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 Darjeeling
 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 plantation
 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 plantations

000 |
acres.

Area under
crop
000
acres.

Pro.
luction
000
bs.

Average daily
working
‘trength (Permanent
 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