35 



might very well be carried out even now in order to determine the 

 value of tea land. He writes : *' An investigation of the number of 

 flushes or rapidity of growth would be a direct and certain mode 

 of ascertaining the suitability or otherwise of a province for tea 

 growing," and he might have very well added that the same test would 

 have given a means of equally well differentiating soils in the same 

 province, if by flushes we mean, as he did, not the number of pluck- 

 ings, but the number of series of shoots from the same stalk 

 throughout the season. 



MR, BAMBER'S INVESTIGATIONS. 



But we owe nearly all we know of the chemical constituents 

 of Assam Tea Soils and of Tea Soils in general up to date, to the 

 investigations of Mr. Bamber in the years preceding 1893 in 

 India, and since 1899 in Ceylon, and he sums up his older 

 results very effectively as follows (Chemistry and Agriculture of 

 Tea, 1893):- 



" The main features to be noticed in all tea soils are : 



1. The great deficiency of lime in almost every case. 



2. The almost entire absence of sulphuric acid, or sulphates, their being present 



only in minute traces. 



3. The constant occurrence of manganese (frequently in large proportion, but 



not estimated in every case,) which is also always present in the ash of 

 the tea. 



4. That soils containing the highest percentage of nitrogen are most favourable 



for the luxuriant growth of tea. 



5. That soils of rather open character with free porous subsoils which allow 



the easy penetration of the roots of the tea bushes and the removal of 

 all stagnant water, are more suitable than those of a compact clayey nature. 



6. The very small quantity of salts soluble in water even in the richest soils 



during the rainy season, which is due, either to their being utilized by the 

 roots of the bushes immediately on their liberation from insoluble com- 

 pounds, or to their being in great part washed away by the heavy rain- 

 fall * * " * Most of the phosphoric acid in the soils appears 

 to be in a very insoluble condition, and probably occurs as a basic phosphate 

 of iron, and it has been found that the application of manures containing 

 soluble phosphates is of great benefit to the tea plant." 



Since the time of the publication of the above report Mr. 

 Bamber's researches have been carried much further, and his state- 

 ments have become much more definite in his more recent reports. 

 ( Vide Report on Ceylon Tea Soils, Colombo, March 1900.) 



