100 



TEA. 



A tea plantation conducted with caution and economy, and the 

 ground gradually filled with plants, must become a valuable piece of 

 property, highly remunerative to the proprietor, as there is very little 

 expense afterwards, except in gathering leaves and manufacturing tea 

 for six months in the year. The former operation, which is a light 

 labour, can be performed by women and children at a small cost, and 

 there is a disposition at present on the part of the natives to settle 

 near tea gardens, to which they can be attracted with a little encourage- 

 ment ; thus the want of labour at present experienced will be removed 

 in time. 



Sihliim. — The first impression one gets on going through the Sikhim 

 tea gardens is that the cultivation as a rule is carelessly and wastefuUy 

 conducted, and that an attempt has been made rather to get a large 

 area planted, than to have a small compact plantation with every 

 bush yielding a maximum quantity of leaf. During the rains, there 

 are on many of the estates more weeds than tea, and these weeds not 

 only occupy ground which tea ought to occupy, but cost a heavy 

 outlay to root out or cut down, and they look bad. We admit, 

 however, that there are many gardens, in the Terai especially, below 

 Punkabari, which could hardly be improved ; and here, where the 

 ground is level, a horse hoe, we believe, would be far cheaper and 

 more effective in cleaning the ground than the regiments of coolies 

 now employed. A hoe, such as is used for turnii)s at home, capable 

 of being widened or narrowed by a hinge in front, and with three 

 wheels, one in front and two behind, to allow of the depth to which 

 its teeth penetrate being regulated, would, we believe, answer 

 admirably. The distance between the plants varies on almost every 

 estate, but the best and most recently planted grounds have the tea 

 plants much closer together than on the old plantations. Tea hedges 

 3 feet aj)art, with 1 to 2 feet behind the plants in the row, is, we 

 believe, about the best distance. 



As the plucking of the leaf has to be done by coolies, these hedges 

 are not cut into any regular shape, but are, as a rule, flat-topped. 

 We think this is a mistake, for it exposes the smallest surface to air 

 and light; and the centre of the flat upper surface of each bush being 

 nearer the root than the sides, the plants, we should think, must 

 "flush" irregularly. The hedges should be clipped into a semi- 

 circular form, or as two sides of an equilateral triangle. It would be 

 interesting to know how much green leaf a tea plant of say six years 

 and of a particular size can be made to yield without excessive pluck- 

 ing. It is said that nineteen maunds per acre have been got from a 

 small area, and at 3 feet by This gives only 2^ ounces to each 

 bush, which is not a very large amount of leaf, seeing that each plant 

 has a surface of at least 3 square feet ; but nine maunds of tea jDcr acre 

 is considered a very fair amount, which, allowing only half the number 

 of bushes per acre, as at 3 by 3 feet apart, is about the same yield per 

 bush, or 2 J ounces. If a bush can be made to yield this amount, when 

 growing at 3 by IJ feet, then the area of which a quarter is now 

 covered with straggling bushes 4 or even 6 feet apart, might yield 

 more than it does at present. 



The greatest drawback to the improvement of the cultivation is, 



