83 



have as yet been unable to find any marked improvement in that 

 taken from near the roots. The following are the figures of my 

 analyses* : 



The numbers are wholly irregular, and no result can be deduced 

 from them. Nevertheless, in spite of this, there is little doubt that 

 the marked benefit resulting from these trees is due largely, if not en- 

 tirely, to their fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, which they pass on, 

 in part, for the use of the tea bush. Whether the fact that it cannot 

 be detected in the soil indicates that it leaves the leguminous plant 

 in such a soluble form as to be washed quickly from the soil, or 

 whether the tea plant is fed only by contact with the Albizzia or 

 other root, and the nitrogenous body never exudes into the soil, we 

 do not know at present. The benefit is, however, undoubted, and 

 can only rationally in chief part be attributed to the fixation of 

 nitrogen by the roots. 



OBJECTIONS TO TREES IN TEA GARDENS. 



Several objections have been raised against these trees in tea 

 gardens. The first and most common is that they induce a long 

 stalky growth and hence give a lower quality of tea than would 

 otherwise be obtained. This objection is just, as I have been in- 

 formed in a very large number of cases, but depends, I think, on the 

 trees being planted too thickly. On Mr. Buckingham's garden they 

 are planted 40 feet apart throughout the best part of the tea, and 

 this is quite close enough, and probably 60 feet would be better. 

 That a proper proportion of sau trees is not injurious to quality may 

 be regarded as certain. Badulipar, the garden producing about the 

 best tea in the Golaghat district, is largely covered with them, at 

 sixty feet apart, I believe. But this objection may be entirely 



Mr. Buckingham has, while this report has been in the press, supplied me with 

 samples of the soil round the fine rootlets of these trees. The determination of the 

 amount of nitrogen in these has given results just as inconclusive as those here set out. 



