Edible Products. 



they lake tip from the air by means of their root nodules, and so make it available 

 as plant food for the tea. The trouble with each of them is that they will not grow 

 on very highly exhausted soils, and in such cases demand a small quantity of 

 cattle manure (say two tons per acre) to give them a start, after which they will 

 grow luxuriantly. 



DETERIORATION OF THE TEA PLANTS. 



We have dealt with the methods by which deterioration of tea due to 

 defective soil conditions or to soil exhaustion may be treated. We cannot too 

 much insist that in any case of manifest decline the soil should be the first thing 

 looked to, and heavy or collar pruning of the bush only adopted after becoming 

 sure that the fundamental mischief does not lie in the exhaustion of the land. 

 But if this is certain then the bush itself should be examined, and the cause of the 

 decline most probably will be found there. The causes of the deterioration of a tea 

 bush seem to be inseparable from the methods of culture. When a tree, usually 

 eighteen to twenty feet high, is kept to four feet as a limit; when every green 

 shoot which it throws is nipped off more or less closely ; when the annual pruning 

 of the youngest grown wood renders the course of the sap in the plant continually 

 longer and more circuitous ; it is only natural that sooner or later (the time depend- 

 ing on the vigour of the bush, and this on the richness of the land), the plant will 

 begin to decline in yield, that the younger shoots will become less energetic in 

 throwing out new leaves, and that the tea will begin to deteriorate. 



The result obtained is in accordance with this expectation, but there are 

 methods of culture which hasten the day of decline, and which have made many 

 gardens begin to ' go off ' before the time they need have done. The earliest and 

 still the most frequent of these is probably too hard plucking in the early part of 

 the season. It is well known and well recognised that if a bush is to continue 

 healthy and yielding, great care must be taken with the first and second series 

 of shoots in the year, but, even yet, I am confident that anxiety to make tea in 

 May and June is at the bottom of the rapid decline of many a good garden. The 

 growth which is allowed to remain on the bush immediately after pruning is left 

 for three reasons. First, in order to provide wood for pruning, in the next year ; 

 second, to give the bush enough leaf growth to keep it well supplied with breathing 

 organs during the season ; third, to afford plenty of leaf axils from which the 

 secondary shoots or " flushes " may arise. To provide for the second of these 

 purposes far more growth is necessary than would be required to supply the first 

 and third, and it is due to the non-recognition of this fact that the early pluckings 

 have often been too close, and numerous evil results have followed and are follow- 

 ing. In the latter part of the season when there is amply sufficient leaf growth 

 to feed the bush, the young shoots may be plucked absolutely close as they grow, 

 but to do so (in North East India) even under the most favourable conditions of 

 growth till the beginning of July, is a policy which, though it may apparently 

 do well on a young and flourishing garden for some years, will quickly bring about 

 a serious decline in the value of the bushes. 



The second principal hastening cause in the deterioration of tea bushes 

 is incorrect pruning. The subject is too long a one to deal with here in full. 

 It may be said, however, that in the past damage has been done by cutting 

 too little out of the bushes, and in a less measure by cutting too much. The 

 following points should, however, be noticed in pruning, and even if the process 

 then costs more than it has usually been the habit to spend, the extra amount 

 is well invested if the decline of the bushes is, by this means, delayed :— 



(a) All dead branches should be removed. 



(b) All gnarled twigs and 'crow's — foot' clumps of imperfectly formed 

 shoots (otherwise, the previous year's banjhi flushing) should be taken out, 



