The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

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I have stated that this plantation is formed on the hill side. It
consists of a succession of terraces, from the bottom to the top, on
which the tea bushes are planted. In its general features it is very
like a Chinese tea plantation, although one rarely sees tea lands
terraced in China. This, however, may be necessary in the Himalayas,
where the rains fall so heavily. Here, too, the system of irrigation
is carried on, although to a small extent only, owing to the
scarcity of water during the dry season.

3. _Appearance and health of plants_.--This plantation is a most
promising one, and I have no doubt will be very valuable in a few
years. The plants are growing admirably, and evidently like their
situation. Some of them are suffering slightly from the effects of
hard-plucking, like those at Kaolagir; but this can easily be
avoided in their future management. Altogether, it is in a most
satisfactory condition, and shows how safe it is in matters of this
kind to follow the example of the Chinese cultivator, who never
makes his tea plantations on _low rice land, and never irrigates_.

HAWULBAUGH PLANTATION (NEAR ALMORAH).

_1st. Situation and extent_.--This tea farm is situated on the banks
of the river Kosilla, about six miles north-west from Almorah, the
capital of Kumaon. It is about 4,500 feet above the level of the
sea. The land is of an undulating character, consisting of gentle
slopes and terraces, and reminded me of some of the best tea
districts in China. Indeed, the hills themselves, in this part of
the Himalayas, are very much like those of China, being barren near
their summit and fertile on their lower sides.

Thirty-four acres of land are under tea cultivation here, including
the adjoining farm of Chullar. Some of the plants appear to have
been planted in 1844; but, as at Paorie, the greater number are only
from one to three years old.

2_nd. Soil and culture_.--The soil is what is usually called a sandy
loam; it is moderately rich, being well mixed with vegetable matter.
It is well suited for tea cultivation. The greater part of the farm
is terraced as at Guddowli, but some few patches are left in natural
slopes in accordance with the Chinese method. Irrigation is
practised to a limited extent.

3_rd. Appearance and health of the plants_.--All the young plants
here are in robust health and are growing well, particularly where
they are growing on land where water cannot flood or injure them. As
examples of this, I may point out a long belt between Dr. Jameson's
house and the flower garden, and also a piece of ground a little
below the house in which the Chinese manufacturers live. Some few of
the older bushes appear rather stunted; but this is evidently the
result of water remaining stagnant about the roots, and partly also
of over plucking; both defects, however, admit of being easily
cured.

LUTCHMISSER AND KUPPEENA PLANTATIONS.

1_st. Situation and extent_.--These plantations are on the hill side
near Almorah, and about 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. The
situation is somewhat steep, but well adapted to the growth of tea.
The former contains three acres, and the latter four acres under
cultivation.

2_nd. Soil and culture_.---The soil is light and sandy, and much
mixed with particles of clay-slate, which have crumbled down from
the adjoining rocks. I believe these plantations are rarely
irrigated, and the land is steep enough to prevent any stagnant
water from remaining about the roots of the plants.

3_rd. Appearance and health of plants_.--Most of the bushes here are
fully grown, and in full bearing, and generally in good health. On
the whole, I consider these plantations in excellent order.

BHEEMTAL PLANTATIONS.

The lake of Bheemtal is situate in latitude 29 deg. 20 min. north,
and in longitude 79 deg. 30 min. east. It is 4,000 feet above the
level of the sea, and some of the surrounding mountains are said to
be 8,000 feet. These form the southern chain of the Himalayas, and
bound the vast plain of India, of which a glimpse can be had through
the mountain passes. Amongst these hills there are several _tals_ or
lakes, some flat meadow-looking land, and gentle undulating slopes,
while higher up we have steep and rugged mountains. It is amongst
these hills, that the Bheemtal tea plantations have been formed.
They may be classed under three heads, viz.--

1_st. Anoo and Kooasur plantations_.--These adjoin each other, are
both formed _on low flat land_, and together cover about forty
acres. The plants do not seem healthy or vigorous; many of them have
died out, and few are in that state which tea plants ought to be in.
Such situations never ought to be chosen for tea cultivation. The
same objection applies to these as to those at Deyra, but in a
greater degree. No doubt, with sufficient drainage, and great care
in cultivation, and the tea plant might be made to exist in such a
situation; but I am convinced it would never grow with that
luxuriance which is necessary in order to render it a profitable
crop. _Besides, such lands are valuable for other purposes_. They
are excellent rice lands, and as such of considerable value to the
natives.

