516 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



or by one of those modern contrivances known as ""Wardian ca?es," which 

 have po facilitated the interchange of the vegetable productions of the globe. 

 It is only Avhen such efibrts are directed by competent knowledge that they can 

 succeed ; and the example of the decided success attending the culture of tea, 

 coffee, and cinchona in India should not be lost upon those who direct similar 

 attempts in our own land. All that has been done for India within the last ten 

 3'ears, it is with regret we say it, and much more than has been done, might have 

 been reached many years ago had scientific inquiry and lilieral and enlightened 

 government gone hand-iu-hand, co-workers, as they should always be, for the 

 benefit of humanity. To transfer from foreign countries vegetable products, 

 whose introduction may serve to increase the activity of trade, foster new forms 

 of industry and enlarge the measure of human comfort and the common weal, 

 is one of the noblest duties of a government ; and the efforts of our own in this 

 cause, though not always wisely directed, should continue to receive the 

 encouragement of all who have it in their power to facilitate its means of doing 

 good, and who have the prosperity of the nation at heart. 



The attempts to introduce the tea plant into the United States have not 

 been as successful as those made in India, nor even as those made in Brazil. 

 The government attempts in the latter country were indeed a failure ; but 

 there exist extensive tea plantations in Brazil, and large quantities of tea, thsit 

 could not be distinguished from the Chinese preparation, have been there made. 

 In the United States the single private enterprise, but indifferently managed 

 and early abandoned, is the only attempt to introduce tea culture of very re- 

 cent date. The experiment of Junius Smith, in South Carolina, in 1848, fur- 

 nishes no evidence of the incompatibility of our climate wdth its successful 

 culture. It was, indeed, attempted in 1772, in Georgia, Av^ith no better result. 

 The tea plants appear to have grown, and to have been perfectly hardy, but 

 were neglected upon a barren soil, to improve A\'hich no effort was made, and 

 the culture gradually languished. It may perhaps be proper to ascribe the 

 indifferent success to the peculiar social condition of the southern population, 

 semi-barbarous, with but few educated dominant minds, averse to improvement 

 or to change of any kind, and especially to the introduction of any culture 

 that would tend to render independent the class of poor landless whites whose 

 elevation would weaken, if not eventually destroy, the power of the "lords of 

 the rice tierce and cotton bale, sugar-box and human cattle." Our more en- 

 larged and accurate acquaintance with the climate of the hilly slopes of south- 

 ern Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, ought to enable us to compare their 

 peculiarities with those known to be favorable to the tea plant in China and 

 India ; and we do not entertain a doubt of the perfect feasibility of introdu- 

 cing the tea culture into those districts, when the sound of conflict shall have 

 ceased, order have been restoi-ed, and the unworthy population of the region 

 displaced by northern patriots, with heads and hands competent and worthy 

 to fulfil the mission that awaits them. That mission we believe to be to re- 

 stoi'e the fertility of the south, redeem the land from the thraldom of ignorance 

 and barliarisra, plant therein the tree of liberty and all manner of trees that 

 the climate will sustain, and rear upon the soil, blessed Avith a genial air and 

 kindly sunshine, the homes of industiy. Christian piety, and purity, and hap- 

 piness, a gracious Providence designed should there arise for His obedient 

 children. 



Our space will not permit us to enlarge upon this very interesting branch 

 of our subject, already extended far beyond the limits originally designed. 

 Those w^ho desire to acquaint themselves with the history of the cultivation 

 of tea in India will read with interest a work on "Tea cultivation, cotton, and 

 other agricultural experiments in India," by VV. Nassau Lees, LL.D., already 

 referred to ; "Two visits to the tea countries of China and the British tea plan- 

 tations of the Himalayas," by Robert Fortune ; ""W^auderings in China," by 



