«54 
rtlK  TROPICAL  ACRICaLTaRISr. 
[June  i,  iSg^. 
carries  much  more  than  the  old  wood  chest,  the 
freight  is  less,  the  tea  is  delivered  in  fresher  and 
better  condition  in  London,  and  the  saving  to  the 
grower  is  considerable.  When  the  chest  is  made  up 
it  has  a very  neat  and  clean  appearance,  and  re- 
sembles very  much  an  average  sized  safe.  The  fact 
that  1,000  “ Acme  ” chests  will  bring  home  106,000  lb. 
of  tea,  while  1,176  wooden  lead-lined  chests,  of  the 
same  outside  measurement,  will  be  required  for  the 
same  quantity,  demonstrates  clearly  one  advantage 
of  “Acmes”  over  wooden  chests.  A saving  of  about 
Is  O.jd  per  100  lb.  of  tea  arises  from  using  the 
“Acme”  chests.  The  manufacture  of  the  chests  was 
this  week  described  to  a party  of  pressmen,  who 
■were  shown  over  the  new  establishment.  Of  course 
the  chests  are  not  made  up  here,  but  are  sent  abroad 
packed  flat  in  strong  wooden  oases,  holding  from  10 
to  100,  and  at  the  tea  gardens  they  are  constructed, 
the  process  of  putting  a chest  together  occupying 
only  three  minutes.  The  preparation  of  the  plates 
is  an  interesting  process,  and  simplicity  characterises 
the  whole  invention.  The  top  and  bottom  are  of 
wood,  lined  with  thin  metal.  The  whole  surface  of  the 
chest  inside  and  out  is  coated  with  a solution  of  lead 
and  tin.  After  being  pickled  in  acid  and  washed 
the  sheets  are  passed  through  an  ingenious  machine 
which  performs  coating  automatically.  The  sheets 
are  then  trimmed  to  gauge  by  guillotine  machines 
and  taken  to  the  large  press,  which  at  one  stroke 
practically  makes  the  body  of  the  chest ; between 
the  dies  of  this  chest  the  plate  is  stamped  and  shaped 
under  a pressure  of  some  250  tons,  and  when  it  issues 
it  can  be  bent  in  half  a minute  by  hand  into  the 
form  of  a chest,  and  closed  by  the  patent  fastening 
made  simultaneously  by  the  same  machine.  As 
they  come  from  the  machine,  the  plates  may  be 
shipped  off  to  Ceylon,  where  they  are  made  into  tea 
chests  by  the  most  unskilled  of  the  natives.  As 
regards  sti'ength,  lightness,  and  durability,  the  steel 
chests  far  surpass  the  old  wooden  ones,  and  a great 
matter  is  that  leakage  is  impossible.  At  Polmadie 
entirely  new  machinery  has  been  laid  down,  and 
the  company  will  find  great  advantage  in  having 
the  Caledonian  Railway  siding  running  into  the 
works.  Coal,  for  instance,  may  be  placed  at  the 
furnace  doors  fiom  the  waggons,  while  the  goods  will 
be  conveniently  despatched.  There  is  an  installation 
of  electric  light  throughout  the  works.  Mr.  Jamos; 
T.  Tullis  is  chairman  of  the  directors,  Mr.  P.  titurat 
Brown  managing  director,  and  the  other  directers 
include  Mr.  James  Couper,  jun.,  and  Mr.  John 
Bennie. — Bntish  Dailn  Mail,  April  2, 
EMPIRE  AND  TEAPOT;  IN  AN  INDIAN 
TEA  GARDEN. 
(BY  W.  r.  LAW.SON). 
Darjeeling. 
Tea  has  become  a great  cosmopolitan  industry. 
India  alone  supplies  the  world  with  over  one  hundred 
million  pounds  of  it  every  year,  which,  valued  at  a 
moderate  average  of  a shilling  per  pound,  amounts 
to  five  millions  sterling.  Perhaps  two  out  of  the  five 
millions  are  distributed  in  England  in  dividends  on 
tea  shares.  . , , , , , 
To  India  itself  tea  has  been  an  incalculable  boon. 
Like  jute,  it  is  almost  a monopoly,  and  districts  of 
Bengal  have  been  enriched  by  it  which  might  never 
bav^  been  good  for  anything  else.  Assam  and  the 
whole  frontier  country  oast  of  Darjeeling  were  almost 
impenotrablo  jungle  until  tho  pioneer  tea-planters 
hewed  their  way  in,  and  transformed  the  jungle  into 
a garden.  t i 
Calcutta  as  a port  ow'es  a great  deal  to  tea.  I rac- 
tically  the  whole  output  of  the  Assam  and  Darjeeling 
gardens  passes  through  it,  and  for  tho  shippers  it 
is  a profitaldc  business.  One  firm  in  Calcutta  ships 
thirteen  million  ponn?s  a year — a huge  business  in 
itself  and  leading  to  many  other  valuable  con- 
tingeiicios.  A member  of  an  old  Calcutta  firm  re- 
marked to  mo  a few  days  ago.  “ I sometimes  wonder 
where  we  should  have  been  if  new  lines  of  business  like 
tea  and  jute  had  not  opened  up  so  providentially  for 
us.  It  is  only  five-and-tweuty  years  since  I joined 
this  firm,  and  today  we  are  dealing  in  hardly  a 
single  thing  that  I began  with.  They  are  changing  all 
tho  time,  and  we  have  to  change  along  with  them.” 
