Edible Products. 



152 



that British-grown teas are far more expensive than China teas, and have won 

 their way into the market on their merits. Imperialism may explain a sudden 

 quixotic action, but that sentiment has no room in weekly domestic bills ; and the 

 conversion of the tea-drinking Englishman from the China to the Indian and Ceylon 

 herb, at an extra expense to his pocket, has resulted from economic conviction that 

 he is getting the best value for his money. Therefore, not merely on the grounds 

 that the exports of the British-grown teas are the largest, but also because the 

 article is the best, do I place it first on the list. 



The secret of the superiority of Indian and Ceylon teas is very simple — they 

 are made from a better variety of plant than the China teas, and one producing a 

 leaf with better " liquoring " qualities. Assam is the home of the tea plant ; and it 

 was from its steamimg valleys ages ago that the seed was taken to China. In the 

 process of centuries from change of soil and climate and other causes, the plant 

 deteriorated. Compared to the indigenous variety in Assam, the modern China-tea- 

 bush is as a wild strawberry to a cultivated one. By the irony of circumstances 

 when the Government of India lirst started the cultivation of tea, it sent to China 

 for tea seeds and seedlings! All the earlier tea plantations in India were planted 

 out with the China variety, and they proved a terrible handicap to the industry. 

 I, myself, was in charge of an old Government plantation for many years, and no 

 one knows better the hopelessness of trying to make " quality" from the miserable 

 af at my disposal ; and as I manufactured some five million pounds of it, I may 

 claim to speak with experience. It was not until I rooted out the old "China" 

 bushes, and replanted the area with seed obtained from Assam— as has been done 

 all over India, where the original China-plant gardens may be said to have been 

 eradicted, that I was able to line up my tea with those for which India had acquired 

 its reputation. Ceylon, starting later in the race, was able to avoid this fatal 

 initial error, and all its plantations are laid down with the Assam variety. But 

 perhaps the greatest tribute to the superiority of the India plant was paid by 

 Java, when the Dutch tea planters there imported seed from Assam, with the result 

 that the production of that island has gone right ahead, and is taking its place 

 side by side with that of India and Ceylon. Such is the real explanation of the 

 superiority of Indian and Ceylon teas— they are made from an altogether superior 

 variety of plant. 



With these preliminary observations, I will turn now to more detailed 

 examination of the tea districts of India, which are far more widely scattered than 

 many readers may be aware of. The great bulk of cultivation clusters around 

 Assam, which lies to the north-east of Calcutta, but the cosmopolitan nature of the 

 industry in India— which is a cosmopolitan country, peopled with many races of 

 men— may be gathered from the fact that tea is grown in Kasmir, two thousand 

 miles to the west of Assam, and in Travancore, which is nearly two thousand miles 

 to the south. Moreover, there are^several districts between these extremes, as the 

 following list of them will show :— 



The Tea Districts of India. 



1. Assam. 6. The Terai. 11. Kumaon. 



2 Kachar. 7. Chitagong. 12. The Nilghiris. 



3' Svlhet. 8. ChotaNagpor. 13. Travancore. 



4! Darjilling. 9. Kangra Valley. 14. TheWynaad. 



5. Doars. 10. Dehra Doon. 



There are also plantations at Simla, Loharduga and in Kashmir. 



Of the above districts, the first three may be regarded as the principal home 

 of the tea plant. Assam is situated in the Bramaputra Valley, while Kachar and 

 Sylhet belong to the district known as the Surma Valley. They lie on the 

 north eastern boundaries of India, being divided from Burma by a belt or 

 native states peopled by aborigines. 



