40 CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF TEA. 



doing very well. Table land cannot be too flat, for the 

 natural drainage is so great no stagnant water can lie.* 



Valley land is not good if it is perfectly flat. It will then 

 be subject to inundation and stagnant water. There is 

 nothing that kills the plant so surely and quickly as the 

 latter. Even quite flat valleys can be made sweet by 

 artificial drainage, but to do this a lower level, not too far 

 distant, must exist, and the danger is not quite removed 

 then. Valleys in which no water-course exists, and which 

 slope towards the mouth alone, are to be avoided, for the 

 plants near the mouth always get choked with sand. The 

 best valleys are those with a gentle slope both ways, one 

 towards the lowest line of the valley, be it a running water- 

 course, or a dry nullah which carries off rain, the other 

 towards the mouth of the valley. Such valleys drain them- 

 selves, or at least very little artificial drainage is necessary. 

 A valley of this kind, with a running stream through it, is 

 most valuable for Tea, and if the other advantages of soil 

 and climate are present it is simply a perfect site. Such 

 however are not frequent. If in such valleys, as is generally 

 the case, the slope from the head to the mouth is enough, 

 the running stream can be "bunded" (shut up) at a high 

 level, and brought along one side at a sufficient elevation to 

 irrigate the whole. 



I have never seen but one garden in a valley that fulfils 

 all these conditions exactly. It is in Chittagong ; the soil is 

 good, labour plentiful, and manure abundant. It ought to 

 do great things, for the possibility of irrigating plants in 

 the dry season (which, as observed, is very trying in Chitta- 

 gong) will give several extra flushes in the year. 



Of course in the wet season on such land the water 

 must be allowed to resume its natural course. 



* I am now commencing a second garden in the Western Dooars on flat 

 table land, and the site is an exceptionally favourable one. 



