THE OUTER HIM ALA YAH. 39 



Each planter need not at first build warehouses or erect 

 factories, which would thus sink his ready capital at 

 a time when every penny would be required; but 

 laying out all in the expenses of cultivation alone, his 

 raw leaves would find a ready sale at the factory of 

 some more advanced neighbour, until such time as he 

 could manufacture for himself. In the beginning the 

 interests of tea planters require the anxious protection 

 of Government to enable them to take firm root, and 

 then but a few years will suffice to render the tea 

 planters not only independent of, but a support to, their 

 former protector.* 



In the Appendix will be found two Government Noti- 

 fications regarding the mode of obtaining tea lands. It 

 would be very difficult to strike a balance between the 

 merits of the various eligible tea-planting districts in 

 India; but in Thornton's Gazetteer of India so much in- 

 formation can be found regarding the districts of Assam, 

 Gurhwal, Kumaon, Deyrah Dhoon, Kotgurh, &c., as to 

 render any observations that I could make superfluous. It 

 will be seen that near to the four last-mentioned districts 

 most salubrious hill stations exist ; and although, during 

 the earlier labours of a tea planter, much time will not 



* That the prospects of tea planters in the Himalayan receive con- 

 sideration from the Indian Government is demonstrated by the fact 

 that, in the recent viceregal progress through Bengal, the North-West 

 Provinces, and the Punjaub, the tea districts of the Kangra Valley 

 were carefully examined, at the expense of a considerable detour, by 

 Lord Canning. 



His predecessor, Lord Dalhousie, also took peculiar interest in tea 

 cultivation in the Himalayah. He visited the Kangra districts, and 

 by him the Government tea plantation at Holta was sanctioned. 



