TEA. 



101 



that it is in the hands of joint-stock companies, with but one object, 

 to see their shares stand high in the market. A number of small 

 estates managed by the proprietors would yield very much more tea 

 from the same area ; and the cultivation would improve more rapidly. 

 On the present plantations, owing to their large area and the bushes 

 being too scattered, much manuring or high cultivation is out of the 

 question. It takes all the attention of the manager to keep down 

 weeds. Taking the yield per plant at a very moderate estimate, ten 

 maunds of tea ought to be got from each acre, allowing about two 

 ounces per plant. A hundred acres of tea at this rate would give 

 about 50,000 rupees (5000Z;), allowing only 8 annas (Is.) per lb. ; 

 and the expenses of very high cultivation and the manufacture of 

 the tea could not at the outside cost half this sum. 



Experiments are much wanted to test the comparative values of 

 different varieties of the plant. On walking through a large planta- 

 tion, one cannot fail to be struck with the very great diversity of leaf, 

 vigour, &c. Some plants have large soft leaves, others shoot small 

 hard leaves ; some seem to flush twice as well as others ; and if a 

 careful selection of plants were made from which to preserve seed, 

 a very superior plant might be obtained. Such experiments would no 

 doubt be made if the tea gardens were owned by the managers, and 

 were in a state of very high cultivation. Hybridising has been tried, 

 and plants are now grown which are said to be hybrids ; but very 

 much more might be done in this direction in crossing the Assam with 

 the China plant, and in crossing superior varieties. 



The object of the Indian Government in establishing tea plantations 

 in Kumaon and Gurhwal was to demonstrate by practical experiment 

 that the hills in those provinces were adapted by soil and climate for 

 the cultivation of the plant, and that the manufacture of it would 

 yield a very substantial mercantile return. The experiments suc- 

 ceeded, under the able management of Dr. Jamieson, beyond all 

 expectation. The plantation of Paoree, which four years previous 

 was a mere rhododendron jungle, in 1855 had 350,000 plants yielding 

 tea, and 500,000 seedlings. The yield in 1854 was about 34,000 lbs. 

 of tea, on a plantation of less than 200 acres ; and the returns in 1855 

 was 5000 lbs. The Kaologir plantation (North- West Province) 

 yielded 4112 lbs. in 1854, and 10,000 lbs. in 1855, the yield being 

 at the rate of 70 lbs. per acre. There were 390 acres under culture, 

 but not all bearing. 



In the Dehra Doon the progress has been even more remarkable. 



As the tea lands in the Kangra valley yield from 200 to 300 lbs. of 

 prepared tea per acre, while the expenses of culture are very small, 

 the profit to be earned by judicious tea cultivation must be very 

 great. 



Nagrota, the first plantation started, is of insignificant dimensions, 

 merely a small garden plot in fact, about eight miles north-east of 

 Kangra. Bhawarna, situated about ten miles farther on, is not much 

 larger. Holta lies about four miles farther, immediately at the foot 

 of the Himalayas, about twenty miles south-east from the Sanitarium of 

 Dhurmsala, and equidistant from Kangra. Holta has an elevation of 

 between 4000 and 5000 feet above the sea. It has a truly delightful 



