Provincial statistics of tea, 1878. Assam.

Bengal.

N.-W.

Provinces.

Punjab.

Madras.

Provincial statistics of tea,

Assam.

The progress of the tea industry in the various Provinces may best be illustrated by a review of the statistics of the production in the two years 1877-78 and 1882-83.

In 1877-88, the total area taken up for tea in Assam, including both the Brahmaputra and the Bárak valleys, was 736,082 acres, of which 538,961 acres were fit for cultivation; the total number of separate estates was 1718; the total outturn was 23,352,298 lbs., at the average rate of 286 lbs. per acre under mature plant. In Bengal, the area taken up was 62,642 acres, of which 20,462 acres were under mature plant, including 18,120 acres in the single District of Darjiling; the number of gardens was 221; the out-turn was 5,768,654 lbs., at the rate of 282 lbs. per acre under mature plant. In the North-Western Provinces there were, in 1876, 25 estates in the Districts of Kumáun and Garhwal, with an out-turn of 578,000 lbs., of which 350,000 lbs. were sold in India to Central Asian merchants; and in 1871, 19 estates in Dehra Dún, with 2024 acres under tea, and an out-turn of 297,828 lbs. In the Punjab there were, in 1878, 10,046 acres under tea, almost entirely confined to Kángra District, with an out-turn of 1,113,106 lbs., or 111 lbs. per acre. In Madras, the area under tea on the Nilgiris was 3160 acres ; the exports from the Presidency were 183,178 lbs., valued at £19,308.

In 1882-83, the area actually under cultivation in Assam was 178,851 acres, of which 156,707 acres were under mature, 1882-83. and 22,144 acres under immature plant. Besides the area already occupied with tea, some 600,000 acres have been taken up for plantation purposes, and immense tracts yet untouched are still available. The present (1884) depressed state of the tea market, due, it is said, to over-production and attention to quantity rather than to quality, has, however, for the present checked the further appropriation of land for tea. The total out-turn from 1017 tea estates in Assam in 1882-83 is returned at 45,472,941 lbs., of which 28,089,805 lbs. were manufactured in the Brahmaputra valley or Assam proper, and 17,383,136 lbs. in the Surmá valley Districts of Cachar and Sylhet. Average out-turn, 290 lbs. per acre of mature plant. The figures given above for 1882-83 show a larger area under plant, and a very considerable increase in out-turn, over that of any previous year. Approximate value of tea exports from Assam into Bengal, £2,232,524. In Bengal the area under tea cultivation in 1882-83 was 48,091 acres, of which 36,079 acres were under mature, and

INDIAN TEA STATISTICS, 1878-83. 507

12,012 acres under immature plant. There were also 46,093 Bengal. acres taken up for tea, but not actually under plant. The total number of plantations was 300, with an out-turn of 11,170,564 lbs., being at the rate of 309 lbs. per acre of mature plant. More than three-fourths of the Bengal tea come from Dárjiling and Jalpaiguri Districts, on the lower slopes or submontane tracts of the Himalayas. The cultivation, however, is rapidly extending in other localities, as in Chittagong, on the east coast of the Bay of Bengal, and in the elevated plateau of Chutiá Nágpur. In the Punjab, out of Punjab. 11,058 acres under tea in 1882-83, no fewer than 10,075 acres were in Kángra District. The total out-turn in 1882-83 is not returned, but may be estimated at about a million lbs. In Madras, 5337 acres were under tea in 1882-83, but the Madras. out-turn is not stated, although the exports amounted to

309,548 lbs., valued at £32,905.

