CHAPTER XXVII._The Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea

MANAGEMENT. ACCOUNTS. FORMS.

System and order, a good memory, a good temper, firmness, attention to

details, agricultural knowledge, industry, all these, combined with

a thorough knowledge of Tea cultivation and Tea manufacture, are the

requisites for the successful management of a Tea plantation.

To find men with _all_ these qualities is, I allow, not very easy,

still they do exist, and such a one must be had if success in Tea is

looked for.

Before the work is given out each day, the manager should decide

exactly what is most required, and apply it to that. He should write

down, when distributing the men, the works, and the number employed on

each. This paper he should carry in his pocket, and he can then verify

the men at work at each or any place when he visits it during the day.

The writer, the moonshee, and the jemadar (if there is one), should

write similar papers when the coolies are mustered in the morning, and

the manager should detail to each of these men which work they are

particularly responsible for. This should also be shown in the “Morning

Paper.”

Each of the above men then measures out the work to the coolies; visits

it once or oftener in the day, and measures all that remains undone at

night. A daily report of the work is kept, written by the writer in the

evening.

The two forms given below are those I have adopted. The latter is

suited to local labour paid daily, but it can easily be altered to

suit either local labour paid monthly or imported coolies.

This is the Morning Paper.

===================================================================

_Work to be done on 188 ._

-------------------------------------------------------------------

------+-------------+---------------+-----------+----------+-------

| | | | |

------+-------------+---------------+-----------+----------+-------

Total Coolies |

-------------------------------------------------------------------

The column of “Probable numbers” is given so that before it is known

exactly how many men will be present for work they can be divided in

the most likely way.

Each headman (called “Mate,” “Mangee,” &c., in different districts) is

best designated by a letter or number. In neither form would there be

room to put in names at length.

The form below written in the evening is made into a book for each

month. The advantages of it for after reference are great, and it can

of course be altered to suit the kind of labour employed on any garden.

_Work on for 188 ._

============================================================================

--------------+-------+-------+-------+----+----+-------+-------------------

| | | | | | |

--------------+-------+-------+-------+----+----+-------+-------------------

| | | | | | As.

Total at Work | | | | | | × 3 =

Command | | | | | | × 2-1/2 =

Sick | | | | | | × 2 =

Absent | | | | | | × 1-1/2 =

----------------------+-------+-------+----+----+-------+-------------------

Total | | | | | | × 1 =

------------------------------------------------------

Picking Leaf =

Making Tea =

Tea Sorting =

---------------

Cut =

---------------

Total =

===============

The following is the plan I recommend for the leaf-picking and the Tea

accounts.

The leaf of each picker is best measured in the field, and, as loads

are collected, brought to the factory by one or two men throughout the

day. It entails a loss of time, and further a depreciation in the leaf,

if it is kept long in a close mass in one basket, which is the case

when each picker brings his or her leaf to the factory twice a day. The

pickers are paid so much per basket, holding in any case 2-1/2 lbs. I

find the most convenient plan is to give the mangee in charge of the

pickers tickets of any kind for this, which tickets are changed for

money in the evening. As each load of leaf comes in through the day it

is weighed, and this gives a check on the tickets given by the mangee

or mate. This is the meaning of the two columns in the form below,

“tickets by leaf” and “tickets paid.”

In the form the first column of “leaf results” shows the condition of

the leaf when picked, whether wet (W) or dry (D). Unless this were

noted the proper amount of Teas the leaf _ought_ to make could not be

known, and there would be no check against theft, which is carried on

to a great extent in many gardens.

As explained previously, only the sections ready in each garden are

picked. The sections are not entered in the form, only the number of

the garden. The flushes now noted are the 20th, in some the 21st, or

22nd in others.

The Tea is calculated from the leaf. It should be 25 per cent. if the

leaf is picked dry, and 22 per cent. if picked wet. As each load comes

in a memorandum is made as to whether it is dry or wet, and the figures

in the column “Tea should be” are thus found.

The Tea is weighed the morning after it is made and entered in the

column “Tea made.” The percentage it bears to the leaf is then

calculated and entered in the account column.

After sifting the whole is weighed again, and the result entered in the

column “Tea after sifting.” Doing this is very important, for it checks

theft. Directly after it is weighed this second time it is put in the

bins in the store.

_Daily Leaf and Tea Account._

---------------------------------------------------

TEA RESULTS.

--------------+------+---------+---------+---------

|Tea | | |Tea after

Date |should| | |it is

|be |Tea made |Per cent.|sifted

--------------+------+---------+---------+---------

October | | | |

Sunday, 1st |„ | „ | „ | „

| | | |

Monday, 2nd |198 | 200 | 24 | 199

| | | |

Tuesday, 3rd |231 | 230 | 25 | 233

| | | |

Wednesday, 4th| | | |

Thursday, 5th | | | |

Friday, 6th | | | |

Saturday, 7th | | | |

| | | |

Total for |„ |Mds. lbs.| |

the week | | 1632 | |

--------------+------+---------+---------+---------

----------------------------------------------------

LEAF RESULTS.

