1839.] extent and produce of the Tea Plantations in Assam. 507 



ter died, but the remainder are healthy, and flourish as well, as if they 

 had been reared in China. The leaves of these plants were plucked in 

 the beginning of March, and weighed sixteen seers, or thirty-two pounds. 

 Many of the plants were then in flower, and had small seeds. They 

 are about three feet high, and were loaded with fruit last year, but the 

 greater part of it decayed when it had come to maturity, as was the 

 case with the Assam Tea-seeds, and almost every seed of these wilds, 

 in the past year. The seeds should, I think, be plucked from the plant 

 when thought ripe, and not be permitted to drop or fall to the ground. 

 I collected about twenty-four pounds of the China seeds, and sowed 

 some on the little hill of Tipum in my Tea garden, and some in the 

 Nursery-ground at Jaipore ; above three thousand of which have come 

 up, are looking beautiful, and doing very well. I have since found 

 out that all the China seedlings on Tipum hill have been destroyed by 

 some insect. 



The Assam and China seedlings are near each other ; the latter have 

 a much darker appearance. I have made but few nurseries, or raised 

 plants from seed, as abundance of young plants can be procured, of 

 any age or size, from our Tea tracts. There may be about 6,000 

 young seedlings at Chubwa ; at Deenjoy about 2,000 ; at Tingri a 

 few; and some at Paundooah. In June and July, 1837, 17>000 

 young plants were brought from Muttuck, and planted at a place called 

 Toongroong Patar, amongst the thick tree jungles of Sadiya. 



In March of the same year six or eight thousand were brought from 

 Muttuck, and planted in different thick jungles at Sadiya; many of 

 these died in consequence of the buffaloes constantly breaking in 

 amongst them ; the rest are doing well, but I am afraid will be 

 killed from the above cause ; and now that I have removed to Jaipore, 

 they are too far off for my personal superintendence. 



In 1838, 52,000 young Tea plants were brought from the Nem- 

 song Naga hill tracts, about ten miles from Jaipore ; a great portion of 

 these have been lately sent to Calcutta, to be forwarded to Madras ; 

 should they thrive there, it is my opinion that they will never attain 

 any height, at least not like ours, but be dwarfish like the China 

 plants. Deenjoy, Chubwa, Tingri, and Geela-Jhan tracts have been 

 filled up or enlarged with plants from the jungle tracts. In trans- 

 planting from one sunny tract to another, when done in the rains, 

 very few, if any, die ; if the plants be removed from a deep shade to a 

 sunny tract, the risk is greater, but still, if there is plenty of rain, few 

 only will die. If from a deep shade to a piece of ground not a Tea tract, 

 and exposed to the sun — for instance from the Naga hills to Jaipore — 

 if there be plenty of rain, and the soil congenial, as it is at this place, 



