100 TEA. 



The tea lands are for the most pait advantageously situated, within convenient 

 reach of water-carriage, either by the ' Dickhoo,' ' Desan?,' and ' Deliing* 

 rivers, or hy means of small streams leading to them. The Plantations of the 

 Satsohea and Rookang forests, and on the hanks of the Tir.gri in the ^Northern. 

 Division, are all valuable centres of extension in each district. The lands suit- 

 able for tea cultivation are ample in extent, and of the highest fertility ; while 

 the Hill Factories of the Southern and Eastern Divisions, although secondary 

 in importance, are, as regards extent and quality of soil, equally eligible as 

 bases of extension. 



The prospects of the future, I entertain no doubt, will keep pace with the 

 satisfactory results that have hitherto been realised, looking to the sound organ- 

 isation that now exists in our establishment at Assam, an organisation that has 

 already taken healthy root, and must in its growth gain strength and perma- 

 nence. I think we may safely calculate, after the current year, upon an annual 

 increase in our production of 40,000 Ibs. of tea, until a larger system of opera- 

 tions can be matured, of which the basis is already laid down, in the new lands 

 cleared and sown during the past cold season, averaging 225 to 250 poorahs ; 

 and this extended basis will be doubtless followed up by annual extensions of 

 similar, if not larger, area. The concern is now taking a position which will 

 place it on a scale of working commensurate with the objects entertained upon 

 the first incorporation of the company, the profits now likely to be realised 

 being adequate to all the outlay necessary." 



The prices in the last two years in London have been fully main- 

 tained at Is. 3d. to 4s. 4d., according to sorts. Of Assam tea, the 

 sales in the London market in 1851 amounted to 2,200 packages, 

 against 1,900 packages in 1850, and all were freely taken (on 

 account of their great strength) at very full prices. Seventy-six 

 packages of Kumaon tea, both black and green, grown by the East 

 India Company, in the Himalayas, as an experiment, were also 

 brought to sale. They were teas of high quality ; but being of 

 the light flavored class, and not duly esteemed in this market, 

 they realised only about their relative value as compared with 

 China teas of similar grade. The Souchong and Pouchong sold 

 at Is. lid. to Is. 3|d. ; the Hyson, Imperial, and Gunpowder 

 realised Is. 7|d. to 2s. 6|d. 



Mr. Eobert Fortune, who, in the service of the Horticultural 

 Society of London, gave such satisfaction by his botanical re- 

 searches in China, was, on his return to England, in 1848, engaged 

 by the Directors of the East India Company to proceed again to 

 the Celestial Empire, and procure and transmit to India such a 

 quantity and variety of the tea plant, that its cultivation in the 

 north-western provinces would be a matter of mere manual labor. 

 Having penetrated about 300 miles into the interior, he left Hong 

 Kong in the middle of 1851 for Calcutta, with a large quantity of 

 choice plants, selected in the green tea districts, and these have flou- 

 rished as well as could possibly be expected ; so that, in the course of 

 a few years, there is every probability that tea will form a consider- 

 able article of export from our Indian Presidencies. Mr. Fortune 

 secured the services of, and took with him, eight Chinese, from the 

 district of Wei-chow, under an agreement for three years, at the 

 rate of fifteen dollars a month each. Six of these are regular tea- 

 manufacturers ; the other two are pewterers, whose sole business is 

 that of preparing lead casings for tea-chests. 



In the British portion of the Punjaub, it has been resolved to 