2_nd. Bhurtpoor plantation_.--This plantation covers about four and
a half acres of terraced land on the hill side, a little to the
eastward of those last noticed. The soil is composed of a light
loam, much mixed with small pieces of clay-slate and trap or
green-stone, of which the adjacent rocks are composed. It contains a
small portion of vegetable matter or _humus_. Both the situation and
soil of this plantation are well adapted to the requirements of the
tea shrub, and consequently we find it succeeding here as well as at
Guddowli, Hawulbaugh, Almorah, and other places where it is planted
on the slopes of the hills.

3_rd. Russia plantation_.--This plantation extends over seventy-five
acres, and is formed on sloping land. The elevation is somewhat less
than Bhurtpoor, and although terraced in the same way, the angle is
much lower. In some parts of the farm the plants are doing well, but
generally they seemed to be suffering from too much water and hard
plucking. I have no doubt, however, of the success of this farm,
when the system of cultivation is improved. I observed some most
vigorous and healthy bushes in the overseer's garden, a spot
adjoining the plantation, which could not be irrigated, and was
informed they "never received any water, except that which fell from
the skies."

In the Bheemtal district, there are large tracts of excellent tea
land. In crossing over the hills towards Nainee Tal, with J.H.
Batten, Esq., Commissioner of Kumaon, I pointed out many tracts
admirably adapted for tea cultivation, and of no great value to the
natives; generally, those lands on which the mundoca is cultivated
are the most suitable.

I have thus described all the Government plantations in Gurhwal and
Kumaon. Dr. Jameson, the superintendent, deserves the highest praise
for the energy and perseverance with which he has conducted his
operations. I shall now notice the plantations of the zemindars,
under the superintendence of the commissioner and
assistant-commissioner of Kumaon and Gurhwal.

ZEMINDAREE TEA PLANTATIONS.

1_st, at Lohba_.--This place is situated in eastern Gurhwal, about
50 miles to the westward of Almorah, and is at an elevation of 5,000
feet above the level of the sea. It is one of the most beautiful
spots in this part of the Himalayas. The surrounding mountains are
high, and in some parts precipitous, while in others they are found
consisting of gentle slopes and undulations. On these undulating
slopes, there is a great deal of excellent land suitable for tea
cultivation. A few tea bushes have been growing vigorously for some
years in the commissioner's garden, and they are now fully ten feet
in height. These plants having succeeded so well, naturally induced
the authorities of the province to try this cultivation upon a more
extensive scale. It appears that in 1844, about 4,000 young plants
were obtained from the Government plantations, and planted on a
tract of excellent land, which the natives wished to abandon.
Instead of allowing the people to throw up their land, they were
promised it rent-free upon the condition that they attended to the
cultivation of the tea, which had been planted on a small portion of
the ground attached to the village.

This arrangement seems to have failed either from want of knowledge,
or from design, or perhaps partly from both of these causes. More
lately, a larger number of plants have been planted, but I regret to
say with nearly the same results.

But results of this discouraging kind are what any one, acquainted
with the nature of the tea plant, could have easily foretold, had
the treatment, intended to be given it, been explained to him. Upon
enquiry, I found the villagers had been managing the tea lands just
as they had been doing their rice fields, that is, a regular system
of irrigation was practised. As water was plentiful, a great number,
indeed nearly all, the plants seem to have perished from this cause.
The last planting alluded to had been done late in the spring, and
just at the commencement of the dry weather, and to these plants
little or no water seems to have been given; so that, in fact, it
was going from one extreme to another equally bad, and the result
was of course nearly the same.

I have no hesitation in saying that the district in question is well
adapted for the cultivation of tea. With judicious management, a
most productive farm might be established here in four or five
years. Land is plentiful, and of little value either to the natives
or to the Government.

