'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎163v] (331/610)

292
Stobaeeo.
STeo*
The cultivation of tobacco in Gilan is of increasing import
ance and the crop for 1919 was estimated at 7,000,000 lbs. as
compared with 1,800,000 lbs. in 1910. Prior to 1915 tobacco
was exported from Rasht to Turkey. The price in 1910 was
about 50 krans per poud (36 lbs.).
The industry is entirely in the hands of the peasant classes,
who are ignorant of all modern methods.
In 1919 samples of the different grades of Gilan tobacco (
were sent to London by the British Vice-Consul in Rasht for
examination by experts.
During recent years several tea gardens have been started
in Gilan between Labij an and Imamzadeh Hashim and they
are said to contain about 250,000 bushes.
Further East in Tunakabun on the Northern slope of a low
ridge just South of Khurramabad there are two small gardens :
one of them called Manzariyeh belongs to Sipah Salar. It was
planted about 12 years ago and contains 2,500 bushes, which
appear to flourish with very litfle attention. The leaves are
plucked 3 times in the spring and once in the autumn and the
total annual yield of tea averages about 105 lbs.
Leaves of different sizes are all mixed together and the tea
is very crudely prepared. The leaves are spread out on trays
for 24 hours to dry and are then hand rolled and rubbed for 2
hours when they are squeezed tightly in a pulp into a basin and
left to stand for 4 hours during which its colour changes from
green to brown. The pulp is then removed and spread over
muslin shelves in a chest over a dull fire for 4 hours and the tea
is ready for use.
A refined tea cannot be expected from such primitive methods
and in the spring when freshly prepared it had a green and
bitter taste.
Some of the Lahxjan tea, however, has an excellent flavour,
but, like China tea, is lacking in colour.
The supply is of course very limited and locally it commands
a high price, about 130 krans per 6 | lbs. as compared with
about 40 krans per 6 J lbs. for imported tea.
British officers in Gilan in 1918-19, who claimed a knowledge
of Indian and Ceylon tea gardens considered that Gilan has
great tea-growing possibilities. The whole of the country
from Astara to Astarabad exhibits similar features and if tea
bushes thrive at Lahijan and in Tunakabun, they could pre
sumably be grown all along the lower slopes facing the Caspian*