Tea  plantati  ons  are  now  scattered  sdl  over  India 
though  by  far  the  largest  area  of  them  is  in  the 
Brahmapootra  Valley  running  up  through  Assam. 
Very  fine  tea  is  grown  on  the  Nilgiri  mountains, 
on  the  west  side  of  Madras  province,  and  not  far  from 
the  Wynaad  gold  fields.  When 
THE  FATE  OF  THE  HOLD  FIELDS. 
still  trembled  in  the  balance,  some  of  the  pioneer 
companies,  with  commendable  forethought,  pro- 
vided themselves  with  large  areas  of  waste  land 
for  planting.  If  the  quartz  failed  them  they 
thought  they  might  find  some  compensation  in  tea 
or  coffee. 
On  the  north  side  of  Calcutta  the  tea  gardens  most 
easily  reached  are  those  of  Darjeeling,  They  can  be 
included  in  the  regular  Darjeeling  trip,  now  the 
greatest  trial  that  most  tourists  find  in  India.  You 
can  start  from  Calcutta  by  an  afternoon  train  on 
the  Eastern  Bengal  Railway,  dine  on  a ferry  boat, 
crossing  the  Ganges  at  Damorkdea,  and  breakfast 
next  morning  in  full  view  of  the  Himalayas. 
From  Saraghat,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  you 
travel  on  a metre-gauge  line — the  Northern  Bengal— 
to'  Sibguri,  where  you  change  again  on  to  the  2ft. 
gauge  mountain  line.  This  later  line— one  of  the 
few  successes  that  Calcutta  finance  has  yet  scored  off 
its  own  bat — rises  about  8,000  ft.  in  less  than  fifty 
miles.  It  corkscrews  round  and  round  the  mountain 
sides,  curling  itself  into  loops,  and  cutting  track  above 
track,  until  you  can  look  down  on  three  or  four  of 
them  in  successive  terraces. 
The  Canadian  Pacific  may  show  some  bits  of  equal 
magnificent  engineering  in  the  Rockies,  but  it  has  no 
such  long  continuous  climb  as  there  is  on  the 
Himalayan  Railwaj'.  The  nearest  approach  to  its 
wonderful  scenery  is  on  the  Mexican  Railway  be- 
tween the  city  of  Mexico  and  Vera  Cruz,  where  pre- 
cipitous mountains  have  to  be  scaled  by  cutting 
track  above  track  in  winding  terraces.  It  lacks, 
however,  the  glorious  background  of  the  Abode  of 
Snow.  The  foothills  of  the  Himalayas  have  a proli- 
fic vegetation,  the  endless  variety  of  which  taxed 
even  the  descriptive  power  of  Sir  Joseph  Hooker. 
The  terai,  or  flat  laud  skirting  the  foothills,  is 
A FAMOUS  GUASS  COUNTRY, 
at  least  by  repute,  for  in  this  year  of  universal 
drought  most  of  it  is  as  dry  and  dusty  as  a brickfield. 
From  the  terai  the  little  railway  climbs  first  through 
a semi-tropical  belt  of  ferns  and  acacias,  with 
feathery  bamboos  waving  over  them.  Gradually 
orange  trees,  lemons,  banyans,  and  cotton  trees 
mingle  with  the  bamboos.  Many  of  them  are  hung 
with  creepers  radiant  with  bright  coloured  orchids 
and  convolvulus 
This  orchid  belt  covers  the  lower  valleys  and  extends 
from  1,000ft.  to  4,000ft.  up  the  mountains.  Then  a 
third  belt  begins  quite  distinct  from  either  of  the 
lower  ones.  European  trees — oak,  beech,  and  maple 
— intermingle  with  palms  and  fig  trees,  while  the 
ground  is  carpeted  in  many  parts  with  European 
mosses.  In  this  half-tropical,  half-European  belt  we 
find  the  tea  gardens.  Wild  tea  bushes  have  shown  here 
and  there  among  the  brushwood  all  the  way  up.  Now 
and  then  on  a patch  of  clearing  beside  a railway 
station  or  a native  village  a young  garden  may  have 
been  seen  struggling  into  lexistence.  But  that  sort 
of  tea  is  only  for  home  use.  The  growers  pick  it 
as  it  cornel,  dry  it  in  the  sun,  and  in  any  case  are 
sure  of  a strong  flavour,  which  is  what  they  most 
appreciate. 
Scientific  tea-growing  has  yet  to  come.  From 
2,000  ft.  or  3,000  ft.  up  wo  may  have  been  passing 
tea  gardens  all  tho  time,  but  they  are  not  visible 
from  the  railway.  They  only  come  in  sight  when 
wo  rise  high  enough  to  look  back  on  them  from  the 
crest  of  a mountain  that  may  have  taken  us  hours 
to  scale.  Thou  the  panorama  which  unfolds  itself  is 
superb.  Between  douse  black  masses  of  jungle  broad 