2_nd, at Kutoor_.--This is the name of a large district 30 or 40
miles northward from Almorah, in the centre of which the old town or
village of Byznath stands. It is a fine undulating country,
consisting of wide valleys, gentle slopes, and little hills, while
the whole is intersected by numerous streams, and surrounded by high
mountains. The soil of this extensive district is most fertile, and
is capable of producing large crops of rice, on the low irrigable
lands, and the dry grains and tea on the sides of the hills. From
some cause, however, either the thinness of population or _the want
of a remunerative crop_,[15] large tracts of this fertile district
have been allowed to go out of cultivation. Everywhere I observed
ruinous and jungle-covered terraces, which told of the more extended
cultivation of former years.

Amongst some hills near the upper portion of this district, two
small tea plantations have been formed under the patronage and
superintendence of Captain Ramsey, Senior Assistant Commissioner of
Kumaon. Each of them cover three or four acres of land, and had been
planted about a year before the time of my visit. In this short
space of time the plants had grown into nice strong bushes, and were
in the highest state of health. I never saw, even in the most
favoured districts in China, any plantations looking better than
these. This result, Captain Ramsay informed me, had been attained in
the following simple manner:--All the land attached to the two
villages with which the tea farms are connected, is exempted from
the revenue tax, a sum amounting only to 525 Rs. per annum. In lieu
of this, the assamees (cultivators) of both villages assist with
manure, and at the transplanting season, as well as ploughing and
preparing fresh land. In addition to this, one chowdree and four
prisoners are constantly employed upon the plantations. The chief
reason of the success of these plantations, next to that of the land
being well suited for tea cultivation, may, no doubt, be traced to a
good system of management; that is, the young plants have been
carefully transplanted at the proper season of the year, when the
air was charged with moisture, and they have not been destroyed by
excessive irrigation afterwards. The other zemindaree plantation at
Lohba might have been now in full bearing had the same system been
followed.

From the description thus given, it will be observed that I consider
the Kutoor plantations in a most flourishing condition. And I have
no doubt they will continue to flourish, and soon convince the
zemindars of the value of tea cultivation, providing three things,
intimately connected with the success of the crop are strongly
impressed upon their minds; viz., the unsuitableness of low wet
lands for tea cultivation; the folly of irrigating tea as they would
do rice, and the impropriety of commencing the plucking before the
plants are strong, and of considerable size. I am happy to add, that
amongst these hills there are no foolish prejudices in the minds of
the natives against the cultivation of tea. About the time of my
visit, a zemindar came and begged two thousand plants, to enable him
to commence tea growing on his own account.

It is of great importance, that the authorities of a district, and
persons of influence, should show an interest in a subject of this
kind. At present the natives do not know its value; but they are as
docile as children, and will enter willingly upon tea cultivation,
providing the "Sahib" shows that he is interested in it. In a few
years the profits received will be a sufficient inducement.

In concluding this part of my Report, I beg to suggest the propriety
of obtaining some of the _best varieties_ of the tea plant which
have been introduced lately into the government plantations from
China. Dr. Jameson could, no doubt, spare a few, but they ought to
be given to those zemindars only who have succeeded with the
original variety.

Having described in detail the various government plantations, and
also those of the zemindars which came under my notice in the
Himalayas, I shall now make some general remarks upon the
cultivation of tea in India, and offer some suggestions for its
improvement.

GENERAL REMARKS.

1. _On land and cultivation_.--From the observations already made
upon the various tea farms which I have visited in the Himalayas, it
will be seen that I do not approve of _low flat lands_ being
selected for the cultivation of the tea shrub. In China, which at
present must be regarded as the model tea country, the plantations
are never made in such situations, or they are so rare as not to
have come under my notice. In that country they are usually formed
on the lower slopes of the hills, that is, in such situations as
those at Guddowli, Hawulbaugh, Almorah, Kutoor, &c., in the
Himalayas. It is true that in the fine green tea country of
Hwuy-chow, in China, near the town of Tunche, many hundred acres of
flattish land are under tea cultivation. But this land is close to
the hills, which jut out into it in all directions, and it is
intersected by a river whose banks are usually from 15 to 20 feet
above the level of the stream itself, not unlike those of the Ganges
below Benares. In fact, it has all the advantages of hilly land such
as the tea plant delights in. In extending the Himalaya plantation
this important fact ought to be kept in view.

