THE TECHNOLOGIST. [April 1, 1864. 



418 THE EXTENSION OF 



prepared from the crop of leaves picked, to the amount of 2,000 lbs. 

 weight. 



" It has thus been established, that the real tea plant of commerce 

 will grow fruit, mature seed, and supply a crop of leaves, at Coonoor. 

 At Ootacamund the shrub also grows, and seeds ; and, thus succeeding 

 in these two climates of the hills, their general surface, in suitable soil 

 and situation, may be deemed equally adapted to the favourable growth 

 of the plant. I may observe that I believe Mr. Mann was induced to 

 select Coonoor for his experimental cultivation, because it had been 

 pointed out by the late Dr. Turnbull Christie, an eminent naturalist, as 

 the most likely climate for its success. 



" With all the conditions of its favourable growth as a plant estab- 

 lished, there has still remained to be determined, whether its produce 

 was really a merchantable article ; whether, in fact, the climate of the 

 Neilgherries admitted of the tea leaf carrying the flavour of good con- 

 sumable tea. "Repeated rough trials seemed to speak unfavourably on 

 this point. About 25 years ago, Mr. Sullivan, then collector of Coini- 

 batore, sent some prepared tea leaves, taken from a shrub at Ootacamund 

 to Madras, but the infusion from them was pronounced execrable. 

 Subsequent trials had pretty much the same result, and even when the 

 leaves were taken from the better plants of Mr. Mann's plantation, and 

 prepared with more care and a little more knowledge, the least un- 

 favourable opinion that could be pronounced upon the tea by Dr. 

 Cleghorn was, that it was 'not palatable.' Such results have sufficed 

 to deter others from embarking in the adventure, Mr. H. Rae alone 

 having had sufficient confidence in his own judgment to engage (in 

 1861) in tea cultivation at Sholoor. Mr. H. Mann had left Coonoor to 

 settle in Coorg almost immediately after the outset of his tea planta- 

 tion, he considering that what he met with from local authority was the 

 reverse of encouragement to his costly experiment. 



" But there seems much reason to believe that the tea prepared from 

 plants growing on the Neilgherries has been thus unpalatable because 

 of its defective manipulation ; that the acrid taste so constantly com- 

 plained of, even when the proper leaves have been selected for the 

 manufacture, has resulted from the want of a right manufacturing 

 apparatus, and from an ignorance of the necessity of every particle of 

 moisture being removed from the leaves, and of how to effect it. Mr. 

 Mann's native overseer, Ponnambalum, though he has shown a good 

 deal of skill in his mode of treatment, has been unavoidably ignorant 

 of the correct style of manipulation, and generally his tea has had a 

 musty smell and an acrid flavour. But, on the other hand, when 

 accident (perhaps) has caused one picking to be better prepared than 

 ano her, tasters have found this passable ; his tea, moreover, has for the 

 past two years, found a ready sale at a fair price in the bazaar, and 

 partially in a shop ot Ootacamund ; it has shown decided improvement 

 by being kept ; and last year (of which I can speak from personal 



