266 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



INDIAN TEA. 



PRODUCTION IN THE YEAR 1909. 



The Director-General of Commercial Intelli- 

 gence has issued his annual Note on the Pro- 

 duction of Tea in India from which we take 

 the following : — 



The statistics of area under tea in each year 

 since 1885 are given in an Appendix. The 

 figures are for the most part those roported by 

 planters. In the case, however, of those planta- 

 tions for which figures are not so reported, esti- 

 mates, which do not profess to be more than 

 roughly approximate, are prepared by local 

 officers. In the year under review such esti- 

 mates have been made in respect of 28 gardens 

 out of a total of 934 gardens in Eastern Bengal 

 and Assam and in respect of 47 gardens out of 

 a total of 210 gardens in Southern India. In- 

 cluding the estimated area, the total area under 

 tea in 1908 and 1909 was divided between the 

 different provinces as follows : — 

 Area in Acres. 



1908. 1909. 



Eastern Bengal and Assam- 

 Brahmaputra Valley 210,704 212,457 

 Surma Valley 134,938 135,562 

 Jalpaiguri (including Ali- 



pur Duar) 83,365 85,496 



Chittagong 4,283 4,289 



Total, E.B. ami Assam 



Bengal— 



Darjeeling 

 Chota Nagpur 



Total, Bengal 



United Provinces 

 Punjab 



Madras 

 Travancore 



Burma 



Grand Total 



433,290 



437,804 





~* 



51,614 



51,220 



2,291 



2,249 



53,905 



53,469 



8,086 



8,066 



9,393 



9,376 



17,479 



17,442 



14,626 



15,723 



27,103 



29,174 



41,729 



44,897 



1,724 



1,693 



548,127 



555,305 



Out of the total area of 555,305 acres for which 

 either returns or complete estimates have been 

 received, 520,642 acres were reported to have 

 been plucked during the year. In the remaining 

 34,663 acres, the plants were either too young to 

 be plucked or were not plucked for other reasons. 



The total number of plantations was 5,890 in 

 1909 as against 5,885 (revised figure) returned 

 in 1908 — a net increase of 5 plantations. The 

 increase hardly calls for comment. 



In Eastern Bengal and Assam, 934 plantations 

 are reported to have a total area of 437,804 acres 

 under tea, an average of 469 acres. In Bengal, 

 304 acres is the average of 176 plantations, and 

 in Travancore 379 acres of 77 plantations. In 

 Madras and the United Provinces the average 

 is much smaller, being about 118 acres in the 

 former and 110 acres in the latter. In the Punjab, 

 where tea cultivation is conducted on a small 

 scale, the average area is only 3 acres. In 

 Burma, tea plants are grown in small scattered 

 patches which measure approximately one acre 



each on the average. These figures relate only 

 to tea-bearing areas and do not include the area 

 in the occupation of planters but not under tea 

 cultivation. 



Production. 



The production of tea in each year since 1885 

 is given in an Appendix. It is noticeable that 

 while the area uuder cultivation has increased 

 since, 1885 by 95 per cent, the increase in pro- 

 duction has been one of 287 per cent. 



The total production in 1909 has been roported 

 at 262,560,668 lb. divided between thedifferent 

 parts of India as follows : — 



1907. 1908. 1909. 



Assam 164,191,327 166,156.859 174,851,202 



E. Bengal 46,713,114 44.978,057 52,243,938 



Bengal 13,503,444 14,993,590 13,165,788 



N.India 3,53 ',139 3,447,365 3,620,331 



S. India 16,219,906 17,030,2"8 18,679,409 



Total 



244,162,930 246,906,079 262,560,668 



Burma is excluded from these calculations for 

 the reason that the produce of the Burma tea 

 gardens is almost wholly converted into letpet 

 (wet pickled tea), which is eaten as a condiment. 

 In 1909, 242,045 lb. of letpet were manufactured 

 and only 4,230 lb. of leaf tea (black). 



The production of manufactured tea (green 

 and black) per acre plucked during 1909 works 

 out as follows : — 



lb. Ib. 



Jalpaiguri 042 Chittagong 353 



Lakhimpur 592 Coimbatore 342 



Cachar 559 Goalpara 306 



Travancore 543 Kamrup 266 



Sylhet 538 Darjeeling 256 



Darning 534 Chittagong Hill Tracts 208 



Malabar 533 Kangra 152 



Sibsagar 477 Almora 124 



Nowgong 450 Banchi 121 



DehraDun 369 Hazaribagh 89 



Nilgiris 368 Garhwal 66 



Production of Green Tea. 

 Reported Production. 



1908. 1909. 



lb. lb. 



Surma Valley .. 962,166 895,383 

 Other parts of Assam, E. Bengal 



and Bengal .. 883.245 271,563 

 Total E. Bengal and Assam and 



Bengal . . 1,845,411 1,166,946 



Northern India . . 1,074,760 1,251,105 



Southern India . . 106,950 259,942 



Exports. 



By land and from Sind by sea 

 From Madras by sea 



Total Exports 



3,027,121 



2,677,993 



1908-C9. 



1909-10. 



lb. 



lb. 



. . 754,186 



313,126 



. . 677,824 



762,048 



. . 1,432,010 



1,075,174 



No bounties were paid on green tea for the 

 season 1909-10, the allotment by the Cess Com- 

 mittee in that connection being discontinued 

 after 31st March, 1909. 



Exports. 



A detailed table shows the quantity (in lb) of 

 Indian tea exported direct to each country dur- 

 ing the last five years. The destinations given 

 are those declared on export, and owing to the 

 use of optional Bills of Lading, it must be as- 

 sumed that the true quantities differed in some 

 cases from those stated. The result is that the 

 figures of export from India do not agree with 