There is no scarcity of such land in these mountains, more
particularly in Eastern Gurhwal and Kumaon. It abounds in the
districts of Paorie, Kunour, Lohba, Almorah, Kutoor, and Bheemtal,
and I was informed by Mr. Batten, that there are large tracts about
Gungoli and various other places equally suitable. Much of this land
is out of cultivation, as I have already stated, while the
cultivated portions yield on an average only two or three annas per
acre of revenue.

Such lands are of less value to the zemindars than low rice land,
where they can command a good supply of water for irrigation. But I
must not be understood to recommend poor worn out hill lands for tea
cultivation,--land on which nothing else will grow. Nothing is
further from my meaning. Tea in order to be profitable requires a
good sound soil,--a light loam, well mixed with sand and vegetable
matter, moderately moist, and yet not stagnant or sour. Such a soil,
for example, as on these hill sides produces good crops of mundooa,
wheat or millet, is well adapted for tea. It is such lands which I
have alluded to as abounding in the Himalayas, and which are, at
present, of so little value either to the Government, or to the
natives themselves.

_The system of Irrigation_ applied to tea in India is never
practised in China. I did not observe it practised in any of the
great tea countries which I visited. On asking the Chinese
manufacturers whom I brought round, and who had been born and
brought up in these districts, whether they had seen such a
practice, they all replied, "_no, that is the way we grow rice: we
never irrigate tea_." Indeed, I have no hesitation in saying that,
in nine cases out of ten, the effects of irrigation are most
injurious. When tea will not grow without irrigation, it is a sure
sign that the land employed is not suitable for such a crop. It is
no doubt an excellent thing to have a command of water in case of a
long drought, when its agency might be useful in saving a crop which
would otherwise fail, but irrigation ought to be used only in such
emergent cases.

I have already observed that good tea land is naturally moist,
although not stagnant; and we must bear in mind that the tea shrub
is _not a water plant_, but is found in a wild state on the sides of
hills. In confirmation of these views, it is only necessary to
observe further, that all the _best Himalayan plantations are those
to which irrigation has been most sparingly applied_.

In cultivating the tea shrub, much injury is often done to a
plantation by _plucking leaves from very young plants_. In China
young plants are never touched until the third or fourth year after
they have been planted. If growing under favorable circumstances,
they will yield a good crop after that time. All that ought to be
done, in the way of plucking or pruning before that time, should be
done with a view to _form the plants_, and make them _bushy_ if they
do not grow so naturally. If plucking is commenced too early and
continued, the energies of the plants are weakened, and they are
long in attaining any size, and consequently there is a great loss
of produce in a given number of years. To make this more plain, I
will suppose a bush that has been properly treated to be eight years
of age. It may then be yielding from two to three pounds of tea per
annum, while another of the same age, but not a quarter of the size,
from over-plucking, is not giving more than as many ounces.

The same remarks apply also to plants which become unhealthy from
any cause; leaves ought never to be taken from such plants; the
gatherers should have strict orders to pass them over until they get
again into a _good state_ of health.

2_nd. On climate_.--I have already stated that eastern Gurhwal and
Kumaon appear to me to be the most suitable for the cultivation of
the tea plant in this part of the Himalayas. My remarks upon climate
will therefore refer to this part of the country.

From a table of temperature kept at Hawulbaugh from November 28th,
1850, to July 13th, 1851, obligingly furnished me by Dr. Jameson, I
observed that the climate here is extremely mild. During the winter
months, the thermometer [Fahr.] at sunrise was never lower than 44
deg., and only on two occasions so low, namely on the 15th and 16th
of February, 1851. Once it stood so high as 66 deg. on the morning
of February 4th, but this is full ten degrees higher than usual. The
minimum in February must, however, be several degrees lower than is
shown by this table, for ice and snow were not unfrequent; indeed,
opposite the 16th of February in the column of remarks, I find
written down _a very frosty morning_. This discrepancy no doubt
arises either from a bad thermometer being used, or from its being
placed in a sheltered verandah. We may, therefore, safely mark the
minimum as 32 deg. instead of 44 degrees.

