No. 133.] .265 



genous there, being found in the deepest forests, where man could 

 not have resided for centuries past. 



The East India Company cultivated, in Assam, a Baree (so 

 called there), or plantation, called " Chubwa." The produce 

 was good, as to the quantity — being on an average, 320 pounds 

 an acre ; but the leaves had an oily flavor about them — un- 

 pleasant. The company gave it up. 



I had four plantations of it in Assam, The first crops of leaves 

 were passable, but the others felt like chaff in the hand, and 

 would not fetch a very fair price. The British Ea?t India Com- 

 pany introduced China seeds j yet, although they Iiad greater 

 facilities fur doing so than any other government, the seeds they 

 got from China were worse than valueless, for they all germinated 

 and grew up a pretty little brush of two to three feet high, full 

 of leaves and no end to their producing seeds — but the leaves 

 were small, dry. hard, and so stiff they could not be manufac- 

 tured. From several thousands of them, I could never make a 

 pound of tea. The Assam company tried every scheme — even 

 plucked off all the leaves,"supposing that the new ones, when 

 they came out, would be soft ; but they came out so slowly, and 

 still so poor and dry, that the experiment proved a failure. 



In the Kamoun mountains^ north-west of East India, the British 

 government established a tea-garden, in 1835, under the care of 

 Dr. Jannison ; but up to 1850, they had exported no tea. They 

 have frequently tried to sell these plantations, but nobody would 

 buy them. It takes three years to get any material quantity of 

 leaves from the trees. 



INDIGO. 

 Our fathers cultivated it 80 yea^^ ago, and the British Govern- 

 ment gave us (their colonies) a bounty of a shilling a pound for 

 producing it. Our fathers abandoned it for cotton, for which 

 they got from a dollar to a dollar and a half a pound. 



Sixty years ago only 134,000 pounds of indigo were exported, 

 at the price of 62 cents a pounds. Now the East Indies export 

 13 million pounds, and it is sold in Calcutta, the lowest one dol- 

 lar to one and a half— highest two dollars forty-five cents a 

 pound. 



