57 



Edible froduets. 



of leaf specially selected in the field. As regards the first, it was postponed on 

 the Deputy Director of Agriculture pointiug out that no good purpose would 

 be served by obtaining a curer from Jamaica, " as the curing, etc., of tobacco 

 must be so very specially worked out accordiug to local conditions," and moreover 

 it would be better to await the arrival of the Tobacco Expert for India, the 

 employment of whom the Government of India have already sanctioned. The 

 experiments under Messrs. Spencer and Oo.'s supervision were, however, proceeded 

 with during the year 1901-05. But the season, owing to scarcity of water, was so 

 unpropitious and the consequent quality of the leaf so unsatisfactory that Messrs. 

 Spencer and Co.'s Manager considered that there was no reasonable hope of 

 successful curing experiments being carried out during the year. Notwithstanding 

 those drawbacks Messrs. Spencer and Co. secured from the tobacco leaf purchased 

 from selected gardens by the Agricultural Department a high quality of cured 

 leaf by paying careful attention to detail in fermentation ; and the leaf so cured was 

 allowed to mature for more than the usual period with a view to determine whether 

 any improvement in flavour and burning quality could be attained thereby. 



The experiments resulted in three small boxes of cheroots, which were 

 forwarded for inspection to the Board of Revenue. The latter have asked for 

 a report from Messrs. Spencer and Co. on their quality, and also intend obtaining 

 an opinion thereon from other local experts. Mr. Benson believes that whilst great 

 success has been obtained with regard to the appearance of the leaf, it has not been 

 attained with regard to flavour and burning quality. On these last two points, 

 however, he thinks that it will be well to wait some time to allow the leaf to mature 

 further. Considering all the circumstances, we are glad to note that the experi- 

 ments are to be continued, and that if success is attained a full account of the 

 method of curing adopted is to be made available for the information of the 

 public. —Madras Mail. 



THE RENOVATION OP DETERIORATED TEA. 

 By H. M. Mann, D.Sc. 

 At any moment during the past twenty years the question of the treatment 

 of old and deteriorated tea has been an anxious and much-discussed problem 

 over almost the entire extent of tea districts of North-East India. In fact it 

 is no new observation that under the conditions of tea culture in India, the 

 bushes rapidly lose the vigour of their early days and, after a time varying 

 from ten to twenty years from planting, may be said to have passed their prime, 

 and can only be kept from deteriorating by very careful treatment. 



HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT. 



This fact, due in part to the unnatural conditions under which the tea 

 plant is cultivated, became very obvious in the very early days of the industry. 

 Though the first gardens only date back at the most to the late thirties (1835. 

 1810), yet before ten years were past, as the records of the Assam Company 

 show, complaints were made that the older planted areas had begun to yield 

 less than they had done when younger, and less than was expected. Of course, 

 we now know that deterioration such as this was largely, if not entirely, due 

 to a vicious system of managing the bushes and collecting the crop, but the 

 fact remains. By the later sixties (1865-1870), some of the planters had commenced 

 to talk about the necessity for manures, but the question was not taken up, 

 and a few tests with fertilisers not having been very successful, their use as 

 a method of dealing with deteriorated tea was put almost entirely on one side 

 for over thirty years, 



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