I need scarcely, after this, add that I do not approve of Kumaon for Tea. An exhilarating and bracing climate for man is not suited to the Tea plant. The district has one solitary advantage--rich soil. I have never seen richer, more productive land than exists in some of the Kumaon oak forests, but even this cannot in the case of Tea counter-balance the climate. Any crop which does not require much heat and moisture will grow to perfection in that soil. Such potatoes as it produces! Were the difficulties of transport not so great, a small fortune might be made by growing them.
Could any part of Kumaon answer for Tea it would be the lower elevations in the outer ranges of the hills, but these are precisely the sites that have _not_ been chosen. Led, as in my own case, partly by the Government example, partly by the wish to be _out_ of sight of the “horrid plains,” and _in_ sight of that glorious panorama the snowy range, planters have chosen the interior of Kumaon. Some wisely (I was not one of them) selected low sites, valleys sheltered from the cold winds; but even their choice has not availed much. The frost in winter lingers longest in the valleys, and though doubtless the yield there is larger, owing to the increased heat in summer, the young plants suffer much in the winter. The outer ranges, owing to the heat radiating from the plains, are comparatively free from frost, but there again the soil is not so rich. Still they would unquestionably be preferable to the interior.
Labour is plentiful in Kumaon and very cheap--Rs. 4 per mensem. Transport is very expensive. It costs not a little to send Tea from the interior over divers ranges of hills to the plains. It has then some days’ journey by cart ere it meets the rail, to which 1,000 miles of carriage on the railroad has to be added.
Since the above was written, Kumaon has secured a good local market, and I believe sells most of its Tea unpacked to merchants who come from over the border to buy it.
It has also improved its position greatly by making Green Teas, for which, as observed before, the China plant is so well fitted. With those two advantages, though the climate is inferior, I suspect that Tea there now pays better than in Darjeeling.
