324 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Nov. 1, 190(1. 
that the manager should be a man ef ability and 
' progressive tendencies ; that his appointment 
' should be made congenial as well as permanent ; 
and that in his executive work he should be 
made practically independent of all outside inter- 
ference. To enable owners to assume this desir- 
able attitude towards their manager, it is of 
course necessary to presume that ouly capable 
men are appointed to such responsible posts. But 
unfortunately such is not always the case ; and 
consequently retired business men and pensioned 
■ Government olUcials, who have no experience of 
' tea, and are past all active work, besides 
ne'er-do weels of all sorts 
■ and failures from every walk in life, are pitch- 
forked promiscuously into tea, regardless of the 
fact that heterogeneous individuals who have 
proved themselves iucompetenfc before are not 
likely to shine brilliantly in their newly adopted 
profession. By the above denunciation, I do not 
mean to imply that there are no good men in 
tea. There are many planters who would hold their 
own in any profession in the world, and for prac- 
tical all-round men would be hard to beat any- 
where But unfortunately this class is not suf- 
ficiently numerous to leaven the mass, and give 
it a tendency towards progress, while the inertia 
caused by what may be designated the bad bar- 
gains is so great that it constitutes a very serious * 
and tangible drag on the profession. It is no 
wonder then that after over half a century of 
tea cultivation the industry is still worked 
i on wholly unscientific and hap-hazard princi- 
■< pies. The craze for economy, based generally on 
»■ false premises, has also done much towards 
" deterring good men from Joining the profession. 
A penny-wise and pound-foolish policy is nowa- 
days much in vogue. Salaries are reduced, com- 
missions and petty allowances cut down, and 
often totally abolished ; and old hands dismissed 
■ and cheap substitutes appointed in positions of 
- responsibility for which the absence of all per- 
■» sonal and mental qualifications wholly unfit them. 
ii. This false economy has been carried to such 
I' lengths that instances are known Avhere native 
garden clerks have actually been shoved into 
their former superior's appointments ! A certain 
proportion of salary may thus be saved, and the 
clerical office work may be done to perfection — but 
at what a cost to the estate in other respects ! 
Who that has seen such an instance of purblind 
policy, can honestly say, that degeneration, dis- 
organisation, discredit and ultimate pecuniary 
loss, are not the concomitants of such an ir- 
redeemably foolish system of management. There 
' is a wise native proverb which aptly illustrates 
. the position. The saying is that " a load carrying 
On donkey cannot hope to vie with the fleet-footed 
■ ■ Arab," and the inference is obvious in business 
matters as well as in the animal kingdom. 
An ideal planter would be a very paragon of 
perfection, as he is expected to know almost 
anything under the sun : an agriculturist, an 
organiser of labour and commander of men, a 
doctor, a lawyer, a trader, a merchant, an engmeer, 
and a combination of half a dozen other learned 
professions- But without wasting our time seeking 
for such a compendium of knowledge, let me des- 
■' cribe what are the qualifications absolutely 
J necessary in a manager if a plantation is to be a 
- real success. He must be a man of education and 
•• ability who can command obedience and general 
*' respect. He must possess great powers of organisa- 
tion and be fearless of responsibility. He should 
have a thorough all-round knov>lcdge, both 
theoretical and practical of his duties. And, lastly, 
what is perhaps mo.st important of all, he muse 
have progressive tendencies and scieutiiic proclivi- 
ties, and be well informed and up-to-date in all 
matters appertaining to his profession. Such a man 
is worth almost any salary for v/hat goes towards 
his enhanced emolumenrs is recouped a dozen 
times over by increased efficiency and more profit- 
able results. To enable such a manager to put forth 
his whole ability and eneigy in his work, he must 
be allowed a great deal of latitude and must not 
have arbitrary restrictions imposed on his time or 
methoils of management. You must, for ins- 
tance, necessarily reduce his compulsory 
ohice work to a miniiiiuiii, so as to give 
him the greatest freedom of aciion in his 
far more important duties. To harass 
and worry him with petty correspondence and 
useless accounts is to deprive liim of the faculty 
of clear thought, without which no real improve- 
ments or consecutive progress can be made. It 
would be sufficient, for iustance, if he were required 
to submit ills accounts but once a month, 
accompanied liy a short explanatoiy report for 
that period. Then at the end of the year lie would 
forward an epitome of the twelve months' accounts, 
with a geneial report for the whole season. 
All forwarding of daily and weekly reports and 
accounts should be unhesitatingly abolished, aa 
such finikin clerical work has the inevitable 
tendency to reduce the head of an estate to 
the position of a mere mechanical automaton 
with atrophied mental faculties, unfit for res- 
ponsibility or advancement of any kind. 
A special allowance of one or two hundred 
rupees a year should be embodied in the annual 
budget of expenditure for subscriptions towards 
TECHNICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PAPERS, 
jouinals, books, etc., published in England, 
America and India ; and a small library dealing 
with all professional subjects, connected however 
remotely with tea, should be maintained in 
every factory. Such adjuncts to self-improve- 
ment are at present conspicuous by their ab- 
sence almost everywhere. Like the British offi- 
cer of pre-Transvaal days, the average planter, 
it IS to be regretted, is still inclined to think it 
derogatory to be seen studying his profession from 
an intellectual point of view. Besides the above 
teachnical literature, at least two daily Indian 
papers should be allowed, to enable the manager 
to keep himself informed of all political, commer- 
cial, and social movements which may have any 
bearing on the tea industry. I have known many 
instances of thousands being made by quick- 
witted planters, who have gleaned a bit of in- 
formation from a daily paper, which has enabled 
them to secure large contracts, or important new 
markets, or ocherwise change their working plans, 
before the non-reading individual was even aware 
that any new move was necessary. All local 
Planters' Associations sliould make it a point to 
have frequent general nieetings for the discussion 
of any information that members may acquire 
frO'H ihe above technical source ■ ; and the Indian 
Planters' Association at Calcutta might be 
induced to offer an annual prize or medal for 
the best essay by a planter on some professional 
subject chosen each year. The same idea might 
also be followed with advantage by our various 
tea journals in their own interests, as well aa 
