10 COGGIN BROWN : MINES & MINERAL RESOURCES OF YUNNAN. 



Any account of the agricultural products of Yunnan however 

 brief would be incomplete without a reference to tea. This plant 

 is grown to the south of P'u-erh Fu and Ssu-mao Ting in the dis- 

 tricts of Yi-pang, Yi-wu, Yu-lo, Man-sa and Man-la, in the Chinese 

 Shan State of Keng Hung to the east of the Mekong river. The 

 gardens are located both in the valleys and on the hill sides. The 

 leaf is gathered in March and April and is dried in the sun. The 

 gardens are to some extent in the hands of Shans, Akas, Pumans 

 and other tribes-folk as well as the Chinese. After being brought 

 into Ssu-mao, the leaf is sorted and blended and then treated by 

 a steaming process which gives it the disc and hemispherical shapes 

 seen in commerce. Davies has estimated the annual production 

 at 15,000 mule-loads or approximately 900 tons (I)., p. 90). Taking 

 its average price at 3 pounds for one rupee, the value of the annual 

 export would be Rs. 6,70,000 say £45,000. These figures can only 

 be approximate, because most of the tea is sent to Yunnan Fu, 

 the central mart for the leaf and only the small portions intended 

 for the upper Lao States pass through the Ssu-mao Customs House. 

 The price in Yunnan Fu when I was there averaged from 2\ to 

 7J annas per pound, being entirely dependent on the quality of 

 the blend. Inferior kinds of leaf can be bought in Ssu-mao itself 

 direct from the merchants in the trade at cheaper rates (from 1 

 to 4 annas per pound), and very large quantities of these teas are 

 annually disposed of to Tibetans, who come down in large numbers 

 to Ssu-mao for this purpose. In November 1893, when high prices 

 ranged for a time in the north, there were Tibetan caravans in 

 Ssu-mao, numbering over 2,000 animals, engaged in loading tea, 

 according to the official report of the Commissioner of Customs 

 for that year. In the borderland between Yunnan and Tibet, 

 discs of compressed tea sometimes take the place of silver in mer- 

 cantile transactions. 



The internal production of cotton in Yunnan is insignificant 

 and as the whole population is clothed in cotton cloth often padded 

 with the raw material, the importation of Indian yarn and Man- 

 chester goods is a most important trade. The greater part of 

 Yunnan is much too cold for cotton cultivation and it is only grown 

 in the bottoms of some of the deep river valleys and in the Southern 

 Chinese Shan States. 



Sugar is a crop of some consequence though it does not figure 

 as an export to any extent. The cane will only thrive in the warmer 



