June  i,  1897.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
S55 
ttietchesj  of  bright  green  flasli  out  in  tlie  sunlight. 
In  some  cases  an  entire  mountain  side  has  been 
cleared,  and  acres  of  tea  bushes  are  already  in  leaf. 
Elsewhere  clearing  has  just  begun.  Twenty  or  thirty 
acres  have  been  cut  out  of  the  jungle,  and  the  first 
planting  hardly  shows  as  yet  above  ground.  This 
year  another  big  cut  will  be  made  in  to  the  jungle,  and 
twenty  or  thirty  acres  more  will  be  planted.  A tea 
garden  in  a good  district  is  always  extending  itself, 
always. 
BRIVING  BACK  THE  PRIMEVAL  FOREST, 
and  adding  to  the  countless  rows  of  green  bushes. 
At  Kursslong,  about  twenty  miles  from  Darjeeling— 
that  is,  on  the  lower  side  of  the  mountains — we 
get  into  the  heart  of  an  old  and  well  developed  tea 
district.  It  is  one  of  the  oldest  in  India,  its  first 
garden  having  been  started  about  1856.  Whole  valleys 
have  been  cleared  and  planted,  acre  has  been  added 
to  acre  till  the  area  of  some  of  them  is  to  be  i-eckoned 
by  square  miles.  Whole  lakhs  of  rupees  had  been  laid 
out  on  some  of  them,  and  as  a rule  well  laid  out. 
They  are  no  longer  gardens,  but  “ tea  estates,”  and 
when  the  proprietors  got  too  rich  or  too  lazy  they 
had  themselves  converted  into  limited  liability  com- 
panies, with  directors  in  Calcutta  or  London,  and 
brokers  running  after  their  shares.  The  manager  of 
a large  tea  estate  generally  finds  life  worth  living 
even  in  these  high  latitudes.  His  white-washed  bun- 
galow, perched  on  a commanding  ridge,  is  conspicuous 
for  miles  around.  Sloping  lawns  and  bits  of  gai-den 
give  it  a homely  look,  and  at  the  same  time  guard  it 
from  miscellaneous  intrusion. 
But  there  is  one  ugly  feature  it  seems  never  able  to 
get  rid  of — its  galvanised  iron  roof.  Neither  slate  nor 
tile  is  ever  to  be  seen  here.  It  would  cost  a ransom 
to  bring  them  up  from  the  terai,  and  so  people  do 
without  them.  Churches,  hotels,  Government  offices 
are  all  roofed  with  the  glistening  white  iron  sheets, 
which  make  sunlight  hideous  On  the  tea  estates  en- 
tire houses,  or  rather  sheds,  are  made  of  them.  The 
manager’s  bungalow  probably  overlooks  a hollow  crowd- 
ed with  galvanised  iron  buildings.  There  will  be  a 
group  of  “ firing-houses,”  where  the  tea  is  “ fired,” 
or  dried,  a row  of  sheds  for  st'ires  or  workshops, 
an  engine-house,  with  a long,  iron  chimney,  stables 
for  a score  or  two  of  hill  ponies,  and  a crowd  of 
huts  for  the  coolies.  The  headquarters  of  a large 
tea  estate  may  form  a very  considerable  village, 
and  it  has  to  be  held  under  very  strict  rule. 
LABOUR  IS  A SERIOUS  ITEM 
in  the  production  of  good  te«.  Nearly  all  the 
gardens  having  been  formed  in  what  was  one  de- 
solate, uninhabited  jungle,  no  local  labour  was 
to  be  found.  It  had  to  be  imported  from  distant 
parts  of  Bengal,  and  though  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  coolies  have  migrated  to  Darjeeling  and  Assam, 
the  cry  is  still  for  more.  Tea  planting  extends 
year  after  year,  and  the  supply  of  .labour  cannot 
keep  pace  with  it.  Special  laws  have  to  be  passed 
to  facilitate  the  recruiting  of  coolies  in  the  popu- 
lous parts  of  the  country,  and  that  has  become 
an  important  business  of  itself.  I travelled  lately 
from  .Patna  to  Benares  with  a free-spoken  Yoik- 
shireman,  who  described  himself  as  a labour  agent. 
He  had  got  a telegram  that  morning  from  a tea 
planter  in  Assam  asking  him  to  send  up  seventy  or 
eighty  coolies  at  once.  He  was  now  on  his  way  'o 
execute  the  order,  and  he  described  to  me  minutely 
how  it  would  be  done. 
He  had  several  recruiting  depots  in  Ondh,  and 
the  North-West,  where  coolies  are  thickest.  Each 
depot  had  its  recruiting  agent,  who  picked  up  men 
in  the  street  or  on  the  road  wherever  ho  could 
find  them.  They  were  kept  till  the  agent  went 
round,  as  he  was  how  doing,  i;o  draft  a new  lot. 
