Tea Advisor
Aspects of Tea Production
Gordon had already sent off enough seed from China to conduct trials. While he was away, the Tea Committee decided that the indigenous tea would probably do better in India. They were also inclined to bring Chinese experts from Yunnan, rather than eastern China. When Gordon arrived in Calcutta, however, they changed their minds, and he was returned to canton once again to recruit experts in tea cultivation and manufacture. The 80,000 seeds he had already sent were germinated in the Calcutta Botanical Gardens. It was decided to distribute them widely to see where they grew best. Twenty thousand seedlings were sent to Kumaon in the foothills of the Himalayas, 2,000 to South India, and 20,000 to Assam.
The Tea Committee deputed a three-man scientific panel to go to Assam. They also asked Lieutenant Charlton to establish a tea nursery at Sadiya, with C.A. Bruce as his assistant. Given the controversy over which one of them had first found tea in Assam, and the Tea Committee's fulsome tribute to Charlton, but with no mention of Bruce's role, it was perhaps a relief to Bruce when Charlton was called away to subdue a rebellion. Not so fortunate for Charlton, however, who was badly wounded and invalided out of Assam. Bruce became the pivotal figure in Assam tea for many years.
It took four and a half months for the scientists to make the arduous journey up to Assam. The tea nursery was a disappointment, since it had been mostly destroyed by cattle. Of 20,000 Chinese plants put out nearby, only fifty-five survived, and they were dying. There were insurrections taking place in Assam and a frightened Dr. Wallich was all for returning to Calcutta. However, M'Clelland and Griffith, the other two members of the panel wanted to continue and a fairly full survey was made.
The scientific panel had been given instruction to find out whether tea was indigenous to Assam, whether conditions there were suitable for establishing a tea industry, which areas would be best, and whether there was any necessity to import Chinese tea seed.
The scientists failed to decide whether tea was indigenous to India. They found tea plants all over Upper Assam south of the Brahmaputra River, but mostly in clumps , as if they had been planted. Since local people harvested and processed tea for drinking, it was possible that they were old plantations, semi-abandoned during the recent years of war.
Tea | By Roy Moxham
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