632 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1888. 
of his being the pioneer of tea cultivation in this 
Presidency, Government gave him a free grant of 
land, and later on in 1862, when the estate came 
into bearing, sent down four Chinamen from the 
North-West Provinces to instruct his coolies in the 
manipulation and drying of the leaf. The knowledge 
brought to bear upon the subject by these indivduals 
appears to have been of little use, as their mode of 
preparation was not only found to be more costly, 
but hIso to turn out tea of an inferior class to that 
which the proprietors had, without the assistance of 
the Chinamen, previously manufactured. 
The real facts of the case are, that the sole 
nformation relative to the manufacture of tea in 
the earlier days of its cultivation on the Nilgiris, is 
gathered from descriptive accounts written by Chinese 
travellers, or from the pamphlet written by Dr. 
Jameson on the Kangra and Kumaon gardens, which 
were under his superintendence. Every work which 
contained any information on the subject of tea 
cultivation in China or Java was at a premium ; 
and as the opinions expressed by the majority of 
these authors was at variance one with the other, 
there must, have been some little difficulty —n following 
out all the instructions given. 
Dr. Jameson's treatise was based on his own ex- 
periments, carried on with the aid of a few imported 
Chinese labourers, and might be termed but a second 
hand and stale edition of the systems advocated by 
previous authors. The advice given in this report 
would hardly meet with the approval of the ex- 
perienced planter of the present day. Mr. Fortune 
seems to have had a s'ight skirmish with Dr. Jameson 
on the systems of cultivation and manufacture in 
vogue in the Government Gardens, and Colonel Lees, 
in his work, sides somewhat partially with the 
latter gent'emau. He remarks: — "Though not a prac- 
tical tea planter, Mr. Fortune was a respectable 
botanist, a faT agriculturist, and I believe, an excellent 
horticulturist. He had visited the finest tia di tricts 
of China, and was fullv compe'ent to express an 
opinion on the suitability of the soil and localities 
sel oted in the Himalayas, and the health and vigour 
of the plants, as compared with those which he saw 
in China. * * * * That Mr. Fortune had not 
pracical experience of tea cultivation and tea manu- 
facture was well known." 
The former portion of these remarks seems to 
damn with very faint pra : «e one of the ablest 
horticulturists of his day; the latter to lead us to 
believe that he travelled in China with hi< eyes shut. 
For our own part we have not the slightest doubt 
that he was better acquainted with the subjpet in 
ques'ion than Dr. Jameson, and tint had his recom- 
mendations been carried out. the Government Gardens 
and the Indian tea industry would have greatly 
benefited thereby. "We doubt much if there is -a 
single planter in the North-West Provinces who will 
not declare that the system of cultivation practised 
in the Government Gardens was a tissue of blunders ; 
that it was left to private enterprise to undo the 
errors which Government Superintendents had led 
planters into, and that they had to pay heavily for 
the privilege of doing so. 
As for the Chinese manipulators who, in those 
days, were considered a sine qud non we are all aware 
that the Chinese are not a pro ressive race, that, 
the Chinese farmer is not a chemist, he knows little 
or nothing of vegetable physiology ; but his forefathers 
have hit accidently upon certain systems which are 
found in practice to succeed; and to these he himself 
adheres, and hands them down to his children. And 
these remarks are equally applicable to the native of 
Iudia. He consi lers that what was good enough for 
his fathers is good enough for him; that as they 
lived, so may he; and that any effort on bis part 
to raise himself ill the social scale is not merely a 
mistake, but almost an insult to their memory. 
And closely allied to this impression is the idea 
fhat thos i who try to raise him have no pbi'authropic 
object in 60 doing, but merely serve their own 
interests. 
In China— a country teeming with population, and 
where labour and the necessaries of life can be 
obtained for an almost nominal cost, little induce- 
ment is held out to the peasant to improve himself. 
The system of tea cultivation differs entirely from 
that pursued iu India. Instead o ( gardens extendiug, 
as in this country, over from 200 to 500 acres of 
cultivated .and, there are small holdings of a few 
acres, each worked by the proprietor's own bands, — 
a system of land tenure analogous to that prevalent 
iu many parts of Ireland to the present day. In 
Iudia, a single estate may send home half-year! v 
a break of about one thousand full chests (of 82 lb.)! 
in Cbina, as many hundred estates as chests would 
be. necessary to meet the demand. Thert-, the tea 
passes through the hands of some lialf-do-ceu mid- 
dlemen, each of whom has to make a profit on the 
article, and adulterates it if he has the opportunity. 
Here, it goes direst iuto the market. 
In this country the lihour difficulty is undoubtedly 
a drawback ; but a remedy has in a great measure 
been fouud, viz., in the adaptation of machinery for 
the preparation of the leaf, in the improvements of 
the implements employed in the cultivation, and last, 
but not lea*t, the impossibility of adulteration before 
the tea reaches its market. These advantages threw 
a great weight iuto the BCale, and added to these, 
the superior strength and more delicate flavor (the 
latter especially in the case of hill teas) accouut for 
the high prices which they fetch in the European 
market, and the increased demand which arises year 
by year for Indian teas of fine descriptions. We 
believe the time is not far dista-ut when Indian tea 
will be drunk throughout Great Britain to the entire 
exclusion of the China article ; and we cannot fail to 
recognise how great an advantage would be gained 
thereby, not only by the consumers, but also by the 
addition that would be made to the revenue of the 
country. 
The errors and mistakes made by the pioneers of 
tea cultivation have been rem dicu, at a great sacrifice 
f o tho^e concerned in the enterpii o; and planters in 
Southern India h^ve, as a rule, availed themselves late 
in the day of the experience gained in other districts. 
Better late than never though, and we believe a suc- 
cessful career lies before them. 
The first real onward movemeut in the matter of 
tea cultivation, commenced about the year 186E and 
1866, when several-estates were opened out at Kodanaad, 
and one or tw > smaller ones at (Joonoor. Seed was im- 
ported from Bengal, and though in many cases as 
we have before stated, heavy losses were sustained 
by those concerned through the importation of dam- 
aged seed, the owners of the estates nothing daunted 
kept on ; and it is probably owing to their energy 
pluck and perseverance that tea planting on the Nil- 
giris bids fair to prove an undoubted success. - 
These pioneers had not, as in other districts, large 
supplies of seed distributed gratuitously by Govern- 
ment to fall back upon. They had not grants of 
land procurable at the upset price of two rupees and 
a half per acre— the period of payment prescribed ex- 
tending over ten years from the date of purchase — 
and their land free of assessment for ever ; hut they 
had from the very outset to import seed from Bengal 
at a great risk, to pay as much for their land here 
in the first instant as they would have had to pay in 
Bengal in ten years' time ; and during the first three 
or four years of their occupancy, when they were spend- 
ing money without getting any return, to pay au 
annual assessment of two rupees per acre for forest 
laud, one rupee per acre for grassland in perpetuity. 
In purchasing the site for an estate, the purchaser 
has not only to consider how much land he requires 
for actual cultivation, but has also to ensure a suffi- 
cient supply of wood suited for building purposes, 
rna,king boxes and fuel, in addition to a certain area 
of land required for grazing purposes. On every acre 
of this land a heavy assessment had to be paid an- 
nually, and it is only withiu the last few years that 
the Government have seen fit to remove this h'avy 
burden, and to allow the planters to hold their laDd 
free of assessment for the first five years of their 
tenure. — Nityiri Express. 
