i30 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Aug. 1, 1901. 
studies in the Phylogeny of the Sympetalae, by J C 
Willis. 
The Growth in Thickness of Tropical Trees> by H 
Wright. 
STATISTICS OF THE PRODUCTION OF 
TEA IN INDIA. 
THE OFFICIAL RECORD FOR 1900. 
Area. — The area under tea in India at the end 
of 1900 extended over 522,487 acres, nearly two- 
thirds (64-6 per cent.) being in the valleys of the 
Brahmaputra and Surma, which contain as much 
as 337,327 acres, namely, 204,985 in Assam (tbe 
Brahmaputra Valley) and 132,342 in Cachar and 
Sylhet (the Surma Valley). In extent of cultiva- 
tion Bengal comes next, the area under tea being 
134,572 acres; or 25-8 per cent, of the whole, and 
a little more than that in the Surma Valley. 
The production of tea is, therefore, to the extent 
of nine-tenths of the whole area, limited to the 
two provinces of Assam and Bengal. 
The other tenth is divided between Northern 
and Southern India, thus :— 
NoETHERN India. — 
North-West Pro- 
vinces 
Punjab 
Total ... 
Acres. 
8,055 
9,745 
17,800 
Acres 
SooTHERN India — 
Madras ... 6,107 
Travancore ... 25,202 
Total 
31,309 
The principal localities in each province where 
tea is grown are these ;— 
In Assam. 
Acres. 
Surma Valley : 
Cachar 60,852 
Sylhet .. 71,490 
Brahmaputra Valley. 
Sibsagar ... 78,422 
Lakhimpur . . 67,509 
Darrang . • 41,708 
Nowgong . . 12,673 
liamrup • . 3,973 
In Bengal. 
Datieeling .. 50,769 
Jalpiiiguri ... 76,278 
Chittagong . . 4,146 
Eanchi and 
Hazaribagh . . 3,284 
In the North-Westeen 
Provinces. 
Acres. 
Kamaun .. 2,921 
Dehra Dun .. 5,134 
In the Panjab, 
Kangra 
9,645 
In Southern India. 
Nilgiris 
Malabar 
Travancore 
.. 2,542 
. 3,058 
..25,202 
There is a small area of 1,479 acres in Upper 
Burma, but in this province the leaf which is 
produced is not "made into tea, but is pickled to 
be eaten by the Burmans, and the area and pro- 
duction may therefore be left out of account. 
Tea cultivation in India has been mainly concen- 
trated 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 
4681b to the acre ; in Jalpaiguri (the Dooars) 4841b, 
in Darjeeling about 2791b in the Nortli-Western 
Provinces it is 3091b. In Travancore it is stated 
at 3G01b. Elsewhere it is much lower. 
The area under tea has expanded from year to 
year without a pause during the sixteen years 
comprised in the statistics appended. In 1885 the 
area was about 284,000 acres ; in 1900 it had 
increased to 522,487 acres, the increase being in the 
ratio of 84 per cent. 
Acres 
1886 
. . 14,294 
1893 
1887 
. . 14,584 
1894 
1888 
. . Il,i524 
1895 
1889 
.. 9,374 
1896 
1890 
.. 11,126 
1897 
1891 
. . 17,610 
1898 
1892 
... 12,432 
1899 
1900 
The number of acres added to the tea-growi 
area each year has been : — 
An 
" T 
'.. 156 
"3 
... 36« 
31^ 
.. 137 
It appears then that as much as about 107,000 
acres have been added to the area under tea 
during the last five year.?. This area, in full bearing, 
will yield at least 40 million pounds of tea a year. 
The plantaliions 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 of economy of management, and where most 
plantations have large unplanted areas attached 
to them, the area ot a plantation averages as much 
as 1,318 acres. In Bengal the average area of a 
plantation is 734 acres ; in the North-Western 
Provinces the average falls to 121 acres ; while in 
the Panjab, where natives grow tea extensively in 
the Kangra Valley, there are only about tour 
acres to each plantation. In Madras the average 
is about 172 acres, and in Travancore 445 acres. 
Production. — The quantity of tea produced 
has increased in much greater ratio than the area 
under cultivation, for while the area has increased 
by 84 per cent, the increase in production had 
been 176 per cent. 
Repsesenting the area and production in 1885 by 
100 in each case, the ratio of increase is stated below, 
the actual increase of production each year over the 
production of the preceding year being also 
stated : — 
Area Quantity Actual increase 
produced annually in lb. 
100 
1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 
1889 
1890 
1891 
1892 
1893 
1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 
100 
105 
110 
114 
117 
121 
127 
132 
139 
141 
146 
152 
165 
177 
182 
184 
115 
129 
139 
149 
156 
173 
170 
185 
188 
200 
219 
215 
222 
254 
276 
10,899,835 
9,826,270 
7,540,462 
7,250,831 
4,993,531 
11,831,496 
—1,873,628 
10,253,626 
2,465,144 
8,694,783 
13,018,227 
-2,643,846 
3,693,192 
24,322,055 
15,663,209 
Persons Employed. — The number of persons 
employed ia the tea industry in 1900 is returned 
at 621,287 (permanently) and 98,446 (temporarily), 
or altogether a little below three-quarters of a 
million (719,733 persons), which would work out 
to about 1'38 persons to the acre. 
Exports and Consumption, — The tea produced 
in India is exported, mainly to the United King- 
dom, to the extent of about 96'6 per cent, of the 
average production. The subjoined figures give 
approximately the quantity of tea consumed in 
India, the figures representing the average of the 
last five years : — 
C Produced . . 170,509,067 
INDIAN TEA. ^ Exported 
(.Left in India 
<" Imported 
FOREIGN TEA I Re-exported 
{.Left in Lidia 
164,634,913 
5,874,154 
5,801,241 
2,563,029 
3,238,212 
