TEA. 



89 



History of Tea Planting in India. — Moorcroft's 'Travels in the 

 Himalayas in 1821/ brought the existence of tea in India to the 

 notice of the Board of Directors of the East India Company. 

 Mr. J. W. Edgar, in an official summary * published in Calcutta, 

 states there have been lively disputes as to the first discoverer of 

 tea in Assam and the date of its discovery. It is probable that a 

 Mr. C. A. Bruce, who commanded a division of gunboats in Upper 

 Assam during the first Burmese war, brought down from Upper Assam 

 some plants and seed of the indigenous plant in 1826, and he actually 

 received a medal from the London Society of Arts. But his claims to 

 have been the first discoverer of tea was disputed by a Captain 

 Charlton, who asserted that the existence of tea in Assam had been 

 first established by himself in 1832. In 1834 a committee was 

 appointed to inquire into and report on the possibility of introducing 

 the cultivation of tea into India. 



On the 24th April, 1844, Dr. Eoyle delivered an interesting lecture 

 at an evening meeting of the Eoyal Asiatic Society, " On the Cultiva- 

 tion of Tea in the Himalaya Mountains." He mentioned the great 

 difficulty experienced with regard to tea cultivation in obtaining any 

 correct information from China on the subject. It appeared that 

 the tea plant was cultivated in China from 17° to 36° of N. lat. ; but 

 the black teas of commerce chiefly from 27° to 28° ; and the green 

 from 28° to 31° of N. lat., in soils rather poor than rich, and in a 

 climate subject to great extremes. Dr. Eoyle then adverted to the 

 relative positions of China and India, and called attention especially 

 to the Himalayan Mountains, as containing the same varieties of 

 climate as was found in the tea districts of China. From the nature 

 of the plants found in the Himalayas, Dr. Eoyle had long thought 

 that the tea plant could be cultivated there ; in 1827, and again in 

 1831, he recommended to the Indian Government the desirability 

 of making the attempt. In 1832 Dr. Wallich presented a paper to 

 the Board of Control on the subject ; and in 1834 Dr. Eoyle, in the 

 third number of his ' Illustrations of Himalayan Botany,' gave an 

 essay on the cultivation of tea in the Himalayas, which coincided 

 remarkably with a report sent from India at the same time by 

 Dr. Falconer. With the sanction of the Court of Directors, he 

 determined upon making the experiment ; and in 1834 a committee 

 was formed, reports called for, and Messrs. Gordon and Gutzlaff were 

 sent to China to obtain seeds, information, and workmen. After visit- 

 ing the Ankoy Tea-hills, and obtaining seeds, these gentlemen were 

 recalled on the discovery of the tea plant of Assam. The seeds 

 were sown at Calcutta, and the seedlings distributed to the tea 

 nurseries ; but only 500 reached Assam alive : 1326 reached the 

 hill nurseries in 1836. In December 1838 Dr. Falconer wrote that 

 the tea plant was thriving vigorously in two, and had flowered in 

 three, of the above nurseries. In 1841, 5000 plants were flourishing ; 

 many of them bushy shrubs, about five feet high. In 1842 nine 

 Chinese tea manufacturers, who had been in Assam, were sent to the 

 tea nurseries in Kumaon and Gurhwal, who immediately recognised 

 the plant under cultivation as the genuine Chinese, and of a superior 

 quality to that grown in Assam. In 1843 the Chinamen prepared 

 * 'Tea luduistry in Bengal.' 



