520 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb.  I,  1897. 
was  staked  off,  we  had  a little  leisure,  for  our 
uotions  of  the  proper  season  for  transplanting  were 
rather  crude,  and  as  the  bustee-wallahs  waited  for 
the  rains,  to  plant  out  their  rice,  we  came  to  the 
conclusion  that,  as  they  must  be  the  best  judges 
in  all  agricul.ural  matters,  we  could  not  do  better 
than  follow  their  example ; so,  until  the  middle  of 
June,  we  visited  one  another,  talked  shop  or  whiled 
away  the  time  in  studying  the  luxuriant  growth  of 
the  under-wood,  as  it  came  on  merrily  with  the 
advance  of  the  season;  we  did  not  imagine  such 
vegetation  needed  removal,  as  it  would  keep  the 
ground  moist  and  cool.  The  proceedings  o he 
professional  gentleman,  we  regarded  as  somethin 
akin  to  lunacy,  for  he  put  in  his  plants  in  the  d y 
weather— a slow  laborious  process,  over  which  theie 
was  much  shaking  of  heads-moreover,  he  kept  his 
place  as  clean  as  a roadway,  wiping  constant  war- 
fare with  the  second  growth.  There  had  been  a 
talk  of  importing  labour,  but  it  ended  in  talk,  so 
that  when  the  first  burst  of  the  monsoon  came  on 
us  we  had  but  a fortnight  to  get  all  in,  or,  as 
we  phrased  it,  “ slapping  in,  for  labor  vvas  on  y 
available  for  the  above-mentioned  period,  when  the 
people  went  off  to  attend  to  their  own  affairs.  The 
slap^ping-in  process  was  peculiar— though  expeditious 
one^oporator  was  provided  with  a pointed  stick, 
which ^ie  drove  into  the  ground  anywhere  i n the 
neighbourhood  of  the  stakes,  when  su^ch  were  found, 
keeping  the  li' e as  best  he  could,  when  those  land- 
maiTs^were  missing,  then  came  No  2 with  a bundle 
of  seedlings,  torn  bodily  up  from  the  nurseries ; the 
downpour  vvasbing  the  root  clear  from  all  such 
contamination  as  soil,  these  wore  pushed  down  mto 
the  dibbled  holes,  the  earth  round  the  surface  stamped 
well  round  the  stem,  leaving  a vacuum  for  the 
to  spread  in,  and  so  the  plant  was  ui  silu, 
Toim  phaXerwh  started  in  the  Educational 
Departnmnt,  was  wont  to  observe.  Weeding  was 
put  off  to  a more  convement  season,  for  the  best 
of  all  reasons-there  was  no  labor  to  carry  out 
such  an  operation,  even  had  we  deemed  it  neces- 
sarv  which  we  didn’t.  In  October,  or  thereabouts 
the^’bustee  folk  again  made  their  appearance  and 
ie  clearance  begai”  but  the  first  operation  being  o 
clear  the  underwood  and  the  coolies  not  up  to 
disUn-uishing  tea  from  jungle,  a goodly  number  of 
promising  seedlings  fell  before  the  reclaiming  dhao; 
porcupinis,  crickets,  withes  and  creepers  had  also 
li  f\  fill!  filine  the  recess,  so  the  early  plantings 
™ e jot  „ we  de.i»d  It  meet  not 
L supposed  that  we  were  left  entirely  unmolested 
Lrin^^the  summer,  for  our  employers  were  hard  at 
work  hr  town  preparing  ^bose  prospectuses  th^  ^ 
.e  fVto  nnhlic  111  the  autumn  of  loo...  Aiiuiing 
Sles  adS-ably  composed,  shadowing  forth  such 
drrams  €f  El  Dorado  that  drove  all  India  mad. 
Wratevei  may  have  been  the  laches,  or  muddles 
of  the  Irorage  planter  of  the  day  on  the  plantations, 
craJh  tLt  eventuated  was  brought  about  mainly 
the  ciasn  pandered  to  the 
by  the  geiitle'nen  in^^tow 
d'w  by  da?"there  were  the  same  iniperative  instructions 
to  Vi,  in"^  ,o.u-  » 'S 
rSd  So  r i? .s 
gardens,  '-be  which  was  a local  lu- 
propnetors  ly  possible  losses 
ventiou  , there  „i.,cc  was  not  presentable,  which 
ol  «;S.o“n,t  nlotol,  olicito,.  tho 
alarmed  the  mo 
oTX^lifo  with  " Well,  we  can’t  make 
of  tb'8  I'lc  wu  inspoctiug  depu- 
uUon  did^iot  turn  out  such  dreadful  people  as  we 
had  been  led  to  expect,  and  seemed,  on  the 
had  been  leu  with  matters— as  they 
Tgtt’ to'bave  bein  considering  that  they  travelled 
ouglit  ‘'b  diverging  as  a rule  to 
oUlTapoouibb.  tiibugh  why  they  went  there  did  not 
transpire  in  the  publi  shed  reports.  However,  out  of  evil 
came  good,  and  one  thing  was  impressed  upon  the 
Agents,  that  dependence  on  local  labor  was  a myth: 
then  arose  the  class  known  as  coolie  contractors; 
but  ere  describing  their  early  efforts  we  must  take 
a retrospect  as  to  the  formation  of  the  various 
Ooiiipanies  that  rose  before  the  public  with  meteoric 
brilliancy.  The  prospectuses,  after  a discursive  disser- 
tation upon  tea  in  general,  plunged  into  figures,  and, 
as  is  well-known,  if  you  can  manipulate  them 
cunningly,  you  can  do  almost  anything  with  them, 
especially  when  periodic  frenzy  seizes  the  public 
mind.  One  concoction,  with  a lordly  disregard  for 
details,  dealt  in  nothing  but  round  numbers,  so 
people  were  informed  that  an  acre  of  tea  would 
produce  3001bs.  and  realise  He,  1 per  lb,,  that  the 
up-keep  would  absorb  half  this  and  the  balance  be 
divisible  among  those  lucky  enough  to  get  tlie  scrip. 
