1839.] extent and produce of the Tea Plantations in Assam, 503 



of Tea must not be looked for at present. Last season it was with the 

 greatest difficulty that I could get a sufficient number of hands to 

 gather the leaves. The plucking of the leaves may appear to many 

 a very easy and light employment, but there are not a few of 

 our coolies who would much rather be employed on any other job ; 

 the standing in one position so many hours occasions swellings in 

 the legs, as our plants are not like those of China, only three feet high, 

 but double that size, so that one must stand upright to gather the 

 leaves. The Chinese pluck theirs squatting down. We lie under a 

 great disadvantage in not having regular men to pluck the leaves ; 

 those that have been taught to do so, can pluck twice as many as 

 those that have not, and we can seldom get hold of the same men two 

 seasons running. I am of opinion that our trees will become of 

 a smaller and more convenient size after a few years cultivation ; be- 

 cause, trimming of the plants, and taking all the young leaves almost as 

 soon as they appear, month after month and year after year, and the 

 plants being deprived of the rich soil they had been living on from 

 time unknown, must soon tell upon them. Transplanting also helps 

 to stunt and shorten the growth of these plants. The Chinese declar- 

 ed to me, that the China plants now at Deenjoy would never have 

 attained to half the perfection they now have, under ten years in 

 their own country. 



I may here observe, that the sun has a material effect on the 

 leaves ; for as soon as the trees that shade the plants are remov- 

 ed, the leaf, from a fine deep green, begins to turn into a yellowish 

 colour, which it retains for some months, and then again gradu- 

 ally changes to a healthy green, but now becomes thicker, and the 

 plant throws out far more numerous leaves than when in the shade. 

 The more the leaves are plucked, the greater number of them are pro- 

 duced ; if the leaves of the first crop were not gathered, you might look 

 in vain for the leaves of the second crop. The Tea made from the 

 leaves in the shade is not near so good as that from leaves exposed 

 to the sun ; the leaves of plants in the sun are much earlier in season 

 than of those in the shade ; the leaves from the shady tract give out a 

 more watery liquid when rolled, and those from the sunny a more 

 glutinous substance. When the leaves of either are rolled on a sunny 

 day, they emit less of this liquid than on a rainy day. This juice de- 

 creases as the season advances. The plants in the sun have flowers 

 and fruit much earlier than those in the shade, and are far more 

 numerous ; they have flowers and seeds in July, and fruit in November. 

 Numerous plants are to be seen that by some accident, either cold 

 or rain, have lost all their flowers, and commence throwing out fresh 