-----+--------------+-------+-----------------+-----

State| Tickets | Number| Flushes |

of +-------+------+ of +-----+-----+-----+Total

-----+-------+------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----

220W | | {| 3 | „ | 170 | „ |

600D | 410 |360 {| 5 | 310 | „ | „ |

| | {| 7 | 112 | „ | „ |

| | {| 8 | „ | „ | 228 | 820

| | | | | | |

D | 462 |440 {| 3 | „ | 515 | „ |

| | {| 9 | 410 | „ | „ | 925

| | | | | | |

| | {| 1 | 430 | „ | „ |

W | 200 |180 {| 2 | „ | „ | 160 |

| | {| 3 | „ | 210 | „ | 800

| | | | | | |

-----+-------+------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----

If this system is carried out, no Tea (exceeding a pound or so) can be

stolen without its being at once missed, and the importance of this

cannot be exaggerated. Tea proprietors do not guess _how_ much is lost

in this way. Maunds upon maunds might be stolen in many gardens, and

unless the theft were accidentally discovered there is nothing in the

Tea accounts to show it to the manager.

I have suppositiously filled up the three first days of the form. The

820 lbs. leaf picked on Sunday is made into Tea on Monday. The 198

is written down Sunday evening. On Tuesday morning, when the Tea is

weighed and found to be 200 lbs., that is entered in the Monday line,

as also the percentage. On Tuesday evening, after it is sifted and made

into different Teas, it is weighed again and found to be 199 lbs., and

so entered.

In dry weather after sifting, owing to dust flying off, it is always a

little less. In wet weather, on the contrary, it increases in weight.

In the Tuesday line where “W” shows it was a wet day and the Tea 230

lbs. before sifting it, is 233 afterwards. This is owing to moisture

imbibed, and it is the only objection to sifting daily, whatever

the weather. The advantages of the plan, though, are so great, as

explained, that I put up with this, and practically I do not find it

detrimental. Of course, as previously explained, all moisture is driven

off before the Tea is _packed_. However, to make all quite safe, after

a very wet damp day, the Teas might be re-dried for a few minutes over

charcoal before being put into their respective bins. I do not do this

myself though, and do not think it necessary.

I hope now I have made the above form plain. It is in a book, and each

page will hold one week. The total of the Tea made in the week is added

up and shown at foot, and that amount is then transferred to the credit

side of the Tea store account. Thus (see both forms) 16 maunds 32 lbs.

is credited.

The form given on the next page is also kept in a book, and the total

of right-hand side subtracted from the left gives at any time the

quantity of Tea in store.

_Tea Store Account._

------------------------------------

RECEIPTS

------------+-----------+-----------

| Tea made |

Week ending | in week | Total

on Saturday +-----+-----+-----+-----

| Mds.| lbs.| Mds.| lbs.

------------+-----+-----+-----+-----

Brought | | | |

over .. | .. | .. | 405 | 8

October 7th | 16 | 32 | |

„ 14th| 15 | 0 | |

„ 21st| 17 | 10 | |

„ 28th| 14 | 40 | |

|-----|-----| 63 | 2

| | | |

------------+-----+-----+-----+-----

Carried over | |

------------------------+-----+-----

-----------------------------------------------------------

EXPENDITURE

-----------+--------------+-------+-----------+------------

| | |Tea in each|

Date |No. of Invoice|To whom| Invoice | Total

| | +-----+-----+-----+------

| | | Mds.| lbs.| Mds.| lbs.

-------+---+--------------+-------+-----+-----+-----+------

| | | over | .. | .. | 351 | 14

October| 3 | 15 |-------| 40 | 15 | |

„ |20 | 16 |-------| 33 | 10 | |

| | | |-----|-----| 73 | 25

| | | | | | |

-------+---+--------------+-------+-----+-----+-----+------

Carried over | | | |

----------------------------------+-----+-----+-----+------

Regarding accounts between the manager and his employers, I think they

should be of the simplest kind. If a man _can_ be trusted he _should_

be trusted; if he cannot, no system of accounts will restrain him, and

he should be kicked out. A simple account current, furnished monthly,

showing under few heads the receipts and expenditure, is all that can

be required. It is not by _any_ papers received from a manager that

an opinion can be expressed as to how he does his work, and how the

plantation progresses. A competent person visiting the garden can

easily ascertain, and in default of this, and combined with this, the

only true test is the balance sheet at the end of each season.

Shortly, it is not by the form, the nicety, the detail of accounts

between manager and employer, that success is ensured or even

forwarded. It is, as far as accounts are concerned, by the forms and

_system_ the manager adopts as between him and his subordinates, and

these he should be able to show are good to the employer, or anyone

deputed by him to visit the garden.

The profit shown yearly, whether it is large or small, all things

considered, is, however, the only true ultimate test.