508 Report on the manufacture of Tea, and on the LJune, 



few will die ; if shaded by a few trees, less will perish ; if taken 

 from shade, and planted in shade and the soil uncongenial, but there 

 is plenty of rain, the greater portion will live ; — witness Toongroong 

 Tatar at Sadiya. If the plants are brought from deep shade, and 

 planted in the sun in uncongenial soil, let them have ever so much 

 rain, not one in fifty will be alive the third year; — witness 30,000 

 brought to Sadiya. I believe the Tea plant to be so hardy that 

 it would almost live in any soil, provided it were planted in deep 

 shade when taken to it. There should be plenty of water near the 

 roots, but the plant should always be above inundation. As soon as it 

 has taken root, which it will soon do, the shade may be removed, and 

 there will be no fear of the plant dying. 



The advantage of getting plants from the jungle tracts is, that you 

 can get them of any age or size ; nothing more is necessary than to 

 send a few coolies early in March, just as the rains commence, and 

 have the plants of the size required removed to your own garden ; 

 and if they are of a moderate size, you may gather a small crop of 

 Tea from them the next year. As these plants are very slender, 

 it would be best to plant four or five close together to form a fine 

 bush. If the plants are raised from seed, you may expect a small crop 

 of Tea the third year, but they do not come to maturity under six 

 years. It is said they live to the age of forty or fifty years. The 

 Chinese way of digging a hole, and putting in a handful or two of 

 seed, does not succeed so well in this country, as putting two or three 

 seeds on small ridges of earth and covering them over, which I have 

 found to answer better. 



In clearing a new Tea tract, if the jungle trees are very large 

 and numerous, it would be as well to make a clean sweep of the whole, 

 by cutting them and the Tea plants all down together ; for it would 

 be impossible to get rid of so much wood without the help of fire. 

 The Tea plants, if allowed to remain, would be of little use after 

 they had been crushed and broken by the fall of the large trees, and 

 dried up by the fire ; but admitting that they could escape all this, 

 the leaves of trees from twelve to twenty feet high could not be reach- 

 ed, and if they could, they would be almost useless for Tea manufac- 

 ture, as it is the young leaves, from young trees, that produce the best 

 Teas. But if all were cut down and set fire to, we should have a fine 

 clear tract at once, at the least expense, and might expect to have 

 a pretty good crop of Tea one year after the cutting, or, at furthest, the 

 second year ; for it is astonishing with what vigour the plant shoots up 

 after the fire has been applied. And we gain by this process ; for, from 

 every old stock or stump cut down, ten to twelve more vigorous shoots 





