186 TEA AND SILK FAEMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 



As might be expected, the rainfall and temperature are quite 

 as inconstant, varying in the one instance from 42 inches per 

 annum in Kangra Valley to 252 inches in parts of Darjeeling; 

 and in the other from 53° of mean temperature in the latter to 

 76° in Durrang, Assam. But as the tea-plant grows and 

 flourishes under each and all of these diverse circumstances, 

 there can be no doubt that every zone of cultivation possesses 

 its own peculiar advantages, allied, perhaps, to certain draw- 

 backs, a correct estimate of which will in time indicate to the 

 planter at every altitude what particular sort of shrub he ought 

 to cultivate and which to avoid. 



Although the comparatively temperate climate of China 

 during the spring and early summer is admirably suited to its 

 own indigenous tea, it is not adapted, especially in the more 

 northern districts, for the native Assam plant, the leaves of 

 'which cannot endure much cold, and are apt to shrivel up and 

 wither away on exposure to even a very, moderate degree of 

 frost. On the other hand, the China bush grows well in India, 

 and readily forms hybrids with the indigenous grow^ths ; still, 

 the result of over thirty years' experience by the planters there 

 does not seem in favour of hybridising. Deterioration, probably 

 by reason of the intense heat, appears sooner or later to over- 

 take the Chinese variety. We understand, indeed, that all 

 hybrids have already been uprooted from some of the Indian 

 gardens, and that a feeling is spreading among the garden mana- 

 gers to limit their future cultivation as much as possible to the 

 native shrub, which certainly growls faster and yields more 

 abundantly than the China kind or its hybrids do in the peninsula. 



With these remarks as to the conditions of temperature and 

 rainfall under which tea and mulberry bushes are successfully 

 grown elsewhere, we come to some particulars of the climate of 

 parts of New Zealand, and to the apparent advantages which'invite 

 the establishment of chasericulture there. If any reader of these 

 pages chooses to institute inquiries, he will find that the climate in 

 the interior of Otago, in the Dunstan and Queenstown districts, is 

 like that of Greece, and has been pronounced by respectable Chinese 

 resident on the spot, as well as by observant travellers, closely to 

 resemble that of the tea and silk districts of China. He will 

 learn that the thermometer indicates from 90° to 100° Fahr. 

 nearly every summer ; that as high as 110° have been noted at 

 Alexandra, on the Molyneux Eiver, and several other spots in both 

 islands ; and that the mulberry, ailanthus, and a few other silk- 

 worm-feeding shrubs grow luxuriantly, particularly in the pro- 

 vince of Auckland. It will also be ascertained that throughout 

 this charming province snow is seldom seen, except upon the 

 mountain tops ; that even slight frosts are necessarily a rarity in 

 a land wdiere the forests are evergreen, and semi-tropical fruits 



