444 
THr TROPJCAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[December i, 1891. 
AREATIUNDER TEA IN INDIA AND CEYLON 
HANDIIRRESENT APPROXIMATE CROPS. 
The flgores tor India aio embodied in the fol- 
lowing : — 
Memo, of the Approximate Area of Land under 
Tea Cnltivation in tno following Districts in India 
in 1891;— 
Area in Acres. 
Mature Immature Total Planted 
Plants. 
Plants. 
Area. 
Assam 
. 112,708 
18,542 
131,2.50 
Cochar . . . . . . . 
6,000 
6(1,. 562 
Bylhet 
. 37,4-48 
6,7-18 
43,196 
Darjeeling 
5,993 
41,971 
Terai and Dooara , 
, . 23,658 
5,399 
29,057 
Chittagong 
1 . 3,870 
187 
4,063 
Chota Nagpore s a a* 3,280 
Dohra Doon AKumaon — 
607 
3,887 
Kangra Valley 
. . s.oso 
618 
9,198 
Madras , . , . 
. . 10,868 
10,868 
286,968 
43,084 
330,052 
it will be 
Ol 330.000 acres 
under tea 
in India, 
seen that little more than 
10,000 are 
credited to 
tbe south ern end 
ol the continent; 
All the rest 
is in the extra tropioal region of the north, mainly 
on the slopes of the llimalayes or in the valley 
of the Brahmapotra. In Ceylon the area under tea 
in all stages is afiO.OOO acres. It follows that of 
the tea onltivation of India and Oeylon (aggregating 
680.000 aoroB, or perhaps now the round 600,000) 
200.000 acres are within the tropics, between 7° 
and 11“ north of the equator, the Ceylon por- 
tion of it at least expcrienoes no real winter, 
although there are oeoasional frosts in and around 
Nuwara Rliya and oold still more prooounoed on the 
Nilgirie, The oondilions under which 320,000 aorea of 
this truly oosmopolitan plant are cultivated in the 
fra north of India are very different, there being an 
unmistalrable winter and a oeseation of flushing from 
November until March. The crop grown in con 
tinental India is already equal to 110,000,000 lb. ; 
and even if no addition is made to the cultivation, 
the quantity is likely to rise to 150,000,000 in 
the course of a few years. The quarter of a 
million acres of tea in Ceylon will certainly yield 
66.000. 000 lb. in 1891 and the round 70,000,000 is 
not improbable, while our island, at the present 
rate of progress, is likely to show an export 
of 120,000,000 ib., by the time India reaches 
160.000. 000, say by 1895. With an aggregate pro- 
duction this year of 180,000,000 lb., and the early 
prospects of 
From India ... 150,000,000 Ib. 
„ Ceylon ... 120/100.000 „ 
or a total of ... 270.000,0001b., 
there is need that both countries should bestir 
themselves to secure, in addition to expending old 
markets, the opening up of new Eepooially is this a 
necessity in the case of Ceylon, where the annual 
increase is not moderate as in India, but, ‘‘ by leaps 
and bounds." This is not tbe time to withhold 
liberal help for an effective effort to capture the 
American and other markets by the proper re- 
presentation of our great staple products at the 
Chicago World’s Fair. 
— 
EMIGRATION INTO ASSAM. 
There are two things which make Asaam interesting 
to the outer world : one is that the llltio I'rovinoe prac- 
tically represents tbe north-eastern irouiier of India, 
and comes into contact with almost as groat a variety 
of savage and independent races as Burma itrell ; the 
other is the fact that As.iaiu and its tea garden^ 
swallow up feme of our surplus populstiou. Th 
migration cannot bo compared with the depletion of 
Ireland, it is true. Assam in the first place is hardly 
an Indian Araertoa in the temptations it offers to set- 
tlers, nor is it likely that any emigrants would fiud 
their way thither but (or the labours of tbe agencies 
variously known as sirdars, ariatii', onutracters and 
BO forth ; still Assam docs absorb a large number of 
emigravte. Tbe figures for tbe last five years are 
30,894, 36,463, 46,293, B5,6S8, and 36,080. A total 
migratiou of over 200,000 souls in five years is a not 
iuconslderablo drain from the crowded parts in India, 
and it is impnrtact to notice that the whole of this 
tfliof to the corgested districts is effected by private 
enterpriso and is paid for ultimately by the British 
tea drinker. Government iuleiferea indeed in 
regulating the routes by which tbe emigrants 
travel, and provides depots aid medical and 
other snpervision. But this is chiefly paid for 
by tbo planters, which means of course that the 
money romes ultimately and very properly out of the 
pockotB of the drinkers of Assam tea. Wliat becomes 
of the emigrants after they reach their bourne seems 
dcubtful. 'Ibore appear to be no reliable slatistics of 
coolios who mako tbe homeward junrnoy, though it is 
stated that many do return, while some even return 
temporarily and take friends and relatives back to 
the tea gardens. Again some settle in Assam as cul- 
tivators though the proportion, so far as the Provin- 
cial statistics show is disappointingly small. At tbe 
end of 1890 the total labour force of the Province 
was over 400,000. One might fairly hope that a Ergo 
part of these would take up land, wbioli, iu the Assam 
valley at all events is held on remarkably easy terras. 
Yet tbe land known to bs held by timc-expiied coolies 
is only 32,000 acres or thereabouts. It tbe row pro- 
verbial three acres and a ouw be attribnted to the 
settlers, this gives us only about 10,000 imported cul- 
tivators in tbe Province, out of a population of some 
five millions, as the resnlt of many yeais of migration, 
That so many as 10,000 (and our estimate is prob- 
ably a low one) can be found goes to sl ow that there 
is no inherent reason why coolies should not save 
enough money to set up (arming on their own 
acconut. Possibly coolies in time acquire n taste for 
an cxi-tence in the lines, as so'diera diavo been 
known to acqire a passion for barrack-life. It seems 
curious, however, to tbe independent observer that 
it is nut possible to find out more accurately wbat 
becomes of coolies on the expiry of their agree- 
ments. Every coolie’s history is probably known to 
bis employer, and it would seem to bo witiiin the 
limits of possible ingounity to put this iuformatiou 
into a concise tabnlar from. 
The cliief interest of the last Provincial R< port on 
Immigration lies, however, in the fact that immigra- 
tion into Asaam haa suffered a notalilo check ; not 
only is this the case, but planters, wc are told go 
further afield for their labour. Tliere is a marked 
iuoreasu in the importations from Madras, where the 
hilly parts of Ganjam sfTord a field for recruitment 
not dissimilar to Obotn Nagpur. The drain on 
Chota Nagpur seems to be telling at last, while 
gold mines and coal mines ami other local temp- 
tations probably provide a serions competition with 
the tfijrls of the agents of Assam planters. But 
Chois Nagpur was atill far and sway ahead of the 
other exporting districts in 1800. 
The district of Bylbet, with a labour force ' of 
82,000, seems to have got all tbo labour it wants, 
snd reernits bnt little. This is the more satisfactory 
that many of tbe largest tea gardens in Bylbet are 
comparatively new. Probably the same is true of 
the neigUbonring district of Caehar, which only in- 
creased its labour force by loss than two per cent 
in 1890. Apparently many of the gardens in the 
Surma valley are favourably situated from a coolie's 
point ol view, arc healthy, or well supplied with bazaar 
produce, circumstauccs which not only mako it cheaper 
to import labour, bnt enable the managers to main- 
tain a larger labour force in proportion to the work 
to be done. This again ht Ips to make the gardens 
popular. On tbo other band, the great tea-planting 
districts of upper Assam, which employ hard upon 
