It has been observed that, as a rule, a good Tea climate is not a healthy one. There is no getting over the fact, and we can only make the best of it. The house, the factories, and all the buildings should be placed as high as possible, and not very close to each other, both for the sake of health and in the event of fire. The locality should be well drained, and cleanliness be attained in every possible way. Give the coolies good houses, with raised mechans to sleep on, and sprinkle occasionally carbolic acid powder in your own house and those of others. Sanitation is, however, a large subject. It can be studied elsewhere. General ideas on it, and on the properties of the commonest medicines, are a great advantage to any intending Tea planter. CHAPTER VII. LAY OF LAND. The first idea prevailing about Tea was that it should be planted on slopes. It was thought, and truly, that the plant was impatient of stagnant water, and so it is, but it is not necessary to plant it on slopes in consequence. Pictures of Chinese, suspended by chains (inasmuch as the locality could not be otherwise reached), picking Tea off bushes growing in the crevices of rocks, somewhat helped this notion; and when stated, as it was, that the Tea produced in such places was the finest, and commanded the highest price--which was not true--intending planters in India went crazy in their search for impracticable steeps! Much of the failure in Tea has arisen from this fact, for a great part of many, the whole of some, gardens have been planted on land so steep that the Tea can never last or thrive on it. This is especially the case in parts of the Darjeeling district. Sloping land is objectionable in the following respects. It cannot be highly cultivated in any way (I hold Tea will only pay with high cultivation), for high cultivation consists in frequent digging, to keep the soil open and get rid of weeds, and liberal manuring. If such soil is dug in the rainy season, it is washed down to the foot of the hill, and if manure is applied at any time of the year, it experiences the same fate when the rain comes. As it cannot be dug, weeds necessarily thrive and diminish the yield by choking the plants.