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Scientific Intelligence. 



ment nursed the experiment of cultivation, till in 1839 their gardens 

 became the property of the long mismanaged but now most prosperous 

 Assam Tea Company. Two years after this a few plants, grown from 

 China seed, were introduced from Kumaon into Darjeeling, but no tea 

 was made there till 1846, when an Assam planter visited the bright spot. 

 No plantation was formed till 1856 at Kursiong. In 1855 a common 

 labourer discovered the indigenous plant in the Cachar valley, and thus 

 gradually was begun that cultivation in the three great tea districts of 

 Bengal proper, to which Lord Canning's land policy gave such an im- 

 petus and stability in 1861. While in the plains, the sepoys strove to 

 wrest from us our empire ; on the hills white settlers were laying the 

 foundation of a trade which will yet enrich the land ; missionaries were 

 building new stations ; engineers were surveying Central Asia ; and 

 political officers were upholding our honour in the midst of Mussulman 

 fanatics, who clamoured to be led to victory over the infidel. 



In the entire province of Assam there were in May last 246 tea estates , 

 of which 76 belonged to companies, and 170 to private owners. Of these 

 96 had been acquired during the year. The area of the whole was 

 122,770 acres, of which 20,144 were under cultivation, or an increase of 

 4144 during the year. These acres yielded 2,150,068 lbs., or 358,979 lbs. 

 more than in the previous year ; taking each pound at Is. 9d., the whole 

 produce may be estimated at L. 190,000. Allowing for long indifference 

 to the plant, this may be considered the result of ten years' labour since 

 the Assam Company revived. But in the six years since 1856 no less 

 than 177 grants of land, covering 558,078 acres, had been applied for in 

 Cachar, or almost every available foot of tea land in that rich valley. On 

 78 of these grants containing .146,218 acres, 17,594 acres were cultivated, 

 and of these 9426 had been cleared during last year. The tea manufac- 

 tured, with seed sold, is estimated at L. 47, 614, and in the current year 

 the value will be double. In six years planters here drew from the treasury 

 of a district previously uninhabited no less than L. 173, 058. Where there 

 was hardly a human being before, there are now 150 English planters, 

 employing 15,317 coolies, and the number is increasing every month. At 

 Darjeeling there was last year 12,366 acres cleared, of which 9102 were 

 cultivated by 7447 coolies. The out- turn was 40,446 lbs. of tea and 3280 

 of coffee ; and the official estimate for this year is three times this amount 

 of tea, which is likely to drive coffee out of cultivation altogether, as it 

 has done at Hazareebaugh in South Bengal, of which we can give no 

 statistics. Tea cultivation is said to have been successfully attempted on 

 the Kymore hills of Shahabad. 



As Bhotan intervenes between the tea districts of Assam and Darjeel- 

 ing, so Nepaul absorbs a large extent of the tea-bearing area. Starting 

 from the Kali river on its western border, we are at once in the great tea 

 tract of the North- Western and Punjab Provinces, which covers 35,000 

 square miles away to the Huzara hills, into which, near Peshawur, the 

 plant has just been introduced. Dr Jameson estimates the produce of 

 this tract, when in full bearing, on the moderate scale of 100 lbs. per 

 acre, at 93 millions of lbs, or the whole quantity now exported by China. 

 Going still westward, in Kumaon there are 11 plantations, of which two 

 belong to Government ; in East Gurvvhal 5, and in Dehra Doon 21, of 

 which one belongs to Government and eight to Hindoos. Thus, in the 

 North- Western Provinces there are 38,556 acres of tea grants, of which 

 4596 were under cultivation by 3080 labourers, and produced 33,960 lbs. 

 last year. Passing on westward by the hill road from Dehra and Mus- 

 soorie, we enter the Punjab, where there are 9518 acres of tea planta- 

 tions held by 23 owners or companies, of whom five are Sikhs and one is 



