82 William Jameson on the Cultivation of 
But it is a question :—Is India capable of growing teas at 
as cheap a rate or cheaper than China? In reply, I, from 
the small data which the returns of the Government planta- 
tions give, would say undoubtedly so. One of the planta- 
tions is now yielding 235 Ib. of tea per acre, which, if sold 
at 6d. per pound, would yield £5, 17s. 6d.; and this, too, re- 
turned by land, the annual rent of which, received by the 
Government, is only 1s. 6d. per acre. For land generally 
in India, 58 rupees is a very high average return. More- 
over too, teas sold at 4 anas, or 6d. per pound, would bring 
them within the reach of the poorer classes, and cause them 
to become as essential to the native hut as tobacco, which 
dates its introduction into India little more than two cen- 
turies. But in urging the importance of tea cultivation in 
the British Indian provinces, there is another point of vast 
importance to be considered, viz., that in Kumaon and Gur- 
wal, whose area is equal to nearly 12,000 square miles, there 
is not a crop considered remunerative, where the district is 
distant from a good market, even though the land is only 
paying on the average about 7 anas or 103d. per acre.* Why 
is this? Because interecommunication throughout the pro- 
vinces is so bad. All trade must, owing to the state of the 
roads, be conducted by men acting as beasts of burden. The 
finer kinds of grain never realize more than a rupee (two 
shillings) per bushel, and this too, in order to be obtained, is 
frequently carried by parties ten and twelve marches, when 
their labour is always, when they can get employment, worth 
to them 2 anas or 3d. per day. This fully proves that, 
at present, in the Eastern British Hill Provinces, there is not 
in the back districts a remunerative crop in cultivation. 
Were tea cultivation generally introduced, such would not 
be the case; and as in China so in the Kohistan of North- 
Western India, it might, with much advantage, be introduced 
into every village, and the natives encouraged to sell their 
tea leaves to the manufacturer. For many years good teas — 
* The Government revenue rate is 12 anas or ls. 6d. per acre, but only the 
Jand under cultivation, when the settlement was made, at present pays rent. 
If, therefore, the lands now broken up and cultivated are included, the average — 
rent will not exceed 103d. per acre. 
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