47 



acid character of the organic matter in the soil, which prevents the 

 formation of nitrates and compels the plant to absorb its nitrogen 

 in the organic form. This, however, is only supposition, and 

 until I visit Cachar and Sylhet in the spring of 1902, I can- 

 not express a very definite opinion on the subject. A second excep- 

 tion occurs in the case of village sites or busti soils, which practically 

 refuse to grow tea at all, although they contain a large percentage 

 of both nitrogen and organic matter. The following is an analysis 

 of the soil from such a village site side by side with that taken a 

 few yards off on the same property : 



Or calculating on the non-sandy portion of the soil, we have 



Thus, from analysis, the busti soil should be an exceedingly 

 good one, and, in fact, it approaches some of the best Assam land. I 

 had thought that probably it contained a large quantity of the lower 

 oxide of iron, which is poisonous when present in large amounts. 

 A test, however, revealed only '44 parts per 100,000 of the soil 

 an amount much smaller than in many of the best gardens. Nor 

 was the soil acid, and in fact no poisonous substance could be 

 detected. One is obliged to put down the infertility to tea almost 

 entirely to the close texture of the land resulting from the former 

 presence of dwelling houses, and this close texture can be modified, 

 as indicated in a previous chapter, by draining, or by the growth 

 and burial of green crops. Such a method would probably form 

 a perfect cure, in time, for such land though here again is distinctly 



