TEA. 



103 



ranges from 60° to 55° Fahr. and where the rainfall, or what is 

 quite as important, the humidity of the atmosphere, is considerable 

 during the growing season, which in northern latitudes usually begins 

 in March. Considerable heat, and foggy, cloudy weather, constitute 

 what is known as a ' fine growing time ' for the tea plant. Moisture 

 in the air, rather than moisture in the ground, seems to be requisite. 

 Situations which are exposed to severe frost should be avoided, since 

 it will entail too much labour to protect the yovrng plants." 



Ceylon. — On the higher mountain regions of Ceylon tea culture has 

 advanced, rapidly within the last few years, and the planters have 

 begun to send supplies to the British market, for our imports of tea 

 from the island were in 



In 1872 there were but 10 acres under culture with tea, in 1875 

 this acreage had increased to 108 acres. 



An experienced planter thus touches upon the prospects of tea cul- 

 tivation in Ceylon : 



" In Eastern Bengal, in the North-Western Himalayas, and on the 

 Neilgherries, the tea plant is successfully cultivated, but there is not 

 the slightest similarity of climate between these three districts, and 

 their soils are for the most part markedly different. It beoomes 

 apparent therefore to anyone possessed of the slightest knowledge 

 of horticulture, that a system of culture which might be found 

 admirable on the cold slopes of the Western Himalayas, would not 

 be found to answer in the hot moist jungles of Assam or Cachar, and 

 that the climate of the hill districts of Southern India and Ceylon, 

 which are, as it were, a medium between the extremes of the other two, 

 will require yet another change in the mode of treatment of the tea 

 plant. 



" When we come to think of the almost total similarity of the 

 Neilgherries and Ceylon in all leading points, viz. latitude, climate, 

 annual rainfall, and general character of the soils, we may reasonably 

 conclude that the systems of culture which are the most successful in 

 the Neilgherries will also be found those most efficacious in the sister 

 district of Ceylon. We need only read one of the share lists of the 

 Bengal companies to see how highly remunerative an investment tea 

 may be made under proper management, and there are, besides these, 

 many hundreds of private gardens whose returns are much greater, 

 but of which the outside public receives no information. Tea cultiva- 

 tion is free from nearly all the dangers and risks attendant on coffee 

 planting. It possesses, too, the advantages of growing at higher 

 elevations, and consequently affording to the planter a better climate 

 to live in, while it may be made to pay well on soils which are utterly 

 unsuited to coffee cultivation. The demand for Indian tea is rapidly 

 increasing in London, the colonies, and America ; and I doubt not the 

 time is fast approacbing when China produce will be driven out of 

 the market. The superior strength, flavour, and purity of the Indian 

 growths are gaining ground every day, and from the ease and economy 

 with which teas can be cultivated, even by very small capitalists, it is 



1874 

 1875 



Lbs. 

 484,135 

 159,592 



