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MANUAL OF THE XILAGIRI DISTRICT. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

 TEA. 



Introduction. 



Plant 

 introduced 



Plant introduced, 1835.~Mr. Mann's efforts, 1854.— Dr. Cleghom's reports.— 

 Government policy. — Mr. Rae opens an estate near Ootacamand.— Government 

 introduces tea-makers and forms a nursery at Doddabetta.— Agricultural Exhibi- 

 tion and its results as regards tea. — Area under tea. — Exports and imports. 



CH. XXIX. The history of tea cultivation in this district dates from the 

 Z"7~ year 1835, when some boxes of plants were sent from Calcutta 



1_ to the Nilagiris, and at the same time to Coorg. Mysoi*e, and the 



Agri-Horticultural Society in Madras. The plants received on 

 the Nilagiris were planted chiefly at the Experimental Farm at 

 Kaity, and there cared for by Colonel Crewe and M. Perrottet, 

 the French Botanist. They had been raised from seed brought 

 direct from China by Mr. Gordon, the Secretary of a Committee 

 specially appointed by Lord W. Bentinck (then Governor- 

 General) to consider means for the introduction of the tea 

 industry into India. The experiment appears on the whole to 

 have been a failure, at least as regards the Madras Presidency, 

 although a few plants seem to have survived in each locality to 

 which they had been sent.^ Attempts were made at different 



1 General Culleu, Resident, Travancore, writes to Government in October 1859 

 'n-ith reference to reports which he had received of the growth of tea at Coonoor 

 as follows : — 



" The tree thrives well in the Travancore territory, both at the level of the 

 sea and altitudes of 1,800 and 3,200 feet. I first met with it in the coffee 

 plantation of Mr. Hnxham in the year 1841, on the route from Qnilon to Courtal- 

 lum, at a farm called Caldoorty, about 40 miles inland and 6 or 700 feet above 

 the sea. There are some 10 or 15 trees from 20 to 25 and 30 feet high ; they 

 were. I believe, introduced during the government of Mr. Lushington, who I 

 believe also introduced those formerly at Kaitee on the Neilgerries. I procui-ed 

 plants from Mr. Huxham and put them down in an experimental spice garden 

 which I had established some twelve years ago at 1,800 feet on a hill in the south 

 of Travancore near Oodagherry. They are now trees of 20 to 30 feet high, growing 

 vigorously ; and I have about 400 plants procured from their seed growing on 

 another hill near the Tinnevelly frontier, at an elevation of 3,200 feet. There can 

 be no doubt therefore of the facility of its introduction, although from the 

 moderate altitudes and great atmospheric moisture of the localities hitherto 

 selected, they may possibly be considered to grow more luxuriantly than is desir- 

 able ; but which, if a defect at all, can probably be easily remedied by selecting 

 ground more to the eastward, at greater altitudes, and with a less haoiid 

 climate." 



He proceeds to draw the attention of Government to the Travancore and 

 Cochin " Cardamom Hills" as especially suited for tea culture. 



