CHAPTER III. 



CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF TEA SOILS. 



So recently as 1893, ln his book on the Improvement of Indian 

 Agriculture, Dr. J, A. Voelcker who spent some time in India for 

 Government in 1889, 1890 and 1891, wrote with regard to Tea Soils 

 as follows : 



11 Then, in respect of the Soil, little is known as to its requirements. In the Neil- 

 gherries, for instance, there is good reason to believe that a deficiency of lime, if not 

 of available potash also, has had to do with the decadence of tea cultivation there. On 

 almost all sides there is but little known about manures, even about those which are 

 available, such as oilcake and bones ; the different oilcakes are classed together just 

 as if they were the same and of equal value ; it has net been established whether bones 

 are useful, whether green manuring is advantageous, and still less on which lands the 

 systems should be or need not be employed. The influence of particular fertilisers, 

 such as nitre or other potash containing manures, or else of phosphatic or nitrogenou* 

 manure, upon the quantity and quality of the tea is not definitely known. In regard 

 even to tillage there are questions, for example, as to what depth of soil should be 

 turned up, whether the land should be left in clods or be tilled finely, how far drainage 

 is requisite, &c." 



This extract represents exceedingly well the state of knowledge 

 as to the chemical needs of the tea plant at the time at which it 

 was written, Certainly several desultory investigations had been 

 done in India, or in connection with Indian Tea at an earlier date, 

 but they had been carried out far too much from the point of view 

 of farming in temperate climates to be of much use to the tea- 

 planting community. Of the chemical side in the choice of soil, 

 Colonel Money in his famous prize essay says nothing. In 1875 

 Professor Campbell Brown of Liverpool published* some analyses 

 of tea soils, and also of tea plants, which are of little use to us 

 now as no indication of their source in the tea districts is given. 

 Suffice it to say, that they are very similar to many recent analyses 

 of Indian Tea Soils but are heavier in type than the average from 

 the Brahmaputra Valley. 



The Tea Cyclopaedia (1882) abounds in opinions as to the neces- 

 sary ingredients in a good tea soil. " Tea soils are remarkable for 

 containing much iron and very little lime, with potash in larger, and 

 soda in smaller, quantity. The presence of manganese is one of the 

 peculiarities of these soils " is one of numerous views expressed. 

 Mr. S. E. Peal throws out, in the same publication, an idea which 



* Journal of the Chemical Society. 1875. Page 1,219. 



