1S38.] Re])ort on the Tea Plant of Upper Assam, 36^ 



able quality, and of small numbers of the finest sorts of Tea plants. I 

 imagine, and I think that most persons will agree with me, that the 

 importation of even the inferior kinds would be more likely to lead to 

 the produce of a marketable article, than the cultivation of wild or, to 

 ase to our Indian notions a more expressive term, jungly stock. The 

 evidence 1 have before adduced relative to the facts of seeds possessing 

 or not possessing most of the properties of the parent, is, I trust, suffi- 

 cient to shew, that instead of orders being sent for the recal of Mr. 

 Gordon, that gentleman should have been directed to redouble his ex- 

 ertions in procuring additional seeds and plants. The discovery of the 

 Tea plants in Assam I take to be important on tv/o heads : 1st. The 

 fact of its occurring as denizen to a considerable extent of certain por- 

 tions of the wooded tracts, argues volumes in favour of those tracts being 

 the best adapted for its cultivation. 2nd. From the fact that a wild 

 stock is, under certain management, to v/hich I shall have occasion 

 hereafter to allude, reclaimable to a greater or less extent. On both 

 these grounds the most, indeed the only philosophical course, that re- 

 mained was to cultivate, imprimis, on the tracts alluded to, the best 

 procurable plant, taking at the same time every precaution towards re- 

 claiming the Assam plant. These same remarks apply to a consider- 

 able extent to the nurseries in other parts of British India, unless, in- 

 deed, the usual qualities of a jungle stock are expected to be reclaim- 

 able by the soils of the Himalaya range. From what I have said it 

 will, I think, appear that the prospect of immediate competition with 

 China was quite visionary. The first step must be therefore the im- 

 portation of seeds with a small proportion of the best plant from China 5 

 this is still more essential from the total annihilation of those previously 

 imported ; and the importation must continue to be for some years, for 

 obvious reasons, an annual one. The seeds and plants are to be planted 

 in the Tea localities themselves, and when these are stocked, in such 

 other situations as may be deemed most eligible.* The living 

 plants that are procured must be brought round and sent up in 

 earthen pots; and the choppers of the boat must be so construct- 

 ed as to admit of being removed whenever it may be deemed ne- 

 cessary. As I have said the number of plants may be limited, 

 their transmission will not involve a large outlay of money. It should 

 be so managed that they shall arrive in Bengal at the commencement of 

 the cold season Having located a certain number of good Chinese 

 stocks, and it is with this view alone that I recommend the importation 



• If it be deemed advisable that the seeds be sown in Calcutta, they are to be 60W» 

 in gomlahs, and on no account are they to be transplanted. 



