AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 129 



In general four pounds of fresh tea-leaves yield one pound of 

 the finished article of commerce. The leaf-crop of a Japanese tea- 

 garden of one ha would therefore amount to 1,920 kg. 



Tea culture in India has been developed since the year 1835, at 

 first but slowly, but afterwards the more rapidly during the last 

 twenty years. After the first experiments, the Assam Tea Com- 

 pany was founded, in 1839. From 1864 to 1876 the crop increased 

 from 2\ million pounds to 28 million pounds of prepared tea. In 

 the last-named year the average price in London for one pound 

 of Indian tea was \s. \id. as against \s. 3</. for one pound of 

 Chinese tea. In the year 1879 the area devoted to tea-plants 

 in India was reckoned at 206,874 acres, which yielded a total of 

 44,771,632 pounds of tea. Of this 41 1 million pounds were shipped 

 to Europe. It is evident from these data that an acre yields on 

 an average 216 pounds of tea, which is 245 kg. to a hectare. This 

 amount is so far behind that ascribed to Japan (480 kg. per ha) 

 that one cannot help doubting the correctness of one or other of 

 the reports upon which the calculation is based. The Indian tea- 

 industry has spread from the Assam valley over Chittagong and 

 Arracan, Darjeeling, Nagpore, Kangra, and other regions, and 

 gains ground every year. 



Tea culture in Java, although beginning in 1828, seven years 

 before that of India, has had no such rapid growth. Java tea has, 

 certainly, a good appearance and is nicely rolled, but its decoction 

 is weak and tastes bitter. Its price is therefore far less than that 

 of the Indian and even of the Chinese, and indeed to this circum- 

 stance is attributable the fact that the industry has not become as 

 widespread in Java as was expected. The exportation of tea from 

 Java was 3,104,000 kg. in 1872. 



During the last fifty years, as has been shown, the cultivation of 

 the tea-plant has extended over two new countries (India and Java), 

 while ever spreading, with increasing exportation, in its old homes, 

 China and Japan. But it remained, for all that, till lately confined 

 to the monsoon-region. Now, the Colony of Natal must be added 

 as another part of the globe in which tea has been successfully 

 tried and forms already an article of export. 



However, we find, in the monsoon-region as nowhere else, the 

 two fundamental conditions of its success, — a proper climate and 

 plenty of cheap labour. Machines can never quite take the place 

 of hand labour in picking, preparing, and sorting tea. Throughout 

 the monsoon-region the cost of hand labour is so low, and that of 

 tea in proportion, that it would be hard for other civilized countries 

 to compete with it. 



The climatic requirements of tea-growing, too, can only here and 

 there be met elsewhere. The tea-plant flourishes best and yields 

 the most valuable leaves where the temperature ranges between 

 0° and 35° C, where the humidity of the atmosphere during the 

 period of vegetation is considerable, and rainfalls rather frequent. 



II. K 



