9° 
THE  TRORVCAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[August  i,  1892. 
of  arriving  at  your  destination  within  an  hour  or  so 
of  when  you  expeot  to.  The  very  worst  that  can  pos- 
sibly happen  to  you  is,  in  the  case  of  a really  bad 
“grounding,”  twenty.four  hours  delay,  till  the  next 
day’s  boat  comes,  and  either  hauls  you  off,  or  takes 
you  and  the  mails  along.  Considering  what  an  uncer- 
tain, constantly  changing  sort  of  river  the  Brahmaputra 
is,  this  very  rarely  happens.  It  did  in  my  case  coming 
down  ; but  then  I always  was  an  unluoky  sort  of  man. 
We  stuck  hard  and  fast  in  a narrow  channel  leav- 
ing Silghat  and  spent  a solid  night  and  day  laying 
out  anchors  at  absurd  angles,  and  steaming  hard  on 
a sandbank,  with  the  helm  hard  over  the  wrong  way. 
With  my  usual  luck  I was  the  only  passenger,  so  I 
put  in  the  time  helping  the  Sevang  with  my  spare 
stock  of  profanity,  and  other  general  assistance,  till 
the  next  day’s  mail-boat  came  and  hauled  us  off.  She 
then  went  straight  away  in  the  most  heartless  manner, 
leaving  us  to  haul  in  fathoms  on  fathoms  of  sundry 
chains  and  hawsers,  and  pickup  various  anchors;  so 
it  was  rather  good  fun  when  we  overtook  her,  a tew 
hours  later,  hard  and  fast  herself  in  her  turn;  hauled 
her  off,  and  went  on  our  way  rejoicing,  leaving  her 
to  pick  up  her  disjecta  membra.  The  Assam  mail 
boat  now-a-days  is  a fairly  oomfortable  steamer ; they 
give  you  very  decent  food  on  the  whole;  and,  con- 
sidering the  fogs  and  other  difficulties  of  the  river  in 
the  cold  weather,  and  the  necessity  for  a good  deal  of 
night  running  to  make  up  for  lost  time,  the  Serangs 
get  on  wonderfully  well.  But  when  you  do  ground 
badly — or  get  into  serious  trouble  well  they  mostly 
want  a new  breed  of  Sevang — with  “heads.” 
As  a contrast  to  the  way  the  Assam  Serangs  get 
into  a ghat ; bumping  head  first  into  the  bank  (lucky 
they  are  soft  mud)  or  jarring  roughly  up  against  the 
receiving  flat,  after  ten  minutes  of  “ back  her  easy,” 
•‘stop  her,”  “ easy  ahead,”  it  is  a treat  to  see  the  way 
the  Damukdia-Sara  steamer,  crossing  the  Ganges  en 
route  to  the  Duars,  is  gently  laid  alongside  the  receiving 
flat,— gangway  to  gangway  to  an  inch  almost,— the 
hinged  platform  of  the  flat  (a  sort  of  drawbridge  in 
its  way)  dropping  into  its  place  on  the  steamer  with- 
out a hitch.  But  then  the  “ skippers,  ” bavea  lot  of 
practice  over  one  small  reach  of  river  backwards  and 
forwards  several  times  a day  ; and  must  get  to  know 
the  strength  of  the  current,  the  exact  amount  of  “easy 
ahead  ” required,  and  how  miiuy  turns  of  the  helm 
over  to  starboard  are  necessary  to  lay  the  steamer 
neatly  in  her  place,  pretty  accurately. 
It  is  a wonderful  change  from  the  sweltering 
heat  of  Calcutta  in  April,  to  wake  up  in  the  N.-B.  R, 
carriage  somewhere  below  Julpaiguri  and  feel  the 
oool  freBh  morning  air.  One  seems  for  the  moment 
to  have  got  into  a new  world.  And  yet  it  can 
be  pretty  hot  in  the  Duars,  too.  An  afternoon  or  two 
— still,  sultry,  and  yet  steamy  after  reoent  heavy  rains 
— in  one  of  those  marvellous  corrugated  iron,  semi- 
oylindrically  roofed  erections  that  a mad  Manager 
and  a fit  of  temporary  insanity  oq  the  part  of  the 
Agents  have  inflicted  on  one  or  two  gardens  in  the 
district  in  lieu  of  bungalows,  gives  one  quite  a realistic 
foretaste  of  the  climate  of  the  hereafter,  as  arranged 
for  unregenerate  outsiders  by  the  “unco’-guid.”  The 
man  who  expects  his  Manager  to  reside  in  a corruga- 
ted iron  bungalow — walls  as  well  as  roof,  mind  you 
— through  April  and  May,  should  be  given  the  pro- 
verbial bushel  of  brimstone  and  box  of  matches  to 
enable  him  to  start  a little  place  of  his  own,  and  grasp 
the  situation  generally.  But  “every  sorrow  has  its 
twin  joy.”  (This  remark  does  not  appiy  to  corrugated 
iron  bungalows.)  The  steamy  luat--the  astounding 
alternations  of  four  and  five  i-  ch  showers  of  rain  in 
a couple  of  hours  with  blazes  of  sun  sufficiently  strong 
to  blister  a brick, — though  extremely  unpleasant  and 
trying  to  the  human  exotic,  are  “just  gran’  weather 
for  tea and  the  ten  and  even  twelve  maunds  per 
acre  one  hears  of  here  and  fhere  are  due,  no  doubt, 
to  the  forcing  of  these  alternations  of  rain  and  sun. 
