268 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [October i, 1887. 
not, however, without a fierce and sustained fight that 
the leaf from the Assam Vai ley gained a footing in the 
market. The Assam Com pany, to whuh Government 
made over the plantations after the annexation of the 
Province in 1839, and which held the virtual monopoly 
for more than a decade, was rich enough, but its 
agents were utterly ignorant of the proper methods 
of cultivation. Blundering and waste were the re- 
sult, and in a few years £200,001) of capital had 
been dissipated. The deepest darkness, however, was 
nearest the dawn ; and even while the Company was 
on the verge of bankruptcy, profits began to flow in, 
and in 1852 the first genuine dividend was paid. 
From that date the success of the Assam Tea In- 
dustry was assured, and the pioneer Company, 
which forty years ago was practically insolvent, 
is at this day, after having divided among its share- 
holders over a million sterling, worth nearly half a 
million. In a sense, no doubt, the course of the in- 
dustry has not been altogether untroubled. There 
was a time, in 1802-63-64, when the tea fever burnt 
almost as fiercely in India as did the gold fever some 
years earlier in Australia : when a man rashly threw 
up settled occupation in the Peninsula in the hope 
of oKaking from the bushy green shrubs rapidly 
covering the valleys and hill-sides of Assam the riches 
which the pagoda tree no longer yielded ; and when, 
as a natural consequence, disaster followed, and scores 
of card-built Companies fell to pieces, but except- 
ing this instance of the commercial mania which comes 
as certainly to all undertakings with a future before 
them as the measles do to children, the record is one 
of steady progress. Unlike the wheat and seed trades 
the tea trade has not advanced by leaps and bounds ; 
but neither has it like them been subject to backward 
lapses. Though the development has been slow, its 
almost unbroken continuity within the last twenty years 
is one of the best signs of the sureness of the found- 
ation on which it rests. 
The tremendous expansion which has taken place 
in the trade since the first tea seed was dibbled into 
the ground fifty years ago may best be seen by refer- 
ence to a statement just submitted by the Assam 
Secretariat to the Provincial Government. There 
we find that at the close of 1886 there were 
in the Brahmaputra and Surma Valleys 883 tea 
gardens. These gardens comprise over 934,000 acres, 
but of this, the total tea-grant held by plant- 
ers, only 204,000 acres are under actual cultivation. 
The rapid extension of recent years is evidenced by 
the fact that nearly one-sixth of the area under cul- 
tivation must have been added within the last four 
years, since we find 33,000 acres put down as under 
immature plants, which, with the Assam planters, 
me-rns plants not four years old. Last year the total 
yield of tea from the gardens reached the large 
figure of 61 million pounds, 57 million pounds coming 
from the Brahmaputra Valley and 24 million from 
the Surma. As to the yield per acre, the returns 
available appear to be onlyapproximately correct. Official 
statistics for 1886 put the yield m the Brahmaputra 
Valtey at 385 lb. and in the Surma Valley 3331b.; 
or an average for the whole of Assam of 363 lb.; 
but the Indi m Tea Association gives the average 
outturn 14 lb. au acre le-s, and this is probably nearer 
tile truth- O ichar, Nowgong and Darrang are be- 
low the average for the whole Province, while 
Sibsi ga', Sylbct, Goalpira anil Lakhimp lr are 
above. The case of th«. gardens in Kamrup and on the 
Khasi an 1 Jaintia Hilla is exceptional, for there 
the yield has been decreasing, and was so low last 
year that it ia very doubtful whether some of the 
gardens will be able to go on. The area under ten 
in these districts, however, is but a very small 
li action of the whole, and their influence is hardly 
elt in tlio totil production of the Province. The 
highest yield is found in Likhimpur, where the 
average last year was 508 lbs. per acre. Turning 
to the cost of production wo have n i certain inform- 
ation for all the gardens ; but the average cost 
per lb., including sale charges, for 18 gardens in 
the Assam Valley and 23 gardens in the Surma 
Valley for the past two years, was about 8 annas 
for the former and about 7 annas for the latter 
Addressing the Society of Arts recently Mr. J. 
Berry White said he confidently anticipated 
that the crop of Indian tea in 1890 would be 
placed on the London market for a fraction 
under 6d. a lb. ; but even if we allow a reduction 
of a penny a lb. in the cost of production for 
the next three years it is difficult to reconcile the 
statement with the above figures. Nevertheless the 
reduction in the cost of production is one of the most 
remarkable of the many changes which the fifty years 
have wrought. Labour is cheaper, the methods of cultiv- 
ation and picking have improved, and the whole process 
of manufacture has been transformed by the introduc- 
tion of machinery. All the most important parts of the 
manufacture, rolling, drying, sifting are dorie by 
machinery, mostly steam-drivers. 
It is curious to note from the report above referred 
to that "all the Deputy Commissioners and those 
Managers who have expressed any opinion on the sub- 
ject are unanimous in attributing the bad prices of last 
year to the supply being in excess of the demand." 
This theory of over-supply has been the companion of 
many an afflicted economist besides the tea-planter ; 
but there was never an instance, perhaps, when there 
was less evidence in its support. The United Kingdom 
is almost the sole market for tea; but if we take the 
deliveries of tea there for the ten yeats between 1876 
and 1885, we find they have increased by something 
less than one per cent annually, which is just about 
equal to the increase in population, and we find 
also that the increase in re-export6 has been three 
times as large as the increase in imports. These figures 
show with sufficient clearness that to whatever the fall 
in prices is due the explanation does not lie over-pro- 
duction. The fact is, so far as the fall in Calcutta prices 
is concerned, the decrease must have taken place 
altogether irrespective of competition in China and 
Ceylon in obedience to the reduction in the cost of 
production. There is nothing more common than to 
hear planters express the fear that the same fate may 
overtake them as has overtaken the English wheat- 
growers. As Indian wheat has reduced prices below 
the (cost of production in England, so it is thought 
the competition of China tea may reduce the price 
below the cost of production in India. The cases are, 
however, in no wise parallel. The India wheat-ex- 
porter has not felt the reduction in the gold price 
of wheat because it has in a great measure been 
counterbalanced by the fall in exchange ; but every 
fall in the price of tea is felt equally by China and 
India. The conflict is thus reduced to a mere ques- 
tion of cost of production, and in this India must in 
the long run conquer. The enormous fall in the ex- 
ports from China during the present year indicates 
that China growers have already been growing at a 
loss. All that Chinese competition has done or is 
likely to do is to prevent diminution in the cost of pro- 
duction being added to the planter's profits. — Pioneer, 
Coffee in Noeth Borneo is thus noticed in a 
report of the commerce of the settlement for six 
months: — The most satisfactory figures in theBeturn 
of Exports are perhaps those referring to Coffee and 
Pepper, proving that these industries have not 
only made a firm beginning but are already added 
to the Exports of the country. 
Daijvel Bay. — At Silam the autumn Liberian 
Coffee is ripening fast and the prospect of a large 
crop is good. No leaf disease has appeared in the 
Experimental Garden since its commencement. The 
Coffee has been extended a few acres and the 
young plants look exceedingly healthy and strong. 
Pepper is being extended. One and a quarter acres 
have been felled and will shortly be planted. 
Cocoa is growing rapidly and is enormous in size 
for its age, pigs however, consume a deal of its 
fruit.— British North Borneo Herald. 
