23S 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Oct.  1,  1892 
cane  on  this  side  of  the  Indus,  at  the  confluence 
of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris.  The  conical  shape 
of  the  sugar  loaf  has  existed  since  the  seventh  or 
eighth  century.  The  refining  was  effected  chiefly  by 
the  ashes  of  plants. 
Sugar  came  first  into  Europe  at  the  time  of  the 
conquest  of  Sicily  by  the  Saracens  in  827.  Prom 
Morocco  the  manufacture  of  sugar  extended  to  Spain 
and  attained  such  a development  that  it  amounted  to 
100,000  tons  per  annum.  In  the  year  990  the  Doge 
Orseolo  concluded  the  first  treaty  of  commerce  with  | 
the  Arabs  and  refined  sugar  was  then  introduced 
into  Venice.  From  thence  sugar  found  its  way  into 
Germany,  and  is  first  mentioned  in  the  poems  of 
Wolfram  of  Eschenbach  and  Gottfried  of  Strasburg. 
Columbus  took  the  sugar  cane  with  him  on  his 
second  voyage  to  America,  but  it  appears  to  be 
again  lost  sight  of  there.  In  Germany  the  first 
refinery  was  established  in  1573,  at  Augsburg,  by  the 
patrician  family  of  Roth.  The  next  refinery  was 
set  up  in  1597,  at  Dresden. — Louisiana  Planter  and 
Sugar  Manufacturer. 
ASSAM  AND  ITS  TEA  PLANTERS. 
There  is  a province  in  India  where  drought  is  un- 
known and  famine  never  stalks,  a land  of  great  rivers, 
green  valleys  and  fertile  hills ; but  it  is  far  from 
civilisation,  and  it  is  destitute  of  roads.  Assam,  to 
the  north  of  Bengal  and  west  of  Upper  Burma,  fills 
up  the  noith-eastern  corner  of  India,  where  the 
Himalayas  cease,  or  give  a passage  south  to  the  rivers 
of  Tibet.  There  China  proper  begins  to  march  with 
British  territory.  For  sixty-eight  years  this  most 
desirable  land  has  been  ours,  and  during  all  that  time 
it  has  been  almost  the  most  neglected  part  of  the 
Queen’s  dominions.  With  the  area  of  England,  it  has 
only  the  population  of  Scotland,  but  a population  that 
increases  steadily  by  emigration  chiefly,  till  now  it  is 
at  the  rate  ot  112  to  the  square  mile.  Save  when 
the  Mongol  tribes  of  the  north— one  of  whom,  the 
Aham,  gives  its  Dame  to  the  provinoe — raid  the 
villages  for  human  heads  to  offer  in  sacrifice,  or  when 
the  Lushais  of  the  south  break  forth  and  carry  off 
the  imported  labourers  and  burn  down  the  tea  factories 
as  they  have  been  vigorously  doing  of  late,  the  Gov- 
ernment of  India  lets  Assam  alone.  No  Imperial 
money  is  spent  on  it,  no  Governor-General  has  yet 
made  it  a pet  territory  or  sought  a name  for  himself 
by  developing  its  resources.  The  wars  of  Burma  and 
Manipur  have  for  a moment  forced  it  into  notice,  but 
Calcutta  and  Simla  soon  forget  it  again.  Yet  Assam 
possesses  capabilities  greater  than  those  of  many  a 
Don-tropieal  colony,  and,  indeed,  a great  part  of  its 
finest  soil  lies  outside  of  the  tropics  altogether. 
The  Scots,  we  may  be  sure,,  have  not  neglected 
suoh  a land,  and  once  more  they  are  crying  to  the 
Government  to  do  its  duty.  The  year  after  the  British 
occupation  two  brothers,  Scotsmen,  named  Bruce, 
first  discovered  the  tea  plant  there.  Another  of  our 
countrymen,  and  a famous  man  in  his  day,  David 
Scott,  was  the  official  Commissioner.  Major  R.  Bruce 
happened  to  be  familiar  with  its  forests  and  jungle 
when  the  first  Burma  war  broke  out,  and  Mr.  C.  A. 
Bruce,  his  brother,  was  put  in  command  of  gunboats 
up  the  Brahmapootra,  so  far  as  the  Suddra,  on  the 
Chinese  frontier.  When  so  engaged  he  “ penetrated 
the  forests,  visited  the  tea  tracts,  and  brought  away 
specimens  of  earth,  fruit,  and  flowers,”  to  use  his 
own  account  of  it.  He  was  really  in  the  original 
home  of  the  Th*  a plant  of  commerce,  from  which  it 
had  long  before  been  introduced  to  China  itself.  The 
Chinese  tradition  is  that  an  Indian  devotee  named 
Dhurma,  about  the  time  that  the  first  Buddhist  mis- 
sionaries were  sent  to  the  Flowery  Land,  resolved  to 
teach  the  northern  peoples  the  true  religion.  After 
lBcredible  hardship  in  crossing  the  mount  in  ranges 
the  ascetic  fell  asleep.  On  awaking  he  was  stung  with 
remorse  at  his  weak  indulgence  of  the  flesh,  and  plucked 
out  both  his  eyebrows  The  hairs,  as  they  were  cat- 
tired  on  the  ground,  became  at  once  metamorphosed  | 
into  plants.  With  no  little  curiosity,  ho  tasted  1 
the  leaves  and  found  that  they  gave  new  l 
vigour  to  his  body;  while  they  promoted  meditation 
Such  was  the  origin  of  the  tea  plant  and  the  dis- 
CDvery  of  those  powers  which  have  made  it  the  favourite 
driuk  of  the  civilised  race  sinoe  the  Eist  India  Company 
introduc’d  it  into  Europe,  and  it  became  the  indireot 
canBe  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  of 
America.  Lord  William  Bentinckwas  not  slow  to  take 
up  the  enterprise  of  the  Brnoes  aod  to  reward  them 
with  grants  of  land.  He  gent  a scientific  expedition 
to  report  on  the  plant,  “ with  reference  to  the  geologi- 
cal structure,  soils  and  climate  ” of  the  province. 
