I82 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



other valuable products the tea -plant was found by 

 Robert Fortune, who introduced it from China, to thri\'e 

 excellently at an elevation of from 3,000 to 6,000 feet. 

 The Government, with the object of encouraging this 

 industry, established several experimental tea-gardens, 

 which were proved to be very successful. 



Among others, that at Pauri in Garhwal was worked 

 up to 1861 by Government, and then sold to a private 

 planter. The industry was encouraged so as to induce 

 settlers, principally retired officers, to embark in tea- 

 planting. There were several most thriving plantations 

 in Kumaon. Sites were selected where the villagers had 

 not utilized the land, and where jungle could be cleared 

 away. On the lower ranges south of the Pindar river 

 there were several fine plantations, at Duara Hat, Duna- 

 giri, Ranikhet, and other places. Native labour was 

 easily procured, and the slopes of the hills cleared and 

 planted, Government giving grants of seed from its 

 gardens in Assam, mostly China seed. The variety dis- 

 covered by Fortune in Assam was also tried, and found to 

 succeed even better and produce a larger crop. The 

 plant is a small-leaved, white flowering evergreen, a sort 

 of camellia. The seed is large like a hazel-nut, and ger- 

 minates rapidly during the rains in seed beds, being fit 

 to plant out the second year. The plants are then put 

 into the garden in rows about 5 feet apart, and grow 

 rapidly, producing tea from the fresh sprouting leaves early 

 in spring, and again in summer and rains. It was quite 

 an agreeable surprise to come across a plantation in 

 the midst of a wild jungle, with its well-tilled slopes inter- 

 sected by paths leading to the cha godown, where the 

 leaves were rolled, fired over charcoal, and manufactured. 

 The planter's house, built of native stone, with its wide 

 verandahs, was usually placed in a most picturesque 



