Identifier: empireofindia01full (find matches)
Title: The empire of India
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Fuller, Bampfylde, Sir, 1854-1937
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston, Little, Brown, and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ts wereinitiated by the State for the introduction of the Chineseplant into India. Plantations were estabhshed at variouspoints along the outer Himalayas; they produced teaof good quality, but only yielded heavily on the eastern,ranges—^in Sikkim, near the hill station of Darjeeling,where a moist climate is perennially maintained by sea-winds from the Bay of Bengal. On the discovery of theindigenous Indian plant its seed—and seed obtained byhybridising it with the Chinese plant—was substitutedwith great advantage for Chinese seed. Plantationsopened in the Duirs at the foot of the Sikkim Himalayasproved that the tea plant would flourish in the Indianplains; its leaves might not possess the flavour whichthey developed at a higher altitude, but on the other hand,its yield was considerably heavier. But it is in the twovalleys of Assam that tea gardens have reached their moststriking development. Rows of flat-topped tea busheshere cover the face of the country, and the production 202
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TEA PLANTING of tea has dwarfed into insignificance all other branchesof agricultural industry. ; ! >^ The system on which tea is cultivated differs radicallyfrom that which was followed in the production of indigoand silk. It is grown upon land which belongs to theplanter,—which has been purchased and reclaimed byhim from waste,—and the plants are tended by labourers(coolies) who are in his service. There are then no suchoccasions for friction between tea planters and theirIndian neighbours as disturbed the course of the indigoindustry. But there are very great difficulties in obtainingthe labour that is required. Waste land that is suitablefor tea-growing is only to be found in localities that arethinly populated, and labour is generally not procurablelocally, and must be hired from a distance. Where,as is the case with the tea gardens situated at the foot ofthe Sikkim Himalayas, the recruiting grounds are withina distance of two or three hundred miles, the labourersare hired

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