and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



287 



During .July prices were as follows: — 

 Seychelles ... 8 to 84 inch 13s6dperlb 

 do ... 6 to 7 9s. to 9/9 



do ... 2nds and 3rds 6s. to 7/6 



Mauritius ... 8—9 inch 16s. 

 do. ... 6 ,, LOs. 



do. ... 4 ,, 8s. 



do. foxy splits. 8s. to 8/9 



These prices are, of course, approximate only. 

 The best way to procure best prices is to sell 

 in the London market or find a special outlet. 

 Trusting this will be of use to your readers in 

 Wynaad. — Yours, &c. 



H. 



INDIAN TEA IN 1908. 



INTERESTING REPORT. 

 An interestii g Note on the Production of Tea 

 in India in the year 1908 has been issued from 

 the office of the Director-General of Commercial 

 Intelligence, India, a copy of which reached us 

 yesterday and from which we take the following : 

 [Note.— The figures of area and production in these 

 tables are for calendar years, and the figures for exports 

 from India refer to the official years beginning on the st 

 of April and ending on the 31st of March. The figures re- 

 lating to exports from China and Ceylon are for calendar 

 years. Statistics for Burma are included.] 

 Area. 



The area reported in each year since 1885 

 is given in Appendix I attached to this note. 



The figures given in that statement are for 

 the most part those reported by planters. In 

 Eastern Bengal and Assam estimates are pre- 

 pared by the local officers for those gardens for 

 which returns are not supplied by the owners 

 and managers (36 out of 931 in 1908). In Southern 

 I ndia also, similar estimates are prepared for 

 certain non-reporting plantations. Including 

 the estimated area, the total area under tea in 

 1907 and 1908 was divided between the different 

 provinces as follows: — 



Area in Acres. 

 Hastern Bengal and Assam— 1907. 

 Brahmaputra Valley . . 20S.675 



Surma Valley . . 133.757 



Jalpaiguri (including Alipur Duars) 81,338 

 Chittagong . . 4,379 



Total Eastern Bengal and Assam 428,0i9 

 Bengal - 



Darjeeling .. 51,607 51,614 



Choia Nagpur . . -2,292 r,291 



Total Bengal . . 53,799 63,uu5 



United Provinces ., 7,9t>l 8,086 



Punjab .. 9,411 9,393 



Total Northern India . . 17, .,'it 



1908. 

 210,704 

 134,938 



83,3 5 

 4," 83 

 433,290 



Marfrss 1 Reported 

 Madras . . j- Eatimated 



Travancore 



Total Southern India 



Burma 



Grand Total 



.7,179 

 10,974 11,436 

 2,684 3,180 

 25,986 ?7.103 



39,644 

 1,(69 



■ 540,533 548,157" 



Out of the total area of 544,937 acres for which 

 either returns or complete estimates are re- 

 ceived, 515,153 acres were reported to have been 

 plucked during the year. On the remaining 

 ■29,784 acres the plants were too young to be 

 plucked or were not plucked for other reasons 



The total number of plantations was 5 839 in 

 1908 as against 5,811 in 1907 -a net increase of 

 28 plantations. The increase is due for the 

 most part to changes in the system of man- 

 agement, gardens formerly under combined 

 management being separated and vice versa 



In Eastern Bengal and Assam 93 1 plantations 

 are reported to nave a total area of 433,290 



acres under tea, an average of 466 acres. In 

 "engal 298 acres is the average of 181 planta- 

 fons and in Travancore 411 acres of 66 planta- 

 tions, [n Madras and the United Provinces 

 the average is much smaller, being about 130 

 acres in the former and 108 acres in the latter. 

 In the Punjab where tea cultivation is con- 

 ducted on a small scale, the average area is only 

 3 acres. In Burma the gardens are even smaller, 

 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. 



The total production in 1908 is reported as 

 247,018,653 lb. divided between the different 

 parts of India as follows: — 



1907. 1908. 



A«am „ •• 167.545,751 166,569,433 



Eastern Bengal .. 46,713,114 41,9?8,u57 



Bengal .. 13,5^3,444 14,993,590 



Norihern India .. 3,532,139 3,447,3.5 



Southern India . . 16,219,908 17.0 0,208 



The decrease in production reported for As- 

 sam and Eastern Bengal is not confirmed by the 

 export returns. Every effort has been made to 

 obtaiu correct returns from Planters, but the 

 figures reported must be regarded as doubtful. 



BUKMA IS EXCLUDED FROM THESE 



calculations, as the produce of the Burma tea 

 gardens is used almost entirely for the manufac- 

 ture of wet pickled tea {let pet) which is eaten as 

 a condiment. In 1908 453,644 lb. of letpet was 

 manufactured and only 5,027 lb leaf tea (black). 



The production per acre plucked of manu- 

 factured tea (groen and black) reported for 1908 

 was as follows : — 



lb. ib 



Cachar .. 533 Darjeeling . o 92 



Sylhet .. 551 Hazaribagh . 60 



Uoalpara .. 291 Banchi 119 



Kamrup .. 221 Alruora . 1 9 



Darrang ... 489 G-arwal . 71 



Nowgong . . 471 Dehra Dun . . 329 



Sib.agar .. 429 Kangra . 154 



Lakhimpur . 564 Nilgri3 344 



Jalpaiguri .. 568 Malabar . «s 



Chittagong .. 373 Coimbatore 347 



Chittagong Hill Tracts 223 Travancore . . 522 



Production of Gbeen Tea, 

 Reported Production. 



1907, 1908. 



lb. lb. 



Surma Valley 1,276,589 9b ,166 



Other parts of Assam and Bengal L 73f,018 995,819 



Total Assam and Bengal 

 Northern India 

 Southern India 



Total reported production 

 Exports. 



From Calcutta and Chittagong 

 By land and from Sind by sea 

 From Madras by sea 



2,' 09,607 

 1,120/53 



399,00'.! 



1,957,985 

 l,0/4,7t'0 

 101,720 



3,529,260 



3,134,465 



1907-08. 



19 8-09. 



lb. 



lb. 



83!,287 



754,186a 



857,709 



a >77,824 



79,761 





Total exports 1,770,767 1,132,010 



Bounties have been paid on the following 

 quantities : — 



1907-08. 190i-09. 



o 5 , „ lb - '*>• 



Surma Valley 1,246,964 938,272 



Other parts of Assam and Bengal 90,154 202,1 9 



Total Assam and Bengal 

 Northern India 

 Southern India 



Total 



1,337,118 

 57,473 



11,4'U 

 2,796 



1,394,591 1,143,197 



