172 Report on the manufacture of Tea, and on the [July 



a Very extensive and important Tea locality — so many others being near 

 it, which can all be thrown into one. When we have a sufficient num- 

 ber of manufacturers, so that we can afford to have some at each tract, or 

 garden, as they have in China, then we may hope to compete with that 

 nation in cheapness of produce; nay, we might, and ought, to undersell 

 them ; for if each tract, or garden, had its own Tea maker and labourers, 

 the collecting of the leaves would not perhaps occupy more than twelve 

 days in each crop; after which the men might be discharged, or profit- 

 ably employed on the Tea grounds. But now, for the want of a suffici- 

 ent number of labourers and Tea makers, there is a constant gathering of 

 leaves throughout the month; and as 1 said before, those gathered last 

 can only make inferior Teas ; besides the great loss by the leaves getting 

 too old, and hereby unfit for being made into any Tea; and all this en- 

 tirely for want of hands to pluck the leaves. It is true we have gained 

 twelve Black-Tea makers this year, in addition to the last; and twelve 

 more native assistants have been appointed, who may be available next 

 year to manufacture Tea independently, as they were learning the art 

 all last year. We have also had an addition to our establishment of two 

 Chinese Green Tea manufacturers, and twelve native assistants have 

 been placed under them as learneis; but what are these compared 

 to the vast quantity of Tea, or the ground the Tea plants cover, or might 

 be made to cover in three years, but a drop of water in the ocean? We 

 must go on at a much faster pace in the two great essentials —Tea ma- 

 nufacturers, and labourers, — in order to have them available at each 

 garden, when the leaves come into season. 



If I were asked, when will this Tea experiment be in a sufficient s!a(e 

 of forwardness, so as to be transferable to speculators ? I would answer, 

 when a sufficient number of native Tea manufacturers have been 

 taught to prepare both the Bla-k and the Green sort ; and that under 

 one hundred available Tea manufacturers, it would not be worth while 

 for private speculators to take up the scheme on a large scale; on u 

 small one it would be a different thing; In the course of two or three 

 years we ought to have that number. Labourers must be introduced, in 

 the first instance, to give a tone to the Assam Opium-eaters; but the 

 great fear is, that these latter would c orrupt the new comers. If the 

 cultivation of Tea were encouraged, and the Poppy put a stop to in As- 

 sam, the Assamese would make a splendid set of Tea manufacturers 

 and Tea cultivators. 



In giving a statement of the number of Tea tracts, when I say that 

 Tingi'i, or any other tract is so long and so bioad, it must be understood, 

 that space to that extent only has been cleared, being found to contain 



