Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/327



NILGIRI HILLS. 315 transferring them to the pits they are meant to occupy. The outer covering of bamboo soon rots, and allows free passage to the lateral roots. The year after planting, so soon as the spring showers set in, the young plants commence to shoot freely. Until they have attained a height of from 18 to 24 inches they are left alone; but when the centre and main lateral shoots show an undue tendency to upward growth, they are cut back. As far as possible, the plants should be trained to a single stem for at least 6 inches above ground. A slight surface trimming about the middle of the south-west monsoon, followed by a somewhat severer one at the end of the north-east rains, will probably be found sufficient during the second year. A couple of months or so after this second trimming, a crowd of young succulent shoots spring up all over the surface of each plant ; and when these have attained a fair length, say from 6 to 8 inches, the upper leaves are picked. The greatest care must be taken to allow the lateral branches to grow unchecked. From 2 to 3 feet is about the best heiglit at which to maintain the surface-level of the plants at pruning. This allows from 1 to 1} feet of upward growth during the course of the picking season. About July, the plants are old enough to undergo their first systematic pruning. The best time for pruning is from early in June to the middle of August; and it is generally about this season that the seed crop of the preceding year has matured, and that of the coming season has found its flower buds. Excepting at very low elevations, hard pruning is not advisable. The growth at the higher elevations is not sufficiently strong to enable the plants to stand it. Severe pruning once in three or four years is sufficient; and in old estates should be accompanied by forking and manuring wherever practicable. The first tea garden on the Nilgiri plateau was opened in 1851. The number was 38 in 1875; 53 in 1877; 79 in 1880; 86 in 1881; and (exclusive of some small gardens recently merged into larger plantations) 77 in 1882. Area under mature tea-plants, 3724 acres in 1882 ; under immature plants, 1558 acres ; total, 5282 acres, as compared with 2392 acres in 1875. Area taken up for tea-planting but not yet planted, 4273 acres in 1882. The produce of the gardens was 220,070 lbs. of tea in 1875, and 853,386 lbs. in 1882 ; average yield per acre of mature plant, 145 lbs. in 1875, and 229 lbs. in 1882. There are now (1883) 78 tea estates aggregating 11,764 acres, of which 4772 acres are planted, and 3322 in full bearing. The value of these estates may be estimated at from £50,000 to £75,000, the approximate annual yield being about 510,280 lbs. of tea in 1883; the average yield per acre of mature plants in 1883 was 154