184 TEA AXD SILK FAEMIXG IN KEW ZEALAND. 



of the Moyune country in the district of Kiang-Nan, a region 

 in which most of the finest green teas of commerce are produced, 

 and from whence our most copious supplies of the best China 

 raw silk are derived. From another source (Archdeacon Gray's 

 recent work on China, vol. ii. p. 358) we learn that the mean 

 annual temperature of Canton, which is just within the tropics, 

 is that which generally exists over the thirtieth parallel in that 

 country ; and, referring to the usual encyclopedias, we find the 

 figures to be 70-50° of Fahrenheit. 



A glance at the table, opposite the month of March, will 

 show that, while the highest temperature indicated is 65°, or 

 allow 70° for the Moyune district, the lowest reading is below 

 the freezing-point, or say 35° for the same locality. It is during 

 this comparatively cool season, and under the influence of gentle 

 but frequent rains that the tea harvest usually commences. 

 Beginning about the middle of the month, with a variation of a 

 few days, or even weeks in widely separated spots, it may con- 

 tinue in its greatest briskness until the end of June, when the 

 thermometer probably indicates the maximum temperature at 

 102° and the minimum 70° Fahr. 



Among the earliest, if not the very first, of the spring shrubs 

 to burst into foliage is the mulberry, but its available leaf 

 harvest is not commonly much protracted beyond six weeks. 

 During this period in the Canton district seven broods or 

 hatchings, technically called " educations," of silkworms are fed 

 and their silk obtained ; so that, as a rule, the silk harvest is 

 begun and ended ere the serious business of the tea season has 

 far advanced, and the bulk of both these products is secured and 

 their manipulation well forwarded within, or a very little beyond, 

 the currency of the milder months of the year. It is the ex- 

 p)erience, indeed, of many intelligent natives consulted by the 

 writer that the climate of the Chinese tea and silk districts is 

 comparatively temperate during the spring and early summer ; 

 that the country is noted for its salubrity ; and he can say, from 

 personal observation, that the happy, thriving, well-dressed, and 

 healthy appearance of the peasantry and all others with whom 

 he came in contact during those seasons in the provinces of 

 Hounan, Hupeh, and elsewhere, amply confirmed the native 

 statements. Under these circumstances it may safely be re- 

 garded as true that a suitable and profitable tea climate need 

 not necessarily be one involving extremes of heat and dampness, 

 accompanied w4th fever and possibly premature death to the 

 European planter, and that the dismal remarks of some authori- 

 ties on tea planting in India, however applicable they may be to 

 Assam, would be altogether misleading if used in reference to 

 China, Ceylon, and New Zealand. 



In the Island of Ceylon we have additional evidence that the 



