Aug. 2, 1897.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
107 
MK. CKOLE’S BOOK ON TEA. 
Tea. — A Text Book of Tea Planting and Manu- 
facture ; comprising chapters on the history and 
development of the industry, the cultivation of the 
tea plant, the preparation of the leaf for the market, 
the botany and chemistry of tea, &c., &c., with some 
account of the laws affecting labour in tea gardens 
in A°sam and elsewhere, by David Crole, late of 
the Jokai Tea Company, &c. (Crosby, Lockwocd and 
Son, London.) 
This is a substantial and attractively got up volume. 
Though not fully illustrated in accordance with 
modern ideas in all the departments of cultivation 
and manufacture, it contains many graphic full-plate 
illustrations of forest jungle clearing, elephants load- 
ing timber, and entirely novel and capital views of 
tea in Natal supplied by the Colonial Office, which 
alone are a great acquisition. In addition to this 
the end of; each chapter is embellished with an 
effective “ tailpiece,” illustrative of tea gardens, 
Chinese and other antiquated methods. A map show- 
ing the tea districts of India and Ceylon is also 
given with many plans of buildings diagrams and 
numerous tables of statistics analyses of teas and 
soils. In the preface we learn that the author 
has had varied and important experience on planta- 
tioas in Assam, and that he also spent the best 
part of two seasons touring amongst gardens in India 
and Ceylon, all giving exceptional advantages for the 
preparation of such a work. The hook deals with the 
•subject historically, practically, scientifically, and 
statistically. No such comprehensive effort in the 
literature of tea has hitherto been made. 
There can be no doubt that Mr. Crole renders good 
service to the cause of tea in much that he recom- 
mends. He strongly and repeatedly urges the intro- 
duction of labour-saving appliances, especially in 
outdoor operations, such as the preparation of clear- 
ances prior to planting, draining, &c. ; well- 
a,rranged buildings of sufficient capacity and fully 
equipped with machinery to cope with the greatest 
possible rush of leaf, pointing out how every 
manager who wishes to earn and enjoy success must 
take advantage of every detail whereby labour 
and time can be saved ; the partitioning oil of the 
artificial withering house into apartments to be 
Worked independently, and so on. In the view of 
recent and present enormous extensions and proba- 
ble over-production, he reiterates as a necessity, the 
pushing for an extension of foreign markets with the 
Utmost energy, and warns planters that it would 
be wise if they would expend some of their 
profits in opening out new and extending 
rfiarkets rather ^ than in bringing still more 
tea under cultivation. Mr. Crole very com- 
nlendably contributes to the condemnation of our 
London warehouse abuses. He also dwells upon 
the important matter of preventing damage from 
fires by means of hand engines, hose, buckets, and 
E^sbestos painting. This cannot be too forcibly or ■ 
too frequently brought home to all concerned. We 
know of factories with an ample supply of water, 
fitted with hose, and with pressure to eject the 
water over the roof. Yet the most careful are the 
most grateful for the reminder that the apparatus 
should be kept in perfect working order, the hose 
always attached and the buckets ready, and within 
easy reach for any emergency, to obviate delay in 
case of darkness or excitement. Knowing the risks 
incurred on tea gardens in too many instances, the 
wonder is not that premiums of insurance are what 
they are, but that they are not really much higher. 
And we cordially endorse Mr Crole’s suggestion that 
owing to the fall in exchange — the more so as pro- 
prietors gain so much by it — in all cases where the 
remuneration of European employes is in rupees, and 
upon the former scale, it should in fairness be read- 
justed. 
Headers will find much besides that is at least 
suggestive on such subjects as the use of tramwys, 
trollies, and turn-tables in the factory and upon the 
garden, drainage, diagonal and triangular planting, 
plucking machines, the use of dynamite in clearances, 
' 14 
methofoT''f'^r fermentation, an improved 
method of dealing with frontier tribes by the 
S’tl hostages, hybridising, grafting and eLrch- 
mfch invigorate the tea stock, and 
mh^d however, be ad- 
mitted that the last-named suggestion fails to bring 
ac?ps interested in the 912,500 
111 /”,™,.’'* »“»«•■ •« 
that his hardest task was 
historical section. He has evidently drawn 
nfi^ion^ if' i*? <=om- 
iff n hut It is open to doubt if very much 
Lie wl / *he tea historian in 
tne way of accuracy or completeness. Mr. Crole 
and considerable length on the subject, 
d going into detail as to the proof of it, arrives at 
accepted conclusion that that there was 
Horn thif ®P®f ®® *®'"’ ‘he Indian, and 
from that country ;it found its way to China, the 
proportions a,nd diminished proportions of 
ji^hina variety being the result of unfavourable 
tuHes**°"^ ®hm®'fe> and treatment for cen- 
The treatment of the “ Chemistry of Tea ” seems 
on organic chemistry and text-book 
work without much special reference to tea. We are 
wf iP''ostigations. For instance, 
hfhf f * been heard before, that 
1 ght IS objectionable in certain processes, but no 
Ffifm of this. There are no comparative 
tables of analy^s (none of Darjeeling tea at all) 
snowing the different constituents of “quality” and 
inferior teas, or the results of good and bad 
methods, or the changes that actually occur in the 
aifteient stages and processes. Notwithstanding the 
sweeping denunciation of the “meat tea,” the evil 
hu* do not follow in fact. 
Weie Ml. Crole practically right, there should be 
M meat or eggs to breakfast, and little tea-drinking. 
^°"ht if much light has been thrown upon 
science in tea, but, all the same, Mr. Crole has i^n- 
Hiif® + ®®V'®® upon a subject too 
little studied or thought about, which cannot fail to 
lead to discussion and further study and investiga- 
tion, to the advantage of the tea industry. 
Like the historical portion, the statistical is very 
comprehensive, and drawn from all sources. Upon 
this head, we would merely remark that, under the 
apprehension of over-production, it is some consolation 
r to believe that the area under tea, 
is considerably over estimated at 
519, .500 acres. In regard to Ceylon, put at 400,000 
acres, we have returns till the close of 1895 (a year 
later than have yet come to hand for India), and 
we know that the best Ceylon authorities do not 
estimate their area as more than 340,000 acres at 
f ® i®on^® or say, more than 365,000 acres 
tor 1897 at the outside. For India the latest official 
returns we have seen are till end of 1894, by which 
^e total area was brought out at 423,006 acres. 
Xhe increase throughout India is difficult to cs 1 
mate ; but with the exception of Travancore and 
Cochin (probably under-stated) we are sure it has 
been over-estimated, and in the case of one of the 
leading districts the area is certainly put down at 
30 per cent more than it is at present. Thouo-h 
interesting to know, it is impossible without reliable 
local knowledge to state even approximately the ex- 
tent under tea in the Straits Settlements, Fiji, Ac. 
But if this has been over-stated the total result is 
not seriously affected. From the Government Blue 
Books these areas would seem to have diminished 
rather than increased in recent years. Wo should 
nou be disposed to put the area of British-^rown 
tea at over 780,009 acres at the close of 1.S96 or 
8o0,000 acres at the present time. ’ 
As regards the practical in tea, we must as far 
as possible pass over controverted points. 
Mr. Crole is untiring in his condemnation of the so- 
called China plant, and speaks of it as “a curse that 
at one time seemed as it woul 1 prove as disrstrous to 
Agsaro as ever the Phylloxera vistatrix has beeq in 
