July i, 1890 .] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
19 
THE GOVEENMENT TEA GAEUENS m 
THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS. 
By way of providing their Indian convicts at Port 
Blair with some employment which should prove 
profitable, and thereby lessen the annual expenses 
of the settlement, the Government of India has put 
down about 4G0 acres of tea in two estates, called 
respectively “ Navy Bay ” and “ Goplakabang.” The 
produce of these estates supplies all the require- 
ments of the troops in Burmah — and from time to 
time the surplus has been sold locally, or put upon 
the market in Eangoon, where it appears to be 
rather a favourite article, selling from four and a half 
to twelve annas a pound. The amount of the Com- 
missariat requisition in 1889 was 45,000 lb., and 
has this year risen to 72,000 which it is estimated 
can easily be supplied by the two gardens above- 
mentioned. It is not necessary to discuss here the 
correctness of a policy by which Government inter- 
feres directly in the markets for any produce, 
sufidce it to say that cheap Andaman convict grown 
tea constitutes an important factor in the Eangoon 
tea market. 
NAVV BAY. 
This tea garden is by far the larger of the two 
clearings at Port Blair. The first clearing was 
opened in 1876 — and during the succeeding 6 years 
the acreage had risen to 162 — whilst another 150 
acres was opened between that date and 1887— say 
302 in all. The lower boundary is the shore of the 
harbour — some six miles down, and it rises to about 
200 feet above sea level. The lay of the land is 
undulating with a very small proportion that could 
be termed steep. The soil over the larger area of 
the garden is very fair as a tea soil ; deep and friable 
— with considerable mixture of decayed cabook and 
fragments of quartz. Over a small extent the 
soil is very poor — with a large admixiure of 
sharply broken, angular fragments of a kind of 
sandstone, to be seen occasionally in the patanas 
of Ceylon and on the poorer knolls in Avisawella 
district. 
With an annual rainfall of 174 inches (regis- 
tered in 1889-90) and within 11 degrees of the 
equator — the climate is admirably adapted for tea 
cultivation, though unfortunately “ Navy Bay ” is 
a good deal exposed to the winds which coming 
from the ocean almost unopposed blows very 
strongly in both monsoon, and this no doubt mili- 
tates to a serious extent against any very great 
yield. The system of weeding is the one generally 
adopted by tea planters in India. There is no 
attempt at keeping the fields permanently clean, 
and at times the weeds are allowed to grow nearly 
as tall as Ihe tea bushes, being cut down by 
convicts with mamoties — and the bases of the 
plants being forked and hand-weeded. The bushes 
are allowed to grow up to three feet or more and do 
not appear to be kept thinned out so much as 
in Ceylon. The managers of these estates are both 
experienced men who have worked in India and 
no doubt know what they are doing. The con- 
vict labour is paid for at the rale of EO per mensem 
— no provisions being supplied by the gardens. 
In the opinion of the manager of Navy Bay these 
convict labourers do as much work as free men 
would, and indeed more, unless it may be in the 
plucking. There being no women or boys allowed 
on the estate, it can easily be understood that 
plucking by able bodied men— might well fall short 
of the quantity which would bo done by free 
labour including younger hands. 
The Bungalow is a two storied one built- 
like all the others in Port Blair— after the 
Burmah plan. The factory is a substantial 
eolion of brick and tiles. 
The roller — worked by hand— is one of ] the old 
type of Thompson’s Challenge Roller— and though 
requiring a considerable power to work, it is con- 
sidered capable of doing very fair work. 
The jat is a good Assam Hybrid which appears 
to flush with more regularity than does similar 
bushes on the other garden which I shall notice by- 
and-bye. 
The rainy season lasts from May to October, 
but the island is not subject to lengthened periods 
of drought such as occur in India and Burmah. 
The crop of 1888-89 was something over 53,7001b. 
and the estimate for the current year is 60,000 
to 61,000 lb, which should pay well as the Eangoon 
contract is supposed to be between 9 and 10 annas 
a pound. The climate of Navy Bay is a very 
healthy one for Europeans though decidedly hot 
at times. 
GOPLAKABANG. 
The other estate on the opposite side of the 
harbour, though several miles from the landing 
place, is but little above sea level, and is situated 
between ranges of low hills, rising some 300 to 400 
feet. The lay of the land is almost a dead level — 
with the exception of a recently formed clearing 
of small extent. Goplakabang comprises 165 acres 
of tea in bearing — and ten acres of new clearing. 
The estate is a good deal out up by a mean- 
dering stream and by belts and patches of bamboos 
and plantains, the latter being by no means ad- 
vantageous to the adjacent tea plants as may well 
be understood in Ceylon from local experience. 
The soil without doubt is better than that of the 
Navy Bay Tea Garden, being more friable and more 
free from the angular sandstone formation des- 
cribed above. On the slope of the valley, the surface 
loam is underlaid by a kind of decayed laterite, which 
should prove specially favourable to the tea 
bushes, as is indeed already observable in the 
one year old field, where a large proportion of 
the young plants already exceed three feet in 
height, and the whole of them exhibit a growth 
which 1 have not observed elsewhere. 
The oldest tea in this garden is four and five 
jears old and is planted five feet by five. The 
best fields are already pretty well covered, though 
topped rather high, say at three feet, and not 
having at first received anything like due at- 
tention. 
As regards outturns of leaf, the yield for 1889 
was nearly 23,000 lb. with an estimate lor the 
current year of 28,000 lb. It must not be forgot- 
ten, however, that a very considerable proportion 
of the bearing area, put down at 165 acres — is 
detrimentally affected by the belts of bamboos 
&c. surrounding such small fields, and by the 
absence of practical knowledge of tea cultivation 
in the first years of its growth. 
The practice as regards weeding is the same 
as that adopted on the Navy Bay estate, which 
as I have already explained is the same as ob- 
tains on most of Ihe Indian gardens, viz, a deep 
hoeing after pruning and five or six light ones 
with mammoties followed by forking and hand- 
weeding imraediate'y around the base of the 
bushes. 
Pruning — as far as one may judge from a casual 
visit out of the season lor that work — is not so 
severe as on the estates in Ceylon, but the tea being 
yet young it would be premature to make observa- 
tions on treatment which may probably be altered 
as ciroumstanoes dictate in the future. 
The jat on the older portion of this garden is a 
good hybrid, and that of the younger clearing pure 
Assam indigenous, which promises a larger outturn 
in future years. 
