Dec. 1906. 



485 



Edible Products. 



and abundant rainfall. The teas are of a light quality, but without much strength, 

 although when grown at high elevations they possess a rather fine flavour. 



The Nilgiris and the Wynaad lie to the north of Travancore and contain, toge- 

 ther, 8,620 acres, producing 1,639,060 pounds of tea. The former teas occasionally 

 possess some fine flavour, but are generally plain-liquoring. The same may be said 

 for the teas of the Wynaad, which do not commend themselves to buyers. But the 

 district is a very young one, and with more experience of the art of manufacture its 

 produce will doubtless improve. 



Our next step carries us two thousand miles to the northwest, to the very 

 confines of Northern India. Here are situated the districts of Kangra, Kumaon and 

 Dehra-Doou, which once drove a very thriving trade in green tea for the Central 

 Asian market, until the influence of Russia destroyed it by high tariffs. There these 

 districts are planted solely with the China variety of the bush. 



Kangra (acres 9,347 ; crop, 1,916,739 pounds).— The black teas from this 

 district are thin in cup, but have a distinctive flavour of their own, being grown 

 high upon the slopes of the Himalayas. Occasionally the district sends to market 

 the produce of a fine flavoured " flush," but as a rule they are much lacking in 

 quality. Kangra teas ar3 largely drunk by the European community in India. 



Kumaon and Dehra-Doon (acres, 7,953 ; crop, 2,573,000 pounds).— These teas 

 are similar to Kangra, but, if anything, inferior in cup. Although some of them are 

 grown at high elevation, they do not possess the " hill flavour " which gives teas 

 even without streugth a value of their own. 



There remains the districts of Chittagong and JChota-Nagpur, which are the 

 smallest of all. The former contains 4,369 acres, and yields 1,480,659 pounds of plan- 

 liquoring tea. In Chota-Nagpur, which suffers from want of rainfall, the crop only 

 amounts to 326,202 pounds, and is of very poor quality. Indeed, were it not for the 

 cheap labour in this district— the ordinary wages are only three pice (cents) a day- 

 tea could not be grown profitably. 



In Burma there are at present 1,406 acres of tea, producing 266,066 pounds, 

 but the crop is of the coarsest and commonest quality, and only intended for native 

 consumption. 



The year 1901 showed, for the first time on record, a reduced area under tea 

 in British India. This was due to the abandonment of old and worn-out gardens (in 

 some of which the China variety of plant still survived) owing to the depression in the 

 British tea market caused by the increased taxation of the article. In that year the 

 duty on tea was raised to 16 cents (U.S.A.) a pound, which decreased consumption, and 

 led to prices falling to the lowest level on record. Since then, however, a remssion 

 of four cents in the duty has begun to bring back prosperity, and the planters 

 prospects are decidedly good.— Tea and Coffee Trade Journal. 



THE CHINA TEA INDUSTRY. 



It has been stated so often that a movement for actively pushing Chinese tea 

 is on foot that the rumoured formation of an association for that purpose is not 

 surprising. The " Grocer," commenting on this rumour, says :— " The slump in China 

 tea of recent years, and the evident dislike of the public for it— probably because of 

 that ' scenty flavour' which most people find highly objectionable— have put the 

 trade in such general disfavour that a clear road is left for those who saw that China 

 tea may still have its dietetic recommendations and its votaries. Without going so 

 far as to echo the words of interested optimists that there is a ' boom' in China tea, 



