Much controversy has taken place as to the original home of the tea-plant. The modern view is that the plant is probably indigenous to the whole monsoon region of Eastern Asia, notably the Assam-Yunan area.
Climate and Soil.—For its successful cultivation as a crop plant tea requires a warm, sub-tropical climate and a moist, steaming atmosphere resulting from frequent, copious rains. It thrives best in rich, light, friable soils, containing stores of humus, well drained and of good depth. Undulating, well-watered tracts where the rain escapes freely, yet without washing away the soil, are the most valuable for tea gardens. Propagation is from seed obtained from special plants set apart for seed pur poses. The young plants are raised in carefully prepared nurseries and, when about 6 or 8 inches high, are set out in the plantation at a distance of from 4 to 6 ft. each way. Much attention is paid to the cultivation of the soil and the weeding of the plantation.
The value of manures is now widely recognised by planters, and animal, chemical and "green" manures are used.
Pruning.—Pruning is a most important operation and is de signed to produce a bush of convenient size for plucking and to increase leaf-production. Commonly, the plant when one or two years old is cut down to within less than a foot of the ground. The main stem thus removed is replaced by three or four lateral branches which, after growing for two years, are cut back at the second pruning and later themselves bear laterals. Subsequent prunings in India are usually carried out annually, or at longer intervals in Southern India ancl.. in Ceylon. Old bushes yielding poor crops are often "heavy pruned" by cutting down to within 12 or 15 inches from the ground.
Plucking.—A very small crop of leaf may be obtained in the second year after planting out ; in the third year about 1 so lb. of finished tea per acre per annum is obtained in the Indian plains; and by the sixth or eighth year the bushes should be in full bearing yielding from 400 lb. to i,000 lb. of finished tea per
acre annually. In India plucking is carried out every seven to ten days, there being 20 to 3o pluckings during the season. The first plucking or "tipping" is done when the new shoots are about q inches long and with not less than five or six leaves, excluding the apical bud and the scale-leaf at the base of the shoot.
This plucking removes the apical bud and the two youngest leaves and is carried out more for the purpose of inducing further "flushes" (young shoots) from the axils of the remaining leaves than of obtaining leaf. The flushes are taken every seven or ten days. In the best practice the tip of the shoot, including two leaves and the terminal bud, is the standard pluck; one leaf and the bud yields a finer tea, while a pluck of three or four (older) leaves gives a coarser tea. Late in the season a heavy "close pluck" of nearly all leaf growth is commonly taken to secure a heavy crop. The finest teas are produced at high elevations in Darjeeling (India) and Ceylon and in the plains of Assam.