136 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



stock for transplanting. About twelve maunds of tea have been manu- 

 factured, both green and black varieties, from such plants as were of 

 sufficient size for plucking. This, consequently, does not shew the 

 total amount that 162 acres will yield ; because, it must be remem- 

 bered, that a tea shrub does not come into full bearing before the eighth 

 year, and the oldest of these plantations were established, we believe, 

 only eleven years since, while others have been added to, as mentioned 

 above, during 1847. Perhaps this return scarcely gives one-twelfth of 

 what the yield of nurseries of the present size will be when all the 

 plants have arrived at maturity, seeing that an acre of land, covered 

 with full-bearing plants, should yield a maund of tea in a manufactured 

 state; and this, it is estimated, will not only pay the expense of culti- 

 vating, allowing the produce to yield three rupees a seer — by no means 

 a high rate — but give a fair profit to compensate for the loss of interest 

 on capital during the earlier period of their growth. The report gives 

 full particulars regarding the mode of growing the plant, and the proper 

 season for plucking and gathering leaves. The number of hands who 

 are now being trained up in this department, and in that of manufac- 

 turing, will prove most useful auxiliaries to the European planter on a 

 future, and, we trust, not distant day ; his capital and energy, in com- 

 bination with their skill and experience, will probably effect a change 

 which can scarcely fail to prove beneficial to all concerned. The in- 

 troduction of this culture will be the means of encouraging the settle- 

 ment of Europeans ; of throwing a large amount of capital into what 

 is at present a poor country, adding thereby to the comfort of the pop- 

 ulation generally, especially the agricultural section ; and of augment- 

 ing considerably the small sum at present yielded to the state, in the 

 shape of revenue, by these hill provinces. Moreover, the advantages 

 arising from the introduction into the markets of Upper India of a 

 wholesome beverage, sufficiently cheap for the consumption of the 

 middling classes of the native community, and for supply to the com- 

 missariat, for the use of our European soldiery, are too palpable to need 

 demonstration. In this light alone, the experiments now in progress 

 must be viewed with interest and pleasure. But it is not solely to the 

 provinces of Kumaon and Gurhwal that we have to look. Further in- 

 spection has proved the capability of various other spots, immediately 

 to the west of the Jumna, for the culture of this important staple. 

 Moreover, we are informed that, during the present cold season, Dr. 

 Jameson has not only selected many new sites in the Kangra valley, 

 but commenced operations, by the despatch of several hundred thou- 

 sands of seedlings. Besides this, the fact which we announced some 

 time ago, that the Supreme Government had determined on the estab- 

 lishment of tea plantations along the whole of the mountainous part of 

 the northwest frontier, from the Sutledj and the new country west of it 

 to the Kali, coupled with the circumstance, that an annual grant of a 

 lac of rupees has been lately authorized to carry them on in an efficient 

 manner, prove that our rulers are fully alive to the importance of firmly 

 establishing this culture in Upper India. Should these endeavors prove 

 successful, and private skill and capital be employed hereafter to con- 

 tinue what the state has so happily begun, it is not going beyond the 

 bounds of probability to expect, that, in the course of time, tea, the 



