86 



This plant (No. 2) recommended by Mr. Buckingham and locally 

 named the " bogga medeloa " is still in the experimental stage. It is 

 being tried, to my knowledge, at several places, and is, I think, well 

 worth trying among the tea in districts like Hishnauth which 

 have had mosquito to such an extent as to render it inadvisable to 

 plant the Sau or Medeloa trees. 



ADHATODA VASICA. 



One other plant has been several times highly recommended for 

 planting among tea, the Adhatoda Vasica, on the expectation that 

 it acted as a manure. This plant does not belong to the Leguminosae 

 and, so far as we know, does not fix nitrogen, and I have failed to 

 note any improvement in the bushes round about it. The leaves are, 

 however, very rich in nitrogen, and their dropping may be of some 

 value, if not of much. At the same time while I do not think it 

 worth while to plant among the tea, yet the leaves form such a valu- 

 able insecticide (giving off alkaline vapours on crushing) that it 

 would be worth while to grow a few square yards, as recommended 

 by Dr. Watt, by putting in cuttings one foot apart on any waste 

 land, when a supply would be obtained for use against some of the 

 pests of the gardens. 



BONES AS MANURE. 



Such are the manures actually produced or producible on the 

 tea gardens themselves. To them might be added the wood ashes 

 which, on all gardens burning wood, are produced in enormous quan- 

 tity. 1 will however deal with those later. (Page 98.) But there 

 are locally produced other manures which ought to be put to the 

 utmost use. The first of these to Bones, which in certain districts, 

 notably on the grass plains of the north bank, could easily be col- 

 lected in large quantities for use. At present I believe there 

 is an export of bones from the Brahmaputra valley, and a 

 certain import of the same bones crushed for use on tea gardens, 

 If bones are valuable they should never be allowed to leave the 

 province and be re-imported, but rather be bought in the collecting 

 districts by the planter and crushed on the spot by means of a 

 small Devil Disintegrator, the cost of which would be recovered, if 

 much bones were used, in the first season. One planter has come 

 under my notice who buys up local bones and crushes them in this 

 manner, and is eminently satisfied with the result. 



