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.
Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Botany, Economic
1. _Situation and extent_.--This plantation is situated in the
Province of Eastern Gurhwal, in latitude 30 deg. 8 min. north, and
in longitude 78 deg. 45 min. east. It consists of a large tract of
terraced land, extending from the bottom of a valley or ravine to
more than 1,000 feet up the sides of the mountain. Its lowest
portion is about 4,300 feet, and its highest 5,300 feet above the
level of the sea; the surrounding mountains appear to be from 7,000
to 8,000. The plantation has not been measured, but there are,
apparently, fully one hundred acres under cultivation.
There are about 500,000 plants already planted, besides a large
number of seedlings in beds ready for transplanting. About 3,400 of
the former were planted in 1844, and are now in full bearing; the
greater portion of the others are much younger, having been planted
out only one, two, and three years.
2. _Soil and culture_.--The soil consists of a mixture of loam,
sand, and vegetable matter, is of a yellow colour, and is most
suitable for the cultivation of the tea-plant. It resembles greatly
the soil of the test tea districts in China. A considerable quantity
of stones are mixed with it, chiefly small pieces of clay-slate, of
which the mountains here are composed. Large tracts of equally good
land, at present covered with jungle, are available in this district
without interfering in any way with the rights of the settlers.
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).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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