So much has it been extended and improved since the Third Edition was published, I have much to say on this subject. I will divide it into two headings, “Tea Cultivation” and “Tea Manufacture.” Of course the machines for the last far outnumber the first, which are very few, but much of great importance to the industry will find its place under the first heading-- _Machinery and Implements for Tea Cultivation._ Formerly, with prices as they ruled, Tea paid under most circumstances. It is _not_ so now. Unless Tea, and good Tea, can be made cheap it is hopeless to look for profit from a Tea garden. To cultivate cheaply, and efficiently, is therefore all important (far more important than has hitherto been recognized), and assuredly the more machinery can be made to take the place of hand labour, the sooner shall we attain that end. On this point I need only observe that in most of the Tea districts in India labour has to be imported at a great cost, varying from Rs. 50 to Rs. 100 per coolie, and anything which would lessen this want would materially help to success. The following, signed “Nil Desperandum,” appeared in the _Tea Gazette_ in August, 1881. I quite agree with the writer and have myself often expressed the same opinions:-- PLOUGHING AND HOEING MACHINERY. Dear Sir,--On looking over your columns I have been surprised to see the small attention paid to agricultural machinery: in fact, I can’t find the subject mentioned, although one would imagine it was as important if not more so than manufacturing machinery. Various agricultural instruments, such as ploughs, &c., have, I know, been tried in old times, and not with the best results to the bushes; but there is no reason why, because the ordinary machines have failed, that planters should be sunk in the belief that that costly article the coolie must endure as long as Tea does.[94] I will now consider the cultivation implements I know of. * * * * * _Planting Pots._--These are made of clay, cow dung, and cut straw. They are placed in the nurseries and the Tea seed planted in them. When the seedlings are big enough to put out, pot and all is buried where the Tea bush is to be. The pot being broken a little when placed in the ground, the rain soon destroys it. The seedling _does not know_ it has been transplanted, and the check of six weeks or more, experienced by all transplants, is entirely avoided. I know not who invented the pots, but the idea is an excellent one.