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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
The cultivation of Tea in Kumaon has become so important and profitable, that it is interesting to trace the early history of this industry; and the duty of placing on record as true an account as possible of its introduction, rise and progress, is one which ought not to be neglected by those who are acquainted with the real facts; yet, after all, there is not very much to be told, even by those in full possession of all the data, when they show that, in this case—belonging, as it does, in an especial manner, to the best interests of British India—the seed of the sower “fell upon good ground, and yielded fruit, some an hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty.”
page 132 note 1 Vide page 15, Official Reports on the Province of Kumaon (Agra, 1851).
page 132 note 2 The remote frontier post of Kotgurh, overhanging the Sutlej valley in the western hills, though well known as the residence of the two Gerrards. who were among the first to explore and describe the Himálayan regions, is certainly higher in elevation than Almorah and its outposts, but it could not properly be called an English Hill Station.
page 134 note 1 As bearing on my present subject, it is somewhat singular that the principal site, originally selected for this military station, was a Tea-garden belonging to the Troup family, the members of which have been, from the first, conspicuous private Tea-growers in Kumaon.
page 134 note 2 The late Captain Edward Madden, Bengal Artillery, subsequently better known, under the name of Major Madden, as the author of numerous highly interesting botanical and other notes of his tours in the Himálayan districts, and more particularly in Kumaon, published in the Journal of the Bengal Asiatic Society, in the years 1847–1848–1849,Google Scholar writes thus in his “Brief Observations on some of the Pines and Coniferous Trees of the Himalaya,” printed in vol. iv. of the Journal of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India at Calcutta (1845)Google Scholar: “Dr. Royle mentions that in Kumaon Tea is made from the leaves of the shrub Osyris Nepalensis, and this is probably the Green Tea of Bisehur which Moorcroft (Travels, I. 35, 2)Google Scholar describes as being imported into Ladakh under the name of Maun or Bisehur Tea, the produce of an evergreen shrub, 4½ feet high, growing on a dry soil in Kooloo, and Bisehur on the banks of the Sutlej, and especially about Jhagul between Rampoor and Seran. The leaves are gathered from July to November, and after infusion in hot water are rubbed and dried in the sun. They sell at the rate of three seers per rupee and are not much in request. The first infusion is reddish and is reckoned heady; the second, which is used, is yellowish green. The Osyris Nepalensis grows to be a large shrub ten or twelve feet high in the Kotar Khud above Subathoo and between Kussowlee and Kalka, where it is called Krecoontee, Keoontee, and Kuneentee, and also Loonkt. The fruit is known by the name of Peopla or Peopra, also applied to that of Murraya exotica. The natives here use the leaves medicinally, but not, I believe, as Tea. The black Tea of Bisehur, Moorcroft describes as the produce of a deciduous shrub found near Usrung and Leehhee in Kunaur; of which the leaves are pulled in July and August. Usrung is very elevated, for a species of Rhubarb flourishes in the neighbourhood.”
page 135 note 1 In Major Madden's Kumaon Botany Eurya acuminata is mentioned more than once. In a recent work, “The Karens of the Golden Chersonese,” by Lieut.-Col. A. R. McMahon, the Burmese species of Eurya is frequently mentioned as “wild tea.”
page 136 note 1 The future world-wide distinction of this circle was not confined to Canal Officers and men of natural science; for, the late Commander-in-Chief in India, Lord Napier of Magdala, then a young Lieutenant, was Civil Executive Engineer at Saháranpúr. Dr. John Muir, the well-known Oriental scholar, soon after the period of which I am speaking, joined this circle as one of the Revenue functionaries of the district.
page 137 note 1 Subsequently one of the most favourable, though small, sites of Tea, as reported by DrJameson, , in July, 1847.Google Scholar
page 137 note 2 22nd February, 1834.
page 137 note 3 That is, “the lower hills and valleys of the Himálayan range.”
page 137 note 4 A name not unknown to the nomenclature of the Himálayan flora.
page 138 note 1 Ráj-bárhi.
page 138 note 2 Mr. Traill was a member of the well-known Orkney family, and possessed landed property in those islands, but he preferred to lead a quiet life among old Indian friends in London, and died suddenly at the Oriental Club in November, 1847.
page 138 note 3 1836 to 1838, Colonel G. E. Gowan, Bengal Artillery; 1839 to 1848, Mr. G. T. Lushington, B.C.S.; 1848 to 1855, Mr. J. H. Batten, B.C.S., formerly Assistant Commissioner; 1856 to 1877, the present Major-General the Honourable Sir Henry Eamsay, C.B., K.C.S.I., formerly Assistant Commissioner.
page 139 note 1 Now a tea plantation belonging to Mr. J. Richards.
page 140 note 1 This elevation is not correct. The height of Paori itself is not quite 5,250 ft. The tea nurseries at Chopra and Gudolee, in its neighbourhood, were subsequently established at elevations extending from 5,000 to near 6,000 feet above the sea.
page 140 note 2 Dr. Falconer, on 2nd May, 1836, forwarded to the Secretary of the Tea Committee, at Calcutta, a very full Report on the sites of the Five Experimental Tea Nurseries which he had established in Gurhwal (Protected State) and Sirmur (Protected State), and on the condition of the Tea seeds which he had received from Calcutta. I am especially indebted to Mr. Burrell for the use of Dr. Falconer's original Diary and other MSS., and of this first Tea Report, never published, which Mr. Burrell found in the Records of the India Office, and has permission to print.
page 141 note 1 Vide Report on the Progress of the China Tea Plant in the Himálayas, from 1835 to 1847, by Royle, J. Forbes, M.D., F.R.S., London, April, 1849. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XII. Part I.Google Scholar
page 141 note 2 Hawalbagh, near Almorah.
page 142 note 1 Among them their love of pork.
page 143 note 1 Communicated by Government N.W. Provinces to the Agricultural and Horticultural Society, Calcutta, and published in their Journal, vol. ii. no. xii.
page 145 note 1 Formed by Dr. Jameson in 1844, and sold to the Rajah of Sirmúr (Náhn) in 1867.
page 145 note 2 Among other remarks in his first report occurs the following:—“There is no such scarcity of Tea land (i.e. ‘the hilly land, such as the Tea plant delights in’) in these mountains, more particularly in Eastern Gurhwal and Kumaon. It abounds in the districts of Paoree, Kunour, Lohba, Almorah, Kuttoor, and Bheemtal; and I was informed by Mr. Batten that there are large tracts about Gungolee and various other places equally suitable. Much of this land is out of cultivation, while the cultivated portions yield on an average only two or three annas per acre of revenue.”
page 148 note 1 Under orders of Lieut.-Governor N.W. Provinces, dated 31st July 1854.
page 148 note 2 As bearing on my own particular subject, the “Notes on the Cultivation of Tea in Kumaon and Gurhwal,” written by J. Strachey, Esq., Senior Assistant Commissioner, Gurhwal, dated 30th May, 1854, and printed by the Government N.W. Provinces, among other papers of that year, at their Agra Press, may be referred to as a communication of the highest value. While deprecating any artificial forcing of tea cultivation, Mr. Strachey distinctly anticipated the fact of tea becoming a staple produce under the influence of European capital, and he urgently recommended the formation of good lines of road communication throughout the Hill Provinces.
page 149 note 1 Mr. John Thornton, B.C.S. Retired, and Sir William Muir, K.C.S.I., late Lieut.-Governor N.W.P., and, now, on the Council for India.
page 151 note 1 Letter of Commissioner of Kumaon to Secretary of Government N.W.P., 10 Feb. 1852.