His  minute  of  1834  on  the  advantage  India  would 
derive  from  the  cultivation  of  tea  was  a remarkable 
production  for  that  time.  He  appointed  a “ Tea 
Committee”  of  the  ablest,  civil  servants  and  botanical 
experts,  who  seat  a Mr.  Gordon*  to  China  to  report 
on  the  manufacture  and  cultivation.  Experimental 
gardens  were  opened  along  the  Himalaya  slopes  from 
Assam  to  Dehra  Doon,  and,  ultimate!' , Kangra  in  the 
far  Punjab,  chiefly  by  an  Ed  nburgh  man,  Dr  Jamaie- 
son.  By  1839  the  Assam  Company  was  formed  to 
work  the  Government  gardens  in  that  province  as  a 
commercial  enterprise.  The  Scottish  manager  soon 
turned  out  tea  which  distanced  that  of  China  in  the 
London  market,  and  the  Company’s  shares  commanded 
a premium  of  150  per  cent.  Other  joint-stock  specula- 
tors entered  the  field  after  a time,  till  both  land  and 
labour  were  temporarily  exhausted.  The  indigenous 
people  would  not  work  at  more  than  their  own  culti- 
vation, and  their  natural  laziness  was  intensified 
by  the  almost  universal  consumption  of  opium, 
which  the  Government  soon  stopped.  Coolies  were 
imported  from  the  over-populated  districts  of  Bengal, 
especially  Chutia  Nagpore  and  Santalia,  but  under 
conditions  which  at  fhst  led  to  great  mortality  and 
many  abuses.  Government  interfered  by  means  of 
labour  Acts.  At  the  same  time,  it  sold  jungle  and 
forest  tracts,  in  freehold,  under  waste  land  rales  most 
favourable  to  the  early  settlers.  Not  a few  shrewd 
Scotsmen,  chiefly  doctors,  explored  the  Cachar  district 
to  the  south,  where  also  an  Assam  coolie  had  dis- 
covered the  wild  plant,  and  these  pioneers  laid  the 
foundation  of  fortunes.  In  the  years  between  1860 
and  1870  there  was  a rush  of  adventurous  planters 
to  the  new  lands.  Noitber  houses  nor  proper  food 
were  available.  Malarious  fever  prevailed.  The 
mortality  of  planters  and  coolies  alike  was  excessive 
as  the  tea  enterprise  passed  through  the  inevitable 
time  of  transition,  which  to  this  day  Government  has 
done  nothing  to  relieve  by  making  roads  and  public 
works,  or  by  protecting  the  exposed  gardens  from  the 
attaoks  of  the  border  tribes. 
In  spite  of  all  that,  Assam  tea  cultivation  has 
struggled  on  to  a great  suocess,  yielding,  as  it  does, 
the  bulk  of  the  Indian  tea  exported  to  Europe,  Australia, 
and  even  America  in  larger  and  larger  quantities 
every  year,  till  it  is  pushing  the  old  China  produce 
out  of  the  English  market  at  least.  Whereas,  in  1865, 
93  per  cent  of  all  the  tea  imported  mto  the  United 
Kingdom  was  from  China,  only  35  per  cent  now 
comes  from  that  land,  while  India  supplies  45 
per  cent,  and  Ceylon  has  begun  to  send  16  per 
cent.  The  rivalry  of  Ceylon  with  India  proper 
has  become  so  serious  that  the  Indian  Tea  Associa- 
tion of  Oaloutta,  which  represents  all  the  great  pro- 
ducers and  firms  of  Assam  and  Darjeeling,  lias  re- 
solved to  take  vigorous  action.  Ceylon,  having  seen 
its  once  profitable  coffee  cultivation  destroyed  by  the 
exhaustion  of  soil,  has  found  in  the  tea  culture  a still 
richer  industry.  Its  produce  is  cheaply  shot  down 
from  Nuwara  Eliya,  in  the  Kandy  Hills,  by  railway 
into  the  ship  at  Colombo ; while  that  of  Assam  strug- 
gles to  Calcutta  after  a costly  fashion  by  boat  through 
a roadless  land  at  a cost  of  3d  per  lb.,  equal  to  the 
English  duty.  CeyloD,  too,  has  learned  to  advertise 
its  produce  after  so  lavish  and  thorough  a fashion 
that  every  village  .grocer  6ells  what  is  represented  as 
finer  tea  than  that  of  a India,  though  it  is  really 
inferior  to  the  average  bulk  of  the  Assam  teas.  By 
forming  a syndicate,  the  Indian  Tea  Association  has 
succeeded  in  introducing  its  teas  into  the  Australian 
if  Fortune?— Ed.  T.A. 
