/ 
Aug. 1, 1902.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTUEIST. 
117 
ation of estates, and il will all be read with 
interest : — 
lb- 
(ooo omitted) B 
1897- 98 •• 151>452 8,05,86,533 
1898- 99 ... 1S7,471 8,04/18,038 
1899- 1900 •• 17.5,038 9,09,21,120 
1900- 01 ... 190.305 9,55,09,301 
1901- 02 ... 179,085 8,14,94,893 
The piincipal consumers of Indian tea were 
found in the countries specified below in the last 
two years (in lb, ooo omitted) : 
1900 01 1901-02 
United Kingdom .. ... 166,171 159,014 
Anatralia .. 10.439 8,575 
Turkey, Asiatic .. .. 3,240 2,626 
European 618 144 
Persia 2,429 2,530 
Canada 1.725 ■ 1,659 
China 1,1*3 1.337 
Germany ... . . • . 838 638 
Etia.ia 772 1,624 
These are direct exports as declared in India 
and do not include re-exports from the United 
Kingdom, 
For the first time in ten years there was a 
decline in the quantity exported, but the decline 
of 11 million pounds was hardly suthcient to do 
more than arrest the downward trend of prices 
which tried the industry so severely in 1900. 
Until towards the end of 1901 thac year was as 
discouraging as the one it followed, and the small 
lecovery" which then occurred has hardly been 
maintained, as regards the superior description, 
at any rate. Tue owners of tea estates are still, 
strng'.;ling with the difficulties created by the too 
rapid^extension of production and the consequent 
fall in prices ; nor do they see their way clearly 
as yet to a sound position, although f respects are 
not so cheerless as in 1900 and the struggle not 
so intense. The small contraction of production 
was consequent on climatic influences in Assam 
and Cachar in a larger degree than on the action 
of growers in tine plucking. No special endeavour 
was"" made in the year to win new markets for 
Indian tea, and the exports to foreign countries 
generally, Russia excepted, did not expand and iu 
most cases were on a restricted scale. The volun- 
tary contributions from estates for tiie purpose of 
developina" external markets were not as freely 
and satisfactorily paid as was to he desired, and 
a proi)osal ^vas made to the Gove, nmenb to levy 
a cess in the form of a small tax un each cbes^, of 
tea exported, as is done in Ceylon, the proceeds 
to be applied to the cost of opening up external 
markets. This proposal, in which the own;'rs ut 
about two-thirds of the acreage under tea acquies- 
ced, is sLiU under the consideration of Govern- 
ment. But while the means and methods of secur- 
ing wider external markets are still under dis- 
cussion, the iiracrical efforts to find an Indian 
market for Indian tea have been successfully con- 
tinued by the linn who undertook the business last 
year, and it is understood that the results ob- 
tained so far are full of promise and encourage- 
ment. 
The area and yield of tea in India, as far as 
these have been repotted, were as follows iu the 
last two years ; 
Area (acres.) 
1900. 1901, 
Yield (lb.) 
1900, 1901. 
Cachar 337,327 338,186 141,118,641 134,896,317 
Bengal 134,572 135,129 46,533,255 46,203,980 
Bladras and Tra- 
vaucore 31,30y 31,463 5,105,190 5,434,749 
Punjab, U. P. of 
Agra and Oudh, 
Burma 19,279 19,989 4,703,569 4,695,727 
Total... 522,487 524,767 197,460,664 191,230,773 
In tiie competitive conditions with which the tea 
industry has to contend today, it is certain that the 
time for empirical cultivation and manufacture 
I: as passed, and that rational, that is, scientilic, 
methods must be pursued if Indian tea is to main- 
tain its rei)utatiou and be sold at lemunerative 
prices. The cultivation must be based on careful 
study and selection of soil* and fertilisers, the 
l)arasites that infest the plant niusD effectively 
dealt with, the conditions which result from in- 
frequent and frequent plucking of the leaf must) 
be ascertained by competent ob.servation, and the 
manufacture must be based upon a scientilic study 
of fermentation. The necessity for scientilic 
teaching iu all these respects is recognised by the 
Indian Tea Association which has taken a useful 
practical step by the engacrement of a skilled 
cliemical adviser who has done excellent work 
within the opportunities available to him. The 
opportunities, however, are but limited, and one 
man cannot be expected to do all that is needed 
■when his operations extend over an area of little 
less than half a million acres in two large pio- 
vinces, especially when the means of communica- 
tion between the estates do not permit of swift 
movement. To make such teachings really effi- 
cient time should be given to the personal instruc- 
tion of planters. The instruction should be 
based upon careful and prolonged experiment 
in an agricultural station, or mere thaa 
one station, suitably located in the tea 
districts, and sufficiently manned to admit of 
the deputation of scientilic as^sistant to stay at 
an estate for some days, long enough to give the 
manager detailed lessons on the points on which 
instruction is needed. Such a station it is intended 
to establish iu Beharforthe instruction of indigo 
planters in the theory and practice of processes 
of cultivation and manufacture of indigo, sugar, 
and other crops, and nothing could be better 
devised to attain the end desired. A station of 
the kind for tea in Assam, or in the Darjeeling 
district, or in both, is equally needed, and would 
have an equally good effect. But no association of 
tea-owners can provide the funds requisite for such 
stations, and it is necessary for the iState to assist 
and probably to manage them. If the proposed cess 
on exported tea is partly applied to defray a pro- 
portion of the cost of such a station it would be 
well expended. 
Another matter that now presses for attention 
is the consolidation of tea estates in order to 
reduce the cost of directiou, agency, and manage- 
ment. The average tea-bearing area of each estate 
is, in Assam 420 acres, in Bengal 299 acres, and 
it cannot be denied that three, four, six or more, 
of such estates miglit, with advantage, wlien lying 
adjacent to each otuer, be consolidated under one 
management, with one agency at the port, and 
one board of directors. 