1878 and

The following figures exhibit the exports of tea in 1878 and Tea 1883. In 1877-78, the total export of tea by sea from British exports, India amounted to 33,656,715 lbs., valued at £3,061,867. In 1883. 1882-83 the amount was 58,233,345 lbs., valued at £3,738,842. With the exception of Madras, which exported 309,548 lbs. of tea in 1882, valued at £32,905, and Chittagong, at which an export trade in tea has sprung up, the whole exports of Indian tea are shipped from Calcutta. The bulk of the tea goes to the United Kingdom, which absorbed 53,415,603 lbs., valued at £3,389,406, from Bengal in 1882-83. The Calcutta Tea Syndicate, established a few years ago with a view to opening new markets for Indian tea, has succeeded in establishing a firm, and it is hoped an increasing trade in tea with the Australian colonies and the United States. Exports to Australia, which in 1881-82 amounted to 871,913 lbs., valued at £63,404, were forced up in 1882-83 to 2,713,268 lbs., valued at £177,167. Similarly, the exports to the United States increased from 195,686 lbs., valued at £14,675 in 1881-82, to 671,264 lbs., valued at £50,988 in 1882-83. The effect of this sudden expansion of trade, however, was to temporarily overstock the market, and shipments in some cases resulted in a loss. The trans-frontier export from the Punjab into Central Asia has steadily decreased of late years; and in 1882-83, the exports of Indian tea across the Punjab frontier was only 488,200 lbs., valued at £29,924, as against an export of 1,217,840 lbs., valued at £181,634, in 1877-78.

Excluding the figures given for Madras, the whole of the Port of Indian tea is shipped from the port of Calcutta, and shipment.

Tea culti vation.

Varieties of the teaplant.

Seed.

Sites for

tea

gardens.

Soil.

Work of a tea

garden;

almost the whole was, till recently, sent to the United Kingdom.

The processes of cultivation and manufacture are very similar throughout the whole of India, with the exception that in Upper India the leaf is prepared as green tea for the markets of Central Asia. Three main varieties are recognised-Assam, China, and hybrid. The first is the indigenous plant, sometimes attaining the dimensions of a tree; yielding a strong and high-priced tea, but difficult to rear. The China variety, originally imported from that country, is a short bushy shrub, yielding a comparatively weak tea and a small out-turn per acre. The third variety is a true hybrid, formed by crossing the two other species. It combines the qualities of both in vary ing proportions, and is the kind most sought after by planters. In all cases, the plant is raised from seed, which in size and appearance resembles the hazel-nut. The seeds are sown in carefully prepared nurseries in December and January, and at first require to be kept shaded. About April, the seedlings are sufficiently grown to be transplanted, an operation which continues into July.

The site selected for a tea-garden should be well-drained it is essential that and comparatively elevated land; as water should not lodge round the roots of the plants. In Assam, which may be taken as the typical tea district, the most favourite situation is the slopes of low hills, that everywhere rise above the marshy valleys. On the summit may be seen the neat bungalow of the planter, lower down the coolie lines, while the tea bushes are studded in rows with mathematical precision all round the sides. The best soil is virgin forest. land, rich in the decomposed vegetable matter of ages. Great pains are expended to prevent this fertile mould from being washed away by the violence of the tropical rains. In bringing new land into condition, the jungle should be cut down in December, and burned on the spot in February. The ground is then cleaned by the plough or the hoe, and marked out for the seedlings by means of stakes planted at regular intervals of about 4 feet from each other.

For the first two years, the work of the planter is to keep the young shrubs clear of weeds. Afterwards, it is necessary to prune the luxuriance of the bushes in the cold season every year. The prunings should be buried round the roots of the plant for manure. The plants begin to come into bearing in the third year, and gradually reach their maximum 'flushes;' yield in their tenth year. The produce consist of the 'flushes'

THE WORK OF A TEA-GARDEN.

509

or successive shoots of young leaves and buds, which first appear in the beginning of the rainy season. There are

from five to seven full flushes in the season from March to November. The bushes are picked about every ten days by picking; women and children, who are paid by weight on bringing their baskets to the factory, when the operation of manufacture forthwith begins.

