Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/774

750 750 Tobacco. Tobacco is grown in every district of India for local consumption. The soil and climate are favourable ; but up to the present time the quality of native-cured tobacco is so inferior that it finds no market in Europe. The prin cipal tobacco-growing tracts are Rangpur and Tirhut in Bengal, Kaira in Bombay, and the delta of the Godavari and Coimbatore and Madura districts in Madras. The two last-mentioned districts supply the raw material for the well-known &quot; Trichinopoli cheroot,&quot; almost the only form of Indian tobacco that finds any favour with Europeans ; the produce of the Idnkds or alluvial islands in the Goda vari is manufactured into &quot; coconadas.&quot; The tobacco of northern Bengal is largely exported to British Burmah, for the Burmese, who are great smokers, do not grow sufficient for their own needs. In the year 1876-77 the total registered imports of tobacco into Calcutta were 400,000 cwt., valued at 261,000, of which more than half came from the single district of Rangpur, Tobacco is also grown for export in the hill tracts of Chittagong. The tobacco of Tirhut is chiefly exported towards the west. The total area under tobacco in that district is estimated at 40,000 acres, the best quality being grown in pargand Saressa of the Tajpur subdivision. Since 1875 a private firm of capitalists, backed by Government support, has begun to grow tobacco and manufacture it for the European market. The scene of operations is two abandoned stud- farms at Ghdzipur in the North-Western Provinces, and at Pusa in the Bengal district of Tirhut. In the year 1878-79 about 240 acres in all were cultivated with tobacco, and the total crop was about 160,000 Ib. No less than five English or American curers were employed. Some of the produce was exported to England as &quot; cured leaf&quot;; but the larger part was put upon the Indian market in the form of &quot;manufactured smoking mixture.&quot; This mixture is in demand at regimental messes and canteens, and has already found its way to Australia. The enterprise may now be said to have passed beyond the stage of experiment, and has probably opened a new sphere alike for Indian agriculture and European capital. The one essential condition of success is skilled super vision in the delicate processes of tobacco-curing. Tobacco to the value of 128,239 was exported from India in 1878-79. Coflee. The cultivation of coffee is confined to southern India, though attempts have been made to introduce the plant both into British Burmah and into the Bengal district of Chitta gong. The coffee tract may be roughly defined as a section of the landward slope of the Western Ghats, extending from Kanara in the north to Travancore in the extreme south. That tract includes almost the whole of Coorg, the districts of Kaclur and Hassan in Mysore, and the Nilgiri hills, en larged by the recent annexation of the Wainad. Within the last few years the cultivation has extended to the Shevaroy hills in Salem district, and to the Palni hills in Madura. Unlike tea, coffee was not introduced into India by European enterprise ; and even to the present day its cultivation is largely followed by the natives. The Malabar coast has always enjoyed a direct commerce with Arabia, and at an early date gave many con verts to Islam. One of these converts, Baba Budan by name, is said to have gone on a pilgrimage to Mecca and to have brought back with him the coffee berry, which he planted on the hill range in Mysore still called after him. According to local tradition this happened about two centuries ago. The shrubs thus sown lived on, but the cultivation did not spread until the beginning of the present century. The state of Mysore and the Baba Budan range also witnessed the first opening of a coffee-garden by an English planter about 1840. The success of this experiment led to the ex tension of coffee cultivation into the neighbouring tract of Mnnjara- bad, also in Mysore, and into the Wainad subdivision of the Madras district of Malabar. From 1840 to 1860 the enterprise made slow progress ; but since the latter date it has spread with great rapidity along the whole line of the Western Ghats, clearing away the primteval forest, and opening a new era of prosperity to the labour ing classes. The following statistics show the area under coffee for the year 1877-78 : in Mysore, 128,438 acres, almost confined to the two districts of Hassan and Kadur ; in Madras, 58,988 acres, chiefly in Malabar, the Ni lgiris, and Salem ; in Coorg, 45,150 acres ; total, 232,576 acres, exclusive of Travancore. The average