127 



suggested be adopted there will ultimately be an almost unavoidable 

 loss of the quality now so specially characteristic of the Sadya Road. 



S1BSAGAR DISTRICTS, 



From the Dehing to the west on the south bank of the 

 Brahmaputra lie the various sections of the Sibsagar district of the 

 province. Underneath the Naga Hills from the Dehing to the Dekko 

 is the Sonari group of gardens ; between this and the Brahmaputra Ife 

 a few gardens comparatively isolated, among the most important of 

 which are the gardens of the Moran Tea Co. and of the Rajmai 

 Tea Co. ; to the west of the Dekko lie a string of gardens, chiefly 

 old, skirting the Naga Hills on a range of low teelas and on the ad- 

 joining flat land and till the Jhanzie river is crossed the gardens are 

 except near Nazira, all but restricted to these lands. After passing 

 the Jhanzie river, however, the land cultivable in tea spreads out and 

 extends much nearer the river in Noakachari, Meleng, Cinnamara and 

 finally Nigriting on the banks of the Brahmaputra. From here the 

 high land forms a series of ridges of red soil, more or less at right 

 angles to the river, till the Dhunsiri is reached. Beyond this is a 

 plateau of red soil running westward to the base of the Mikir hills. 



The character of the land in this huge Sibsagar district i s 

 extremely variable. I have not been able to analyse the soils in 

 the Sonari section, but even here it varies to an extraordinary extent. 

 To the extreme east of the tea in this circle (Towkok, Jaboka, &c.) 

 the land at the base of the hills forms a plateau of very fine tea 

 soil, most of it only recently opened out. It consists of a black 

 medium loam with a yellowish brown subsoil. Most of it is forest, 

 but some grass land occurs. None of the gardens on this land are 

 as yet old enough to need manuring to any extent, but the method 

 recommended for the grass land at Dibrugarh (see page 122) would 

 probably answer very well, 



Commencing at Sonari, the plateau of which I have just been 

 speaking, is replaced by a range of low teelas which skirt the base 

 of the hills from this point as far as Amgoorie. Many of them 

 were put out in the early days of tea, and generally speaking the 

 slopes have been very much washed, the tea bushes stand right out 

 of the soil, and are very deficient in vigour. In fact in several cases I 

 was told that they hardly paid for keeping in cultivation. Neverthe- 

 less, originally, they must have formed an excellent tea soil the 