It  is  aggravating  to  a man  who  has  an  interest 
in  an  Assam  gardsn  which  makes  a steady  lo“s 
year  after  year,  to  hear  one’s  Duars  friends 
casually  mentioning  20,  25  and  even  40  per  cent,  profit 
as  the  result  of  the  seasou’s  working.  I was  oaief  ally 
brought  up,  and  always  understood  it  was  considered  i 
rude  to  call  your  host  a liar  at  his  own  table  ; so  I was 
restrained  by  etiquette  from  giving  vent  to  my  first 
impressions  on  hearing  these  astounding  statements. 
Afterwards  I was  glad  I restrained  my  first  impulses. 
1 might  have  hurt  my  friend's  feelings and,— he  was 
a bigger  man  than  I am  a good  deal, — he  might  have 
hurt  me.  Besides,  what  he  said  was  perfectly  true.  The 
share  lists  in  the  dsilv  papers  bore  out  the  statements, 
not  to  mention  published  reports  and  accounts  shown. 
Redeem  ’ is  quoted  20  per  cent,  ad  interim  ; and 
there  are  other  concerns,  not  quoted,  that  have  done 
even  better.  I was  told  that  “ Matelli  ” paid  40  per 
cent,  last  year.  And  yet  people  say  “ tea  doesn’t  pay.” 
somehow,  I fanoy  it  is  a trifle  better  than  the  aver- 
age modern  gold  mine.  I say  modern  gold  mine  ad- 
v}fealy-  Tbe  ancient  gold  mine — the  kind  that  was 
alluaed  to  when  comparing  any  really  luciative 
business  or  investment  to  “ a regular  gold  mine,” 
was  quite  another  affair  altogether.  You  can  buy 
modern  (Bengal)  gold  mines  jmt  now  wholesale,  at 
so  many  for  the  rupee.  Of  course,  it  is  not  every 
Duars  garden  that  pays  20  per  cent.  Some  of  them 
don  t pay  at  all,  and  might  as  well  belong  to  one  of 
the  good  old  well  established  Assam  concerns  that 
go  on  sinking  shareholders’  money,  and  scoring  “nil" 
up  against  their  names  in  the  dividend  column  year 
after  year,  with  a presistence  worthy  of  a better  cause, 
lake  it  all  round,  though,  one  gets  a little  startled 
at  first  at  25  and  40  per  cent.,  I fancy  that  profits 
on  tea  are  pretty  evenly  divided  amongst  the  districts. 
I am  just  visiting  a garden  in  Sylhet  that  paid  25 
Per  cent  last  year,  and  carried  a good  sum  forward 
besides.  A few  gardens  here  and  there  pay  excep- 
tionally well:  a good  many  pay  vory  fair  interest 
on  the  money  invested  : from  three  to  ten  per  cent, 
say:  and  the  rest  don’t  pay  at  all, — and  never  will. 
The  sooner  a lot  of  this  class  are  shut  up,  the  better. 
They  uselessly  drain  the  pockets  of  their  unfortunate 
shareholders,  and  increase  production  without  a hope 
of  profit  from  their  sales.  Gardens  that  cannot  make 
more  than  three  to  four  maunds  an  acre  cannot  pro- 
duce their  crop  cheap  enough  to  face  the  markets  of 
the  present  and  the  future,  however  well  they  may 
have  done  in  the  past  —Indian  Planters'  Gazette. 
Palm  Honey. — A curious  industry  of  Chili  is  that 
of  the  manufacture  of  palm  honey,  of  which  there 
exists  a centre  of  production  in  the  hacienda  known 
as  “ Palmas  de  Ocoa.”  The  improvement  in  the 
methods  of  extraction  has  increased  the  annual 
production  to  about  100,000  piastres.  In  one  of  the 
warehouses  of  the  Palmas  de  Ocoa  establishment 
there  are  at  present  200,000  tins  containing  about 
200,000  litres  of  honey.  The  residue  of  the  palm 
remaining  after  the  extraction  of  the  honey  is  sold 
to  a packing  paper  factory,  and  the  idea  has  been 
entertained  of  establishing  a factory  for  hats  made 
from  the  palm  fibre  which  is  never  used,  but  from 
which  the  best  profit  possible  is  drawn. — Indian 
Agriculturist , June  11- 
Ihe  Tea  Gakdens  of  Assam.  — From  the 
most  reoent  official  returns  on  the  subject 
it  appears  that  the  large  tea  gardens  in 
Assam  are  driving  out  the  small.  Thus  last  year, 
some  forty-three  gardens  were  struck  off  the 
register  in  Kamrupas  either  abandoned  or  unworked  ; 
but  their  total  acreage  was  very  little  more  than 
the  additions  ihe  Oachar  planters  made  to  their 
holdings  in  the  same  period  On  the  whole,  there 
was  a nat  decrease  of  thirty-five  gardens  ; but  an 
inorease  of  over  two  thousand  acres  in  the  total 
area  under  tea  in  the  Surma  and  Brahmaputra 
valleys  Despite  the  complaints  of  the  planters 
that  the  competition  of  Ceylon  is  foroing  down  the 
prices,  their  own  operations  are  steadily  extending 
and  the  yield  last  year  reaohed  the  enormous  total 
of  ninety  million  pounds,  or  some  eight  million 
pounds  more  than  in  the  year  preceding- — M.  Mail, 
June  10; 
