I will now endeavour to draw up a tabular statement of the respective advantages of the various Tea districts as regards climate, labour, lay of land, soil, facilities of procuring manure and transport.
In importance I regard them in the order given. I place labour before soil, because the fact is, in all the provinces suitable and good soil for Tea can be found _somewhere_; and therefore, while soil is all important in selecting a site, it is secondary to labour in deciding on a district. Lay of land comes after labour. When my information on any point is not sure I place a note of interrogation. Where advantages are equal, or nearly so, I give the same number, and the greater the advantage of a district on the point treated in the column the smaller the number. Thus, under the head of Climate, Assam is marked 1.
As the following table gives no information as to which of all the districts possesses the greatest advantages, _all things considered_, but only gives my opinion of each under each head, and the subject closed in this way would be unsatisfactory, I may state that, in my opinion, the choice should lie between the three first and the last on the list; and my choice would be the last.
_Comparative advantages of the Tea Districts in India as regards climate, labour, lay of land, soil, manure, and transport._
+----------------------+-------+------+-----------+----+------+------------+ | Tea Districts |Climate|Labour|Lay of Land|Soil|Manure| Transport | +----------------------+-------+------+-----------+----+------+------------+ |Assam | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3} | |Cachar | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2} Water | |Chittagong | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1} carriage| |Chittagong Hill Tracts| 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1} | |Terai below Darjeeling| 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5} | |Darjeeling | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 6} | |Hazareebaugh | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4} | |Kangra | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 9} Land | |Dehra Dhoon | 5 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7} carriage| |Kumaon | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 8} | |Neilgherries | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4} | |Western Dooars | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1} | +----------------------+-------+------+-----------+----+------+------------+
[7] Note to Third Edition.--I give them, as far as I know, in the order they became Tea districts. Though in the said order there is, I believe, no great error, I may be open to correction in one or two instances.