TEA. 99 



Net produce, Ibs. Average price. 



1847 .. 144.164 atperlb. .. Is. 7 l-16d. ., 11,513 



1848 .. 182,953 .. Is. 8|d. .. 15,436 



1849 .. 216,000 .. Is. 9|d. .. 19,350 



1850 .. 253,427 .. Is. 6|d. .. 18,153 



1851 .. 271,427 .. Is. 8d. .. 22,152 



1852 esmtd. 280,000 



This exhibits a progressive increase in the aggregate value of 

 the Company's produce, and this has been effected, it is stated, 

 without any sensible increase of the current expenditure. It ex- 

 hibits also a rise in the value of the tea (157,942 Ibs. having been 

 sold at the high average price of Is. Hid.), a fact strongly indi- 

 cative of its increasing excellence. The details of the crop of the 

 season of 1849 showed a net produce of 237,000 Ibs. of tea; so 

 that the Company are increasing their cultivation to the extent of 

 nearly ten per cent, per annum, and the increase will doubtless 

 proceed with greater rapidity, whenever the increase of capital 

 enables the directors to extend their operations. 



In a report submitted to the Directors, by Mr. Burkinyoung, 

 the managing director in Calcutta last year, he thus speaks of 

 the Company's field of operations and future prospects : 



" The box-making is especially worthy of notice for its effective organisation 

 and economical arrangement ; the work is performed chiefly by Assamese boys in- 

 structed at the factory : the number of boxes required for the year's consumption 

 will not be short of four thousand, the whole of which will be made at the 

 factory, an achievement that cannot be too highly estimated in a country so 

 destitute of mechanical labor. 



Notwithstanding the high standard of quality and strength to which our teas 

 have already attained, I am. of opinion that, as experience advances, and our 

 knowledge and system of plucking and manufacturing the crops become im- 



rved, and better organised, a higher standard of quality and value may yet 

 realised; in this opinion the superintendent concurs with me, and the at- 

 tainment of this object is one to which his attention is prominently directed. 



In the course of my enquiries and trials of different samples of tea in 

 Assam, my attention was directed to one description of black tea, of rough 

 strong flavor, made by a quicker process than that ordinarily used in the manu- 

 facture of black tea : under this mode of manipulation, a quality of tea is 

 produced sufficiently distinctive in its flavor and appearance to render it worthy 

 of attention and trial, and I think, when perfected in the process of manu- 

 facture, calculated to come into popular estimation. Samples of this tea the 

 superintendent will forward to the board for trial. 



In conducting the operations in Assam, the chief difficulty of importance 

 which has not yet been effectually met is the paucity of labor ; this does not, 

 however, exist to the extent of materially checking any of the important 

 operations connected with the production of the tea, but it is felt in the arrear 

 of various descriptions of work, in providing bricks for building, and in the 

 preparation of a stock of seasoned timber and boards for building and box- 

 making ; while the out factories would be benefited by a larger proportion of 

 agricultural labor. Great advance, however, has been made by the superin- 

 tendent in the employment of Assamese labor in contract work : under the 

 arrangement he has established, these contracts are now, for the most part, 

 fulfilled with much punctuality, and there is reason to expect that this system 

 of labor will be further extended. The Kachorie Coolies are a valuable class 

 of laborers, but they do not appear to be sufficiently numerous, or to emigrate 

 in sufficient numbers to afford with the native Assamese a supply of labor 

 altogether equal to our wants, so as to render the concern independent of 

 Bengal labor. 



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