CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION. 103 



of Nepaul and the Punjaub, while Central India 

 appears to be entirely devoid of tea gardens up to 

 the present. There are numerous plantations, however, 

 scattered over the southwestern provinces of the penin- 

 sula, most notably in Wynaad, Neilgherry and Travancore. 

 In India, tea is grown on extensive estates, often com- 

 prising thousands of acres, situated principally in the 

 alluvial valleys of large rivers, or formed on land 

 reclaimed from primeval jungle, possessing all the rich- 

 ness of virgin soil and cultivated either by the individual 

 owners or the agents of companies commanding consid- 

 erable capital. Every detail of cultivation and preparation 

 is conducted under close and careful European super- 

 visors. The plants are raised from seed sown in nur- 

 series until they are about 1 8 inches high, when they are 

 transplanted to the rows in the gardens in which they 

 are to grow, the closest attention being paid to weeding 

 and irrigating. The young trees are carefully pruned 

 periodically and reduced to a bushy form, until they are 

 from two to three years old, when the first picking com- 

 mences, the exact time for picking being determined by 

 the overseer. The leaves are removed in such a manner 

 as to cause no subsequent injury to the plants, by 

 which care the India planter is enabled to obtain from 

 twelve to sixteen pickings in a single season, the 

 Chinese grower being limited to three or four at the 

 utmost. 



Each separate picking in India is termed a " Flush," a 

 number of flushes constituting a " Break" or " Chop," as 

 in China, which is rarely more than 100 chests and fre- 

 quently as low as 20, but generally uniform in grade. 

 There is another remarkable feature about India teas ; it 

 is that while the first, second and third pickings of all 

 other teas are respectively inferior to each other there 