The month of June appears to be the hottest in the year. I observe
the thermometer on the 5th, 6th and 7th of that month stood at 92
deg. at 3 P.M., and this was the highest degree marked during the
year. The lowest, at this hour, during the month was 76 deg., but
the general range in the 3 P.M. column of the table is from 80 deg.
to 90 degrees.

_The wet and dry seasons_ are not so decided in the hills as they
are in the plains. In January, 1861, it rained on five days and ten
nights, and the total quantity of rain which fell, as indicated by
the rain gauge, during this month, was 5.25 inches; in February,
3.84 fell; in March, 2.11; in April, 2.24; in May, none; and in June
6.13. In June there are generally some days of heavy rain, called by
the natives Chota Bursaut, or small rains, after this there is an
interval of some days of dry weather before the regular "rainy
season" commences. This season comes on in July and continues until
September. October and November are said to be beautiful months with
a clear atmosphere and cloudless sky. After this fogs are frequent
in all the valleys until spring.

In comparing the climate of these provinces with that of China,
although we find some important difference, yet upon the whole there
is a great similarity. My comparisons apply, of course, to the best
tea districts only, for although the tea shrub is found cultivated
from Canton in the south to Tan-chowpoo in Shan-tung, yet the
provinces of Fokein, Kainsee and the southern parts of Kiangnan,
yield nearly all the finest teas of commerce.

The town of Tsong-gan, one of the great black tea towns near the far
famed Woo-e-shan, is situated in latitude 27 deg. 47 min, north.
Here the thermometer in the hottest months, namely in July and
August, rarely rises above 100 deg. and ranges from 92 deg. to 100
deg., as maximum; while in the coldest months, December and January,
it sinks to the freezing point and sometimes a few degrees lower. We
have thus a close resemblance in temperature between Woo-e-shan and
Almorah, The great green tea district being situated two degrees
further north, the extremes of temperature are somewhat greater. It
will be observed, however, that while the hottest month in the
Himalayas is June, in China the highest temperature occurs in July
and August: this is owing to the rainy season taking place earlier
in China than it does in India.

In China rain falls in heavy and copious showers in the end of
April, and these rains continue at intervals in May and June. The
first gathering of tea-leaves, those from which the Pekoe is made,
is scarcely over before the air becomes charged with moisture, rain
falls, and the bushes being thus placed in such favourable
circumstances for vegetating are soon covered again with young
leaves, from which the main crop of the season is obtained.

No one, acquainted with vegetable physiology, can doubt the
advantages of such weather in the cultivation of tea for mercantile
purposes. And these advantages, to a certain extent at least, seem
to be extended to the Himalayas, although the regular rainy season
is later than in China. I have already shown, from Dr Jameson's
table, that spring showers are frequent in Kumaon, although rare in
the plains of India; still, however, I think it would be prudent to
adopt the gathering of leaves to the climate, that is to take a
moderate portion from the bushes before the rains, and the main crop
after they have commenced.

_3rd. On the vegetation of China and the Himalayas_. One of the
surest guides from which to draw conclusions, on a subject of this
nature, is found in the indigenous vegetable productions of the
countries. Dr. Royle, who was the first to recommend the cultivation
of tea in the Himalayas, drew his conclusions, in the absence of
that positive information from China which we possess now, not only
from the great similarity in temperature between China and these
hills, but also from the resemblance in vegetable productions. This
resemblance is certainly very striking. In both countries, except in
the low valleys of the Himalayas (and these we are not considering),
tropical forms are rarely met with. If we take trees and shrubs, for
example, we find such genera as pinus, cypress, berberis, quercus,
viburnam, indigofera, and romeda, lonicera, deutzia, rubus, myrica,
spirae, ilex, and many others common to both countries.