386 



TEA DISTKICTS OF CHINA. Chap. XXII. 



On asking the Chinese manufacturers whom I brought 

 to India, and who had been born and brought up in 

 the tea-districts, whether they had seen such a prac- 

 tice, they all replied, " No, that is the way we grow 

 rice ; we never irrigate tea." Indeed, I have no hesi- 

 tation in saying that, in nine cases out of ten, the 

 effects of irrigation are most injurious. When tea 

 will not grow without irrigation, it is a sure sign that 

 the land employed is not suitable for such a crop. It 

 is no doubt an excellent thing to have a command of 

 water in case of a long drought, when its agency 

 might be useful in saving a crop which would other- 

 wise fail, but irrigation ought to be used only on such 

 emergencies. 



I have already observed that good tea-land is 

 naturally moist, although not stagnant ; and we must 

 bear in mind that the tea-shrub is not a water plant, 

 but is found in a wild state on the sides of hills. 

 In confirmation of these views, it is only necessary 

 to observe further, that all the best Himalayan plan- 

 tations are those to which irrigation has been most 

 sparingly applied. 



In cultivating the tea-shrub much injury is often 

 done to a plantation by plucking leaves from very 

 young plants. In China young plants are never 

 touched until the third or fourth year after they have 

 been planted. If growing under favourable circum- 

 stances, they will yield a good crop after that time. 

 All that ought to be done, in the way of plucking or 

 pruning, before that time, should be done with a view 

 to form the plants, and make them bushy if they do 



