98 



TEA. 



Avhom cloLihrles? understand the culture and manufacture. The 

 cliuiate, soil and surface of California exactly answer the require- 

 menls for the growth of this plant. Tlie time mar vet come when 

 the vast ranges of hills that traverse this Suare shall present 

 terraces of tea gardens, cultivated by the laborious Chinese, and 

 addmg ]aillions to the value of its products. 



A company for the cultivation of tea, under the title of the 

 Assam Company, was estahlisiiedin March. 1S39; and which, with 

 a called-up capital of £193.337, has made up to the present time 

 rery profitable progress ; haAung now got its plantations into ex- 

 cellent cultivation, and all its arrangements in admirable working 

 order, it has sold teas to the amount of £90.000, and has 

 a steamboat, a considerable plant and macliinery. 



In the report of the Company, at their annual meeting, held at 

 Calcutta, in Jan., 1S50. it was stated, as the result of their opera- 

 tions, that during the year 181:9, the manufacturing season was un- 

 usually cold and ungenial, in consequence of which the development 

 of leaf for manufacture was much checked. Although some loss was 

 sustained, there was considerable increase in the crop notwith- 

 standing, attributable to the continued improvements in the culture 

 which had been obtained, and improvements over the previous 

 season in some departments of the manufacturing proce.vs. The 

 gross quantity of unsorted tea manufactured in the southern di- 

 vision was 207,952 lbs., being 2.673 lbs. less than that of the 

 previous season, but the actual net out-turn was expected to reach 

 200,000 lbs. As much as 157,908 lbs. of the crop had been already 

 received and shipped to England. These teas consisted chiefly of 

 the finer qualities, ^^hilst the crops have been thus sensibly 

 advancing in quantity and Cjuality, and the value of the company's 

 plantations permanently raised by extended and imin^oved culture, 

 and some increase to the sowings, the total otitlay had been some- 

 what less than the previotis vear. the expenditiu^e being limited to 

 £500 for a crop of 12,000 acres of tea. With more extended 

 gardens, the produce Avill be raised at a yet lower rateable cost 

 than at present. 



The number of acres in cultivation in 1819. was about 12,000 ; 

 these were not all in bearing, but wotdd shortly be so, and the 

 produce from this extent might be estimated at 300.000 lbs., and 

 the cost of producing this wotild be abotit £11.000. 1,010 chests 

 of the produce were sold in London on the 13th of March, 1850, 

 at a gross average of Is. ll|d. per lb. The produce of 1847, 

 sold in England, was 111,277 lbs., at a gross average of Is. 8d. 

 per lb. : that of 1848 was 176,149 lbs. which sold at the average 

 of Is. Sid. per lb. The produce of 1849 was 216,000 lbs., and 

 there was every expectation of the average prices realised being 

 higher than those of the previous years. The season Avas cold 

 and unfavorable, or the crop would have been 10.000 lbs. more. 



The exact amounts obtained for the Company's teas in the five 

 years, ending with 1851, win be seen from the following figures : — 



