Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/314

 BENGAL.

3°4

tendency to recover itself, the area under cultivation is less than it was twenty years ago ; while the profits to be derived from the growth of jute, European vegetables, and valuable garden crops betel, turmeric, etc.

chillies, ginger,

— render

into engagements with the indigo

—

the rdyats averse to entering

The

planters.

decline

of indigo

Bengal Proper has, however, been almost counterbalanced in later years by its extension in Behar and in the North-Western Provinces, in

and especially by its cultivation by native capitalists. The annual Lower Provinces greatly varies, but is now hardly less than it was thirty years ago it may be put down at rather more than 100,000 jnaunds, say from 3000 to 4500 tons, worth from 2 to 3^ out-turn of the



The total value of the indigo exported from Calfrom 3J to 4J millions sterling during the ten years The crop of 1882 was above the average, the total ending 1882. exports from the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal amounting to 4595 millions sterling. cutta varied

tons, of the value of ;^3, 15 1,259.

Two crops of indigo are raised in the May before the setting in of the rains, and the other

sown

in

October

as

the

year,

—one sown

in April or

cut in August or September

waters

subside,

and cut



in the

following July.

—

Tea cultivation Tea on by European capital. .

is

the other great industry in Bengal carried

produced principally in Darjiling and The yield from these Districts in 1881-82 was 7,623,561 lbs. About 487,400 lbs. were grown and manufactured on the slopes of the Chittagong Hills in the same year 4405 lbs. in Dacca, and 208,074 lbs. in the tea-growing Districts It is

the Tarai, including Jalpaiguri.



The

of Chutia Nagpur.

total

approximate out-turn for the Province

1881-82 was 8,323,440 lbs., derived from 283 gardens, with an Darjiling teas stand high in area under plantation of 42,217 acres. the home markets and the manufacture is receiving more and more attention every year. A demand for Indian teas in the Australian market in



The use of has given additional impetus to the industry of late years. machinery is rapidly extending. The average yield of tea per acre of mature plantations

is

about 260

This amount, though

lbs.

short of the sanguine expectations of the

under good

local

first

management remunerative



falling

days of tea-planting,

and the

is

prices obtained

show that the average quality of the tea is good. The industry is now on a prosperous and sound footing. There are evident signs, also, that The Darjiling the labour question has become more easy of solution. labourers are mostly Nepalis.

The

total value of the tea

exported from

Calcutta (including up-country consignments) has risen steadily from li millions sterling in 1873 to 3^ millions sterling in 1882.

Opium

.

—The

cultivation of

opium

is

a State monopoly,

no person

being allowed to grow the poppy except on account of Government.