F.— ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS 123 



A second example is supplied by sugar. For in India since the war 

 sugar-cane production has been increased by the aid of tariffs and 

 subsidised sugar factories. The research stations of the Government, 

 e.g. that of Heppal outside Bangalore in Mysore State, play the part of 

 leaf development companies to the suppliers of sugar. What role co- 

 operation among growers may one day play in tobacco and sugar is hard 

 to forecast. I suggest that, co-operation for credit apart, it will take the 

 form of a collective bargaining association, as among the milk producers 

 of America, rather than of a processing organisation like that of the fruit 

 growers of California or the dairy farmers of Denmark and New Zealand. 

 The capitalisation and technique are too advanced to allow of the peasant 

 undertaking the co-operative management of sugar factories. In tobacco, 

 as contrasted with butter or sugar, a further difficulty is present. It is 

 exceptional for any tobacco product to be manufactured exclusively from 

 a single grade of leaf. Nearly all are blended from a variety of leaves 

 possessing different qualities, and the expert blender, who makes these 

 mixtures, must be satisfied that the leaf offered to him possesses the 

 qualities which he requires. 



3. Tea as a Commodity. 



The bulk of the tea consumed by Great Britain is grown in one of 

 three districts, Assam (with adjoining territory), South India and Ceylon. 

 Java is a competitor in lower-priced teas, and China grows its special 

 China tea. The production is highly localised, and tea tends to drive 

 out any rival. Climate and altitude are important, and Ceylon is 

 favoured in both respects. First of all it has two monsoons : the south- 

 west, June, July, August, September ; and the north-east, November, 

 December, with the tail end in January ; and the rainfall is sufficient 

 to promote growth virtually the whole year round. In Assam, which 

 is outside the Tropics, there is only the one monsoon, the south- 

 west ; and for a part of the year there is no growth owing to the winter 

 cold, and the plantations are closed down. South India has a shorter 

 off-season, though in parts there may be a five-month drought, when 

 growth is slow. Of Ceylon, though not of India, it may be said 

 that the higher the land the better is the quality of the tea. 8 Just 

 as in Canada the best apples are grown near the frost line, so in Ceylon 

 the best tea comes from the high land. Ceylon distinguishes between 

 three classes of plantation land, the low coastal land which is devoted to 

 coco-nut plantations, the middle land which has rubber, cocoa and tea, 

 and the high land which has been all but monopolised by tea since tea, 

 fifty years ago, took the place of coffee. But even in Ceylon the range of 

 tea is wide ; and the Colombo market reports distinguish between high, 

 medium and low elevation teas. The handicap of Ceylon is its relatively 

 small area and the consequent high price of land. In South India along 

 the Western Ghats plantations are of more recent growth and there is 



8 The tea plant grows wild in the lowland jungle of Assam, and perhaps the 

 finest tea in the world is grown in the Brahmaputra Valley at only a little above 

 sea -level. 



