350 
CIIAPTER XIX. 
slimates are foreign to them. This migration, which we have noted as 
being of cardinal importance in industry, raises problems no less serious 
here, particularly in Assam. The causes which lead to this migration 
are essentially the same as those which we have detailed in our discussion 
of the factory industries, but there are at least two important points of 
difference. In the first place, the migration to the plantations does not 
involve a radical change of occupation. The plantation worker is drawn 
from agriculture and in agriculture, though of a different type, he remains. 
In the second place, whereas the factories offer employment mainly to 
men, the plantations are eager to secure women as well as men, and take 
children also. The factories ask for individuals ; the plantations want 
families. 
Plantation Crops. 
The most important plantation crop in India is tea ; next to it, 
but of much less importance, are coffee and rubber. The cultivation of 
cinchona is of importance for the manufacture of quinine. It is almost 
entirely a Government enterprise ; the cinchona plantations in Darjee- 
ling and in South India are owned by the Governments of Bengal and 
Madras respectively, while the plantations in the Mergui district in 
Burma were started in 1923 by the Government of India. Apart from 
cinchona, the total acreage of which is less than 7,000, the other planta- 
tion crops are of minor consequence ; pepper and cardamoms are grown in 
a number of coffee plantations and the latter is very occasionally grown 
in separate plantations. The following figures, which are taken from the 
statistics published by the Director General of Commercial Intelligence, 
show the different planting areas, with the acreage and yield of the 
principal crops and their average daily working strength :— 
Province or Area. 
Total area 
of planta- 
tions 
000 | 
acres. 
Area under 
crop 
000 
acres. 
Pro. 
luction 
000 
bs. 
Average daily 
working 
‘trength (Per- 
manent and 
l'emporary). 
Tea (1929). 
Assam — 
Surma Valley .. 
Assam Valley .. 
Total 
Bengal — 
Darjeeling . 
Jalpaiguri .e 
Chittagong “y .s 
Total 
609 
1.039 
1.648 
158 
288 
28 
174 
145 
285 
430 
8] 
128 
6 
195 
73,784 
185,157 
258.941 
23,009 1 
85,427 | 
1.517 
109,953 
156,489 
400,995 
557,484 
65,522 
125,632 
5,745 
196.899