There is one class of plantations which it would be by no means fair to include. I mean those gardens bought for a mere song during the panic. On many of these necessarily enormous profits have been made, but it proves nothing, inasmuch as the profits, to be legitimate profits for criticism, should on the debit side include the whole cost incurred in making the plantation. To form a fair appreciation of the profits Tea planting can give, we must select gardens constructed after knowledge on the subject was attained, where good management, combined with economy in all details, has been carried out, and where the necessary natural conditions for success exist--and such are rare. But first let me explain what I mean by the “necessary natural conditions for success.” Manageable areas; flat or nearly flat land for the garden; a good class of indigenous and hybrid plants; local labour, or anyhow a good proportion of this; facilities for manuring; a good soil; a good Tea climate; and cheap means of transport constitute these, and where they exist I hold Tea _must_, and _does_, pay well. I don’t believe in plantations of 600 or 800 acres; some of these pay, but they would pay much better if reduced in size. A garden of 300 acres, yielding even at the rate of four maunds an acre, will pay much better than another of 500 acres, yielding but two and a-half or three maunds. The reason is obvious, the larger produce is against a smaller expenditure. Were I to commence a Tea plantation to-day, it should not exceed 300 or 400 acres in size. This passion for large areas is the rock on which, more than any other, Tea Companies have wrecked themselves; experience has already shown this, and will show it more, as time goes on. Flat land for Tea gardens is a great desideratum. Steep lands are difficult to cultivate; the soil is continually washing away from the roots of the plants; it is impossible to manure them successfully, and the consequence of all this is that the Tea bushes do not thrive.