174 



Report on the manufacture of Tea, and on the 



[July 



ground, I cannot well say, as all our tracts are on the plains ; but from 

 what little I have seen of the hill tracts, I should suppose they were not 

 more productive. In China the hill tracts produce the best Teas, and 

 they may do the same here. Almost all my tracts on the plains are 

 nearly on the same level, I should think. Nudwa perhaps is a little 

 higher than T'mgrl, and Tingri a little higher than Kahung, but I be- 

 lieve they are equally productive; although if I leaned towards any 

 side, with my limited experience, I should say that the low land, 

 such as at Kahung, which is not so low as ever to be inundated by the 

 strongest rise in the river, is the best. The plants seem to love and court 

 moisture, not from stagnant pools, but running streams. The Kahung 

 tracts have the water in and around them ; they are all in heavy tree- 

 jungles, which makes it very expensive to clear them. An extent of 

 300 by 300 will cost from 200 to 300 rupees ; i. e. according to the 

 manner in which the miserable Opium-smoking Assamese work. This 

 alone ought to point out the utility of introducing a superior race of 

 labourers, who would not only work themselves, but encourage their 

 women and children to do the same in plucking and sorting leaves 

 they might be profitably turned to account for both parties. This 

 I have not been able to instil into the heads of the Assamese, 

 who will not permit their women to come into the Tea gardens. 

 Indeed unless more labourers can be furnished, a larger amount 

 of tea must not be looked for at present. Last season it was with the 

 greatest difficulty that I could get a sufficient number of hands to gather 

 the leaves. The plucking of the leaves may appear to many a very easy 

 and light employment, but there are not a few of our coolies who would 

 much rather be employed on any other job ; the standing in one posi- 

 tion so many hours occasions swellings in the legs, as our plants are not 

 like those of China, only three feet high, but double that size, so that 

 one must stand upright to gather the leaves. The Chinese pluck theirs 

 squatting down. We lie under a great disadvantage in not having 

 regular men to pluck the leaves ; those that have been taught to do so, 

 can pluck twice as many as those that have not, and we can seldom get 

 hold of the same men two seasons running. I am of opinion that our 

 trees will become of a smaller and more convenient size after a few 

 years cultivation ; because, trimming of the plants, and taking all the 

 young leaves almost as soon as ihey appear, month after month and year 

 after year, and the plants being deprived of the rich soil they had been 

 living on from time unknown, must soon tell upon them. Transplanting 

 also helps to stunt and shorten the growth of these plants. The 

 Chinese declared to me, that the China plants nowjit Deenjoy would 



