68 



JOURNAL OF THE EOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In consequence the progress in Assam was such that long before the 

 Government could dispose of their Himalayan plantations they had been 

 able to retire from Assam. 



The other day, while examining certain papers on tea, preserved in the 

 India Office, I came across what purports to have been an advertisement of the 

 first regular commercial sale of tea made by Government. It is signed by 

 Mr. Thos. Watkins, Superintendent of the Government Plantation (the successor 

 to Mr. Bruce doubtless), and was endorsed by N. Wallich, M.D., Superintendent 

 the Honourable Company's Botanic Gardens. It is dated Jaipur, Upper Assam, 

 March 5, 1841, cand is headed, " A Novel and Interesting Sale of Assam Teas : 

 The Firet Importation into the Calcutta Market." 



I think it may be of interest to reproduce this curious document, and 

 thus preserve it in the Journal R.H.S. for many years to come. It 

 will be observed that it announces two parcels of tea for sale, viz. thirty- 

 five chests manufactured by the Singhfo chief Ningroolla and ninety-five 

 chests the produce of Government tea plantation in Assam for the season 

 1840. It will thus be observed that the Singhfos were actually manufacturing 

 tea in Assam at the very time strenuous efforts were being made to engraft on 

 that province what was very shortly before the publication of the advertisement 

 deemed a ne'w industry. And it is certainly worthy of note that Dr. Wallich 

 should have had to countersign the first commercial announce incnt of the 

 sales of Assam-grown tea long prior to the appearance of similarly large parcels 

 from the Himalaya. 



The Government plantations in Assam appear to have been sold in 

 1840, and the Jaipur garden in Sibsagar became shortly thereafter the 

 nucleus of the Assam Company — the first public tea concern, and to this 

 day very much the largest company in India. But for some fifteen years 

 it could not be regarded as being very prosperous. In 1852, however, 

 it turned the corner, and with its prosperity speculators rushed eagerly 

 into Indian tea. Plantations were opened out in Cachar, Darjeeling, 

 Chittagong, Chutia Nagpur, and the Duars with a rapidity that could 

 hardly help culminating in the disaster that overtook the industry in 

 1865-67. This was, briefly, a consequence of reckless impetuosity, 

 ignorant supervision (both at the plantations and the agencies), and in 

 some ca5:es positive dishonesty. Fortunes were made by the few who 

 realised that the tide would turn, and accordingly purchased the better 

 situated gardens that came into the market, often for few^er rupees than 

 they had cost pounds sterling to construct. Out of these trying times 

 the industry rose on a firmer foundation, and its subsequent prosperity 

 is one of the marvels of Indian commerce and British enterprise. 



In about seventy years' time much had been thus accomplished. Tea 

 now occupies half a million acres of land that were formerly waste and 

 non-productive, and of that area 64 per cent, is in the province of Assam 

 and Eastern Bengal. The industry gives lucrative employment to over 

 600,000 persons. The invested capital comes to well over £20,000,000. 

 The first exports were in 1838, and amounted to 488 lb. ; but in 1904, or 

 sixty-six years later, they came to 200,000,000 lb., valued at 5£ 6,000,000. 

 As an offshoot of the Indian industry, Ceylon was saved from absolute 

 bankruptcy by the substitution of tea for coffee, which, with Indian 

 experience and stock, could be accomplished at once. Lastly, India and 



