Oct. 1, 1900. J 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
PKODUCTION OF TEA IN INDIA. 
OFB'ICIAL STATISTICS. 
[The two tables appended state the facts ic- 
gariting the production of tea, the first iti 
abstract for the fifteen years 1885 to 1899, tlie 
second in detait tor the two years 1898 and 1899. 
It should be noted, however, that the figures, 
for wliich tlie Government are dependent upon 
the planting coninmnity, are imperfect and 
defective, planters sometimes withholding in- 
formation.] 
AREA. 
The area under tea in India at the end of 
1899 extended over 516,732 acres, nearly two- 
thirds (64-1 per cent) being in the valleys of the 
Brahmaputra and Surma, which ccmtain as much 
as 331,151 acres— namely, 198,673 in Assam (the 
Brahmaputra valley) and 132,478 in Cachar and 
Sylhet (the Surma valley). In extent of cultiva- 
tion Bengal comes next, the area under tea being 
132,923 acres, or 25-7 per cent of the whole, and 
about the same as in the Surma valley. 
The production of tea is therefore, to the ex- 
tent of nine-tenths of the whole area, limited 
to the two provinces of Assam and Bengal. 
The other tenth is divided between Northern and 
Soutliern India, thus :— 
Northern India. 
Acres. 
North- Western 
Provinces 7,854 
Puniab . . 10,135 
Southern India. 
Madras 
Travancore and 
Cochin 
Total 
Acres. 
10,164 
23,115 
33,279 
Total ... i7,9S9 , - - - , 
The principal localities in each province where 
tea is grown are these :— 
In Assam 
Surma Valley: 
Caohar ... b0,54-2 
Sylhet .. 71,936 
Brahmaputra Valley : 
Sibsagar 
liakhimpnr 
Darranf? 
Nowgong 
Kamrnp 
In Bengal 
Darjeeliug 
Jalpaiguri 
Chittason 
In the North-West- 
ern Provinces. 
Acres. 
Kamaun ... 2,846 
Dehra Dnn . . 5,008 
76,797 I 
63,444 ) 
41,469 1 Ivangra 
12,520 
In the Punjab. 
10,135 
3,818 
50,673 
74,121 
4,663 
In^Southern India. 
Nilgiris 
Malabar 
TraTancore 
7,321 
2,398 
23,103 
r» o — 7 
Ranchi&Hazaribagh 3,366 , .. 
There is a small area of 1,390 acres in Upper 
Burma, but in this province the leaf which is 
E reduced is not made into tea, but is pickled to 
e eaten by the Burman.-s, and the area and pro- 
duction may therefore be left out of account. 
There are also a few small areas in Goalpara, 
the Khasi and Jaintia, hills, the Chittagong hill 
tracts, Simla and Cochin. 
Tea cultivation in India has been mainly con- 
centrated in tracts where a heavy rainfall and a 
humid and equable climate permit of repeated 
flushes and pluckings of the leaf. In the valleys 
of the Brahmaputra and Surma the yield averages 
about 4481b. to the acre, and in Bengal about 
406 lb-, the yield in Jalpaiguri (the Duars) 
being 533 1b., and in Darjeeling about 2811b. 
In Travancore the average yield is stated 
at 644 lb. per acre, a figure that must be 
taken under reserve. In the North -Western 
Provinces the yield per acre is 297 lb. Elsewhere 
the yield is much lower. 
The area under tea has expanded from year 
to year without a pause during the (afteen years 
coinprised in tha statistics appended, in 1885 
d2 
the area was about 284,000 acres ; in 1899 it had 
inci eased to 516,732 acres, the increase being in 
the ratio of 82 percent. 
The number of acres added to the tea-growing 
area each year has been : — 
Acres. 
Acres. 
1S86 . 
14,294 
1893 
20,970 
1887 
14,584 
1894 
4,688 
1883 
11,524 
1895 
15,190 
17,563 
1689 
9,374 
1896 
1890 
11,126 
1897 
36,838 
1891 
17,610 
1898 
31,561 
1892 
12,432 
1899 
15,052 
Tht average addition in tlie last five years 
(23^241 acres) was much larger than the average 
addition (13,365 acres) in the five preceding years. 
The plantations vary greatly in size. In 
Assam, where the industry is mainly carried on 
by Europeans with ample capital, where fusions 
of estates have been in progress for some years 
in view to economy of management, and where most 
plantations iiave large unplanted areas attached 
to them, the area of a plantation averages as much 
as 1,266 acres. In Bengal the average area 
of a |dantation is 727 acres ; in the North-West- 
ern Provinces the average falls to 119 acres, 
while in the Punjab, where natives grow tea 
extensively in the Kangra valley, there are only 
about four acres to each plantation. In Madras 
the average is about 86 acres. 
PRODUCTION. 
The quantity of tea produced has increased in 
the past fifteen yeara in much greater ratio than 
the area under cultivation, for, while the area 
has increased by 82 per cent, the increase in 
production has been 161 per cent. In 1899 the 
production in Assam, where the season was favour- 
able in most of the districts, increased by more 
than 18 million pounds, and in Bengal by more 
than 4 million pounds. 
Representing the area and production in 1885 
by 100 in each case, the ratio of increase in each 
compared with that year is stated below, the 
actual increase of production each year over the 
production of the preceding year being also 
stated;— 
Actual 
Quantity increase 
produced, annually in 
. lb. 
1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 
1889 
1890 
1891 
1892 
1893 
1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
Area. 
KiQ 
105 
110 
114 
117 
121 
127 
132 
139 
141 
146 
152 
165 
177 
182 
100 
115 
129 
139 
149 
156 
173 
10,899,835 
9,826,270 
7,540,462 
7,260,331 
4,993,531 
11,831,496 
170 —1,873,628 
185 10,253,626 
188 2,465,144 
200 8,694,783 
219 13,018,227 
2)5 —2,643,846 
228 9,296,746 
261 23,445,966 
PERSONS EMPLOYED. 
The number of persons employed in the tea 
industry in 1899 is returned at 558,001 (perma- 
nently) and 96,615 (temporarily), or altogether 
about two-thirds of a million people (654,616 
persons), ^vhich would work out to about 127 
persons to the acre. 
EXPORTS AND CONSUMPTION. 
The tea produced in India is exported, mainly 
to the United Kingdom, to the extent oi about 
97 per cent of the average production, The ^ub« 