The leaf is first spread out lightly on trays or mats in witherorder that it may wither,' ie. become limp and flaccid. ing;' Under favourable conditions, this result is effected in a single night; but sometimes the natural process has to be accelerated by exposure to the sun or by means of artificial heat. The next operation is known as 'rolling,' performed either by the rolling ; manual labour of coolies or by machinery. The object of this is to twist and compress the leaf into balls, and set up fermentation. The final stage is to arrest fermentation by drying ; drying, which may be effected in many ways, usually by the help of machinery. The entire process of manufacture after 'withering,' does not take more than about four hours and a half. All that now remains is to sort the tea in sieves, sorting. according to size and quality, thus distinguishing the various grades from Flowery Pekoe to Broken Congou, and to pack it for shipment in the well-known tea chests.

The introduction of the quinine-yielding cinchona into Cinchona. India is a remarkable example of success rewarding the in- Clements Markham, defatigable exertions of a single man. When Mr. Clements 1860. Markham undertook the task of transporting the seedlings from South America to India in 1860, cinchona had never before been reared artificially. The experiment in arboriculture has not only been successfully conducted, but it has proved remunerative from a pecuniary point of view. A cheap febrifuge has been provided for the fever-stricken population of the Indian plains, while the surplus bark sold in Europe more than repays interest upon the capital expended. These results have been produced from an expenditure of about £100,000.

tions.

The head-quarters of cinchona cultivation in Southern Nilgiri India are on the Nilgiri Hills, where Government owns four plantaplantations, from which seeds and plants are annually distributed to the public in large quantities; and there are already several private plantations, rivalling the Government estates in area, and understood to be very valuable properties. The varieties of cinchona most commonly cultivated Varieties. are C. officinalis and C. succirubra; but experiments are

Spread of cinchona ;

in

Southern India;

in Bengal.

Alkaloids.

being conducted with C. calisaya, C. pubescens, C. lanceolata, and C. pitayensis. Now that the success of the enterprise is secure, the Madras Government is curtailing its own operations. No fresh land is being taken up, but the plantations are kept free from weeds. The quinologist's department has been abolished, and the bark is sold in its raw state.

From the central establishment of the Government on the Nilgiris, cinchona has been introduced into the Palni Hills in Madura District, into the Wainád, and into the State of Travancore. The total area under cinchona in Government and private plantations in 1882-83 was 2607 acres. Plantations have also been opened by Government near Merkára in Coorg, on the Bába Budan Hills in Mysore, and in Tsit-taung (Sitang) District in British Burma. Failure has attended the experiments made at Mahabaleshwar in the Bombay Presidency, and at Nongklao in the Khásí Hills, Assam.

But the success of the Government plantation at Darjiling, in Northern Bengal, rivals that of the original plantation on the Nilgiris. The area has been gradually extended, and the bark is manufactured into quinine on the spot by a Government quinologist. The species mostly grown is C. succirubra, which yields a red-coloured bark, rich in its total yield of alkaloids, but comparatively poor in quinine proper. Efforts are being made to increase the cultivation of C. calisaya, which yields the more valuable bark; but this species is difficult to propagate.

The febrifuge, as issued by the Bengal Government, is in the form of a white powder, containing the following alkaloids :Cinchona. Quinine, cinchonidine, cinchonine, quinamine, and what is known as amorphous alkaloid. It has been authoritatively described as 'a perfectly safe and efficient substitute for quinine in all cases of ordinary intermittent fever.' It has been substituted for imported quinine, in the proportion of three-fourths to one-fourth, at all the Government dispensaries, by which measure alone an economy of more than £20,000 a year has been achieved; and it is now eagerly sought after by private druggists from every part of the country.

Cinchona

1877-78.

The following show the out-turn and financial results of the two statistics, large Government plantations in 1877-78 and in 1882-83:-In 1877-78, the crop on the Nilgiris gave 138,808 lbs. of bark, of which 132,951 lbs. were shipped to England, and the rest supplied to the Madras and Bombay medical departments. At Dárjíling, the crop in 1877-78 amounted to 344,225 lbs.