rate of produce is estimated at about 3 cwts. per acre of mature plant. The total export of coffee in 1878-79 was 342,268 cwts., valued at 1,548,481. [&quot;AGRICULTURE. The cultivation of tea in India commenced within the Tea. memory of men still living in 1881, and the industry now rivals indigo as a field for European capital. Unlike coffee- planting the enterprise owes its origin to the initiation of Government, and has never attracted the attention of the natives. Early travellers reported that the tea-plant was indigenous to the southern valleys of the Himalayas ; but they were mistaken in the identity of the shrub, which was the Osyris nepalensis. The real tea ( Thea viridis), a plant akin to the camellia, grows wild in Assam, being commonly found throughout the hilly tract between the valleys of the Brahmaputra and the Barak. There it sometimes attains the dimensions of a large tree ; and from that, as well as from other indications, it has been plausibly inferred that Assam is the original home of the plant, which was thence introduced at a prehistoric date into China. The real pro gress of tea-planting in Assam dates from about 1851, and was greatly assisted by the promulgation of the Waste-land Rules of 1854. By 1859 there were already fifty-one gardens in existence, owned by private individuals ; and the enterprise had extended from its original headquarters in Lakhimpur and Sibsagar as far down the Brahmaputra as Kamrup. In 1856 the tea-plant was discovered wild in the district of Cachar in the Barak valley, and European capital was at once directed to that quarter. At about the same time tea-planting was introduced into the neighbour- Tea- hood of the sanatorium of Darjiling (Darjeeling), among the g rowi Sikkim Himalayas. The success of these undertakings tracts engendered a wild spirit of speculation in tea companies both in India and at home, which reached its climax in 1865. The industry recovered but slowly from the effects of this disastrous crisis, and did not again reach a stable position until 1869. Since that date it has rapidly but steadily progressed, and has been ever opening new fields of enterprise. At the head of the Bay of Bengal in Chitta gong district, side by side with coffee on the Nilgiri hills, on the forest-clad slopes of Chutia, Nagpur, amid the low- lying jungle of the Bhutan Dwars, and even in Arakan, the energetic pioneers of tea-planting have established their industry. Different degrees of success may have rewarded them, but in no case have they abandoned the struggle. The market for Indian tea is practically inexhaustible. There is no reason to suppose that all the suitable localities for its growth have yet been tried ; and we may look for ward to the day when India shall not only rival but super sede China in her staple product. The following statistics, unless it is otherwise stated, refer to the year 1877-78 : The total area taken up for tea cultivation in Assam, including Area ; both the Brahmaputra and the Barak valleys, was 736,082 acres, ofout-tu which 538, 961 acres were fit for cultivation ; the total number of sepa- of tea rate estates was 1718 ; the total out-turn was 23,352,298 Ib, at the average rate of 286 Ib per acre under mature plant. In Bengal, the area taken up was 62,642 acres, of which 20,462 acres were under mature plant, including 18,120 acres in the single district of Darjiling ; the number of gardens was 221 ; the out-turn was 5,768,654 Ib, at the rate of 282 Ib per acre under mature plant. In the North-Western Provinces, there were, in 1876, 25 estates in the districts of Kumaun and Garhwal, with an out-turn of 578,000 Ib, of which 350,000 Ib were sold in India to Central Asia merchants ; and in 1871, 19 estates in Dehra Dun, with 2024 acres under tea, and an out-turn of 297,828 Ib. In the Punjab, there were 10,046 acres under tea, almost entirely confined to Kangra district, with an out-turn of 1,113,106 Ib, or 111 Ib per acre. In Madras, the area under tea on the Nilgiris was 3160 acres ; the exports from the presidency were 183,178 Ib, valued at 19,308. Excluding the figures just given for Madras, the whole of the Indian tea is shipped from the port of Calcutta, and almost the whole is sent to the United Kingdom. The total exports for 1878-79 were 34,800,027 Ib, valued at 3,170,118. Of the total supply, about 26,000,000 Ib came from Assam, about 8,000,000 Ib from Bengal, 787,000 Ib froir the North-Western Provinces, and 684,000 Ib from the Punjab. In the previous year the exports of tea from the Punjab to Central Asia were returned at 1,217,840 Ib, valued at 181,634, being a con siderable decrease on the year before.