14 
Upper Chindwin. It is suggested that extracts from Mr. Bruce’s 
paper may be found of sufficient interest for reproduction in the Kew 
Bulleti 
m, &e. 
(Signed) * ” Horace WALPOLE, 
- The Director, 
Royal Gardens, Kew. 
Report on the Tea Inpustry of the Upper Chindwin, by C. W. A. 
dine fee . Assistant Conservator of Forests, Upper Chindwin 
Divis 
The = is a list of the villages of the Upper poise which 
export tea-seeds, the inhabitants of all bei ngkan 
‘Tingin, Kawya, Maungkan, Tasôn, Onbet, Bve ne S 
Malin. 
Tradition says that these “ kins” KR EM cleared ee planted 
some 200 years ago, the seed having been brought from Palaung 
(Northern Shan States). No one hus ever he a of wild tos in the 
ecome the main source of income e the owners, though the pickled 
tea is still collected and made as of ol 
Me , $c.—The Bii thing to be done in planting a 
« Jetpet-kin ? is to find the right kind of soil, what is known as ** myeni," 
literally red earth. In this soil the tea-tree flourishes to perfection ; 
‘the look of this earth is very characteristic, being a light red or buff- 
rema ien loam, which occurs in patches, 9 wherever these 
patches of red earth are found on the banks of the Chindwin there 
villages bin been buiit and tea planted. The mde beg cleared of 
all brushwood and undergrowth, three or four seeds are dibbled into 
holes, the holes being either two or four cubits apart. The object of 
dibbling in more than one seed is to guard against blanks; however, 
all the seeds that germinate are allowed to grow. After the plants come 
up all the tending the gardens receive is periodical clearing o 
small plants, weeds, and brushwood; the ground is never hoed nor the 
plants pruned, except when the ravages of a parasite known as 
" d have become so extensive as to kill the portions above 
und; the dead tops are v haeked down with the ordinary 
urmese , the plant at once throwing up shoots or root- 
suckers which in hres years take the place of the old tut down plant. 
"The small plants e large enoug give a crop of leaves in three 
years if the kin i is kept frou of jungle, but not till five years if the garden 
is * dir Seed is borne when the plants are eight years old, but 
they do not come into full bearing till 15 years of age, the normal 
existence of a tree being 40 to 50 years, if not attacked by the parasite 
mentioned above. Some phe last longer than this, but old trees do not 
crops eeds or leaves as middle-aged ones, being 
usually stagheaded, and are r peieralio eut down, their places being taken 
by vigorous shoots thrown up by the stools, some stools as large as 3 
eing seen. A li 
rank as ear &c., which spring up if there is no 
shade. vy rains are not good for the seed-crop, as the seed drops off _ 
