Tea Growing

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21866, 20 August 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

Tea Growing

the work in Upper assam, n.e. India

This .article' on tea growing has beep seat by Mr R. H. Woodhouse, who is in charge of a large tea garden in Upper Assam. Few people in the streets realise how tea is grown and manufactured, ready for blending and packeting for table; consumptioh. - - Tea bushes : begin their life as small round .seeds of roughly iin diameter, planted in a nursery. Beds of finely beaten and cleanlyweeded soil: arb prepared in the form of a plinth, measuring seven feet jn-. Width and Six inches in depth. The length of these plinths varies according to the amount of nursery space available.

rely upon the moisture already in the soil for nourishment. This dry period lasts roughly three months, after which the rain comes again and the winter coat ol thatch can be removed. From now onwards the young plants are carefully weeded ' and tended, until at the end of about two years, they have grown into tall, slender, single-stemmed -shrubs, about eight feet high and ;phe and a half inches diameter at the base. % They are now ready transplanting from the nursery to their allotted places in the main* garden, and this is done by digging them out carefully 80 that none of their roots (especially the tan rqot) is. damaged or broken. The i earth which is taken with the‘young plant is about nine inches in,diameter and 20 inches deep. A hole is dug, the plant is cprefullv placed in this and the dug soil Sailed and “tamped” in very tightly. From now the plant remains undisturbed for one or two years, this period depending on its progress in its new home. After this, its main centre stem ,is low pruned, to encourage the new shoots to develop below and the small bush by now to spread. The object is to obtain a wide top for plucking and it is only by: careful pruning that this can be done. Year by year as the bush develops. further pruning operations are performed, until eventually we have a thick bush of -about three feet in height; similar diameter, and tablelike top. This is got by continual slash pruning. It is from this table top that the new young shoots are. plucked and eventually manufactured into black tea for ,the pot. The growth is very vigorous, and as each shoot comes to a specified height above our table level it is plucked each week by the; coolie who takes the top bud and the next two leaves only; any growth, below this is broken off at the “table level” and thrown away. * This plucked green leaf is collected in baskets by the coolies and then taken away to the manufacturing base to be made into tea. As each bush weekly supplies several dozen shoots, a large coolie labour force must be employed to do this plucking, as well as other intense cultivating operations, such as manuring, hoeing, weeding and pruning. A well laboured garden has about one and a half coolies an acre. An acre supports roughly 1500 bushes. (to be continued)

At the end of. the rainy season, whbnthe soil - is .moist, the seeds are planted in these beds at a depth of one inch and 10 inches apart; they are then-covered with evenly spread thatch, or straw and allowed to germinate. The thatch protects both the seed and soil from any hot sun which would- otherwise dry the soil and starve the young seedling far Water. It .also encourages the yOung shoot from the seed'to come up and seek the sun from which it derives a large portion of its feeding. . The plinthlike beds prevent ■ the soil from becoming waterlogged; as they are higher, than the surrounding ground level, a certain amount of drainage takes place. After planting, a dry season, sets in and the seeds, or very young plants as they are then, have to