He  would  select  the  number  he  needed,  and  have 
them  medically  examined.  Then  he  would  take 
them  before  the  nearest  magistrate  and  have  their 
agreements  read  over  to  them  in  his  presence,  the 
magistrate’s  duty  being  to  see  that  they  under- 
stood the  agreements  and  made  them  of  their  own 
free  will.  The  next  step  was  to  rig  them  out  in  warm 
clothes  adapted  to  the  hills,  and  to  rig  their 
families  also.  F.  nally,  they  were  all  put  on  board 
a train,  with  a peisonal  conductor,  and  sent  on  to 
their  destination.  Usually  ihey  engage  for  three 
years,  and  many  of  them  le-ciigage  for  a second 
term.  The  majority,  howeve)',  grow  home-sick,  and 
return  to  their  native  villages  to  starve. 
— Daily  Mail  April  2. 
VAKIUUS  PLANTING  NOTES. 
CliuTOiV-.SEKD  remains  .scarce.  Two  small 
l)aicels,  tolalling  seven  hags,  have  come  to 
li.ind  from  Colombo,  and  will  probably  be  offered 
for  sale  next  'rimr.sday. — Chemiat  and  Drnqaist, 
April  24.  ■’ 
Tamarinds.  — The  first  <u  rival  of  the  new  crop 
Barbados  tamarinds  \vas  offered  at  auction,  but 
little  demand  was  shown,  and  (he  whole  supply, 
consisting  of  175  barrels  of  line  quality,  was 
bought  in  at  IG.s.  per  cwt.  Twenty  casks  of  dark 
East  Indian  tamarinds  %vere  also  bought  in  at 
9s.  6d.  per  cwt.  — Chemist  <(■  Druggist,  April  10. 
1 UK  Pruninu  ok  Tica. — An  old  Ceylon  Planter 
at  home,  who  has  read  the  recent  correspondence 
on  this  subject  with  interest,  thinks  that  suffi- 
cient attention  has  not  been  given  to  the  evil 
effects  of  gormandizers,  m hich  on  some  estates 
are  allowed  to  shoot  up,  to  the  detriment  of 
the  tea  bush. 
Change  of  Address. -We  are  requested  to 
state  that  from  and  after  the  5th  inst  the 
registered  address  of  the  Ceylon  Tea  Planta- 
tioms  Company,  Limited,  Central  Tea  Company 
of  Ceylon,  Limited,  Digalla  Ceylon  Tea  Estate 
Company,  Limited,  Ceylon  Proprietary  Tea 
Estates  Company,  Limited,  Trayancore  Tea 
Estates  Company,  Limited,  ami  Selano^or  Cof- 
fee Company,  Limited,  which  have  hitheito  been 
21  Mincing  Lan^e,  E.C  , will  be  2U.  Ea.stcheap, 
E.C.  — 7/.  and  C,  Mail,  April  2. 
Natal  Eiiirk.— We  (South  Africa)  have  had  a 
cal  from  Mr.  D.  W.  Watt  of  the Kbre 
Extracting  Company  who  is  shortly  returning  to 
the  (.Tarden  Colony  after  a successful  business  so 
.lourn  on  this  side.  Mr.  Watt  tells  us  that  cer- 
tain  Glasgow  folk  to  whom  he  submitted  sneeimenti 
of  N.at.il  fibre  declare, 1 the  r.„„c  to  be  thrfiW 
they  had  ever  seen.  He  is  taking  back  with  him 
a decorticat'iig  machine  with  which  he  hopes  to  be- 
gin work  immediately  on  hi.s  arrival  in  the 
The  Mayfield  Tea  E.statks  Company - 
Notwithstanding  the  adver.se  criticism  in  citv 
papers  this  Company  has  been,  we  hear,  sue- 
ce.sstully  floated,  as  indeed  might  be  fnllv  av 
pected.  The  Dimbula  estates— Mayfield^  and 
Chalmers-are,of  course,  first-class  proiwties  am 
we  hear  such  accounts  of  the  young  tea  on  vi,'.  „ 
forestland  on  Nicholoya  and  of  the  handsonm 
reserves  still  on  that  place,  as  show  that  in  this 
Matale  place  also,  a very  good  purchase  has  been 
made. 
Dr.  P.  C.  Plugge,  Profe.s.sor  of  Pharmnr.r.1 
at  the  Univensity  of  Groningen,  Holland  ^ 
ney  to  Java  for  the  purpose  of  making  ce  -tain 
phanr.acological  investigations  in  the  BnU«, 
Botanical  Gardens.  The  I’rofes.sor  biteii  s £ 
devote  .special  af  fen tion  to  re.searcli  into  the  mo 
perties  of  Indian  medicinal-plants  and  ^ i 
a mii.ply  ot  ,„«lcri.al  for  f . rt  e?’  “m 
after  1, is  r.t.un  t„  Holland. 
,vas  formerly  engtigcd  as  a.  pharmaMlogisHn 
service  of  the  Government  of  Japan.  ^ ^ 