The  morning  that  this  announcement  appeared  caused 
a block  in  Church  Lane,  like  that  on  Boxing  Night 
at  the  doors  of  popirlar  London  theatres.  Energetic 
brokers  fought  and  scrambled  on  the  stairs,  the 
durwans  w'ere  swept  clean  away;  obese  baboos,  Mar- 
waries,  every  one  in  fact  who  could  collect  a hundred 
rupees  besieged  the  portals  of  the  Agents.  The 
benign  vendor  of  this  wonderful  property,  who“  hung 
out  ” at  the  butt  end  of  the  thoroughfare,  chuckling 
to  himself  as  he  viewed  the  scene  from  his  terrace ; 
and  thus  the  great  Sylhet  and  Cachar  Tea  Companies 
saw  the  light.  Up  went  the  shares,  and  then  the 
wild  gamble  commenced.  Prospectus  after  prospec- 
tus followed  each  other  in  quick  succession ! the 
preamble  of  one  on  the  Assam  side  was  remark- 
able, for  the  inditor  somehow  got  mixed,  devoting 
a whole  paragraph  of  the  preamble  to  dwelling  upon 
the  tea  house  being  in  a right  line  with  some 
peak  in  the  Khasia  Hills;  the  connection  between 
the  site  of  a building  for  the  manufacture  of 
Pekoe  Souchong  and  a dis.sertation  upon  plane 
trigiiometry  was  somewhat  hazy,  though  the  public 
appreciated  it,  as  the  capital  was  subscribed  for 
twice  over.  The  rush  for  shares  begat  a similar 
demand  for  assistants,  and  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  men,  who  could  get  an  introduction,  went  up  the 
office  stairs  as  simple  clerks,  decendiiig  them  again, 
after  a short  interview,  full  blown  tea  planters.  We 
were  thus  reinforced  ; the  station  of  Cachar  present- 
ing a bu  tling  aspect,  between  the  .ai-rival  of  coolies 
and  budding  planters  almost  daily.  Ere  going  into 
the  coolie  business,  I may  as  well  glance  at  the 
community  of  which  their  mas  ters  was  composed. 
An  amusing,  but  perfectly  correct,  list  was  given  in 
one  of  the  dailies,  about  1862,  of  the  previous  avo- 
cations of  those  sent  up,  which  reminded  one  of 
the  rather  mixed  society  that  dwelt  in  Canvastowu, 
Melbourne,  ten  years  previously.  Clerks  predominated: 
there  were  lawyers’  clerks,  bank  clerks,  merchants’ 
clerks,  and  one  who  had  been  in  holy  orders,  run- 
away apprentices  from  ships  and  one  or  two  ship 
captains,  leadsmen  and  pilots,  raw,  schoolboys  from 
home  who  addressed  their  Managers  as  “ Sir,”  a stray 
German  whose  career  commenced  as  a flageolette 
player  in  the  Calcutta  town  baud,  bar  assistants  and 
one  from  a job  master’s  stable  (the  last  named 
subsequently  becoming  our  authority  on  all  racing 
matters),  gentlemen  from  the  lower  grades  of  the 
Uncovenaiited  Service;  while  homo  importations 
were  diawn  from  equally  heterogeneous  sources — it 
was  ere  the  days  of  traincJ  gardeners  of  premium 
wallahs.  Few  remained  very  long,  soon  finding  that 
tliey  had  mistaken  their  vocation,  though  many 
settled  down  and  now  form  our  best  planters. — Intiian 
Planters'  Gar:ette. 
Tiik  Sokcmum  I’i,.\N'I'  makos  an  excellent 
forage  crop,  and  is  e.specially  relished  by  cattle. 
It  is  cut  and  dried  somewhat  like  hay.  If 
syrup  is  to  he  made  liom  the  plant,  the  blades 
are  removed  and  used  for  stock,  and  the  stalks 
lull  tiiroiigii  the  mill.  The  rotiise  from  the  syrup- 
mill  makos  an  excellent  grade  of  i)  iper.  —'Southern 
1‘lantcr, 
