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The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom: Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)

Science

The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom: Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.

Name: The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom: Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.
Author: Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)

Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)

Botany, Economic

Notwithstanding the high standard of quality and strength to which
    our teas have already attained, I am of opinion that, as experience
    advances, and our knowledge and system of plucking and manufacturing
    the crops become improved, and better organised, a higher standard
    of quality and value may yet be realised; in this opinion the
    superintendent concurs with me, and the attainment of this object is
    one to which his attention's prominently directed.

    In the course of my enquiries and trials of different samples of tea
    in Assam, my attention was directed to one description of black tea,
    of rough strong flavor, made by a quicker process than that
    ordinarily used in the manufacture of black tea: under this mode of
    manipulation, a quality of tea is produced sufficiently distinctive
    in its flavor and appearance to render it worthy of attention and
    trial, and I think, when perfected in the process of manufacture,
    calculated to come into popular estimation. Samples of this tea the
    superintendent will forward to the board for trial.

    In conducting the operations in Assam, the chief difficulty of
    importance which has not yet been effectually met is the paucity of
    labor; this does not, however, exist to the extent of materially
    checking any of the important operations connected with the
    production of the tea, but it is felt in the arrear of various
    descriptions of work, in providing bricks for building, and in the
    preparation of a stock of seasoned timber and boards for building
    and box-making; while the out factories would be benefited by a
    larger proportion of agricultural labor. Great advance, however, has
    been made by the superintendent in the employment of Assamese labor
    in contract work: under the arrangement he has established, these
    contracts are now, for the most part, fulfilled with much
    punctuality, and there is reason to expect that this system of labor
    will be further extended. The Kachorie Coolies are a valuable class
    of laborers, but they do not appear to be sufficiently numerous, or
    to emigrate in sufficient numbers to afford with the native Assamese
    a supply of labor altogether equal to our wants, so as to render the
    concern independent of Bengal labor.

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