192 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
TEA, COFFEE, ETC. 
The spreading, glossy, green-leaved, evergreen shrub, Thea viridis, 
( Camelliacee,) furnishes material for an immense traffic throughout the 
world. The native country of the tea plant is uncertain. Hitherto the 
only country in which it has been found in a really wild state is Upper 
Assam; but China, where the plant has been cultivated for many cen- 
turies, has not yet received so thorough an exploration by botanical 
travelers as to warrant the assertion that it is not indigenous to every 
section of that vast country. A Japanese tradition ascribes its intro- 
duction #into China to an Indian Buddhist priest who visited that 
country in the sixth century, which would seem to favor the supposition 
of its being of Indian origin. 
Although it has been introduced into many parts of the globe, it 
has been cultivated more extensively and for a ionger period in China 
than in any other region. It is there successfully grown between the 
twenty-seventh and thirty-second degrees of north latitude, and in 
Japan as far north as the forty-second degree. It is also cultivated in 
the island of Bourbon, at St. Helena, and on a large scale in the island 
of Madeira, at an elevation of 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. It 
_is successfully produced in Java, and flourishes on the Himalaya mount- 
ains. It has withstood the cool summers and winters of the climate of 
Britain, and endures the climate of this country as far north as the 
District of Columbia, where it has been growing for the past ten years, 
and can be grown over a vast extent of the United States, so far as 
climate is concerned; and as regards soil, it is well known that it will 
grow anywhere and on any soil that is capable of supporting currant or 
_ blackberry bushes. 
The black and green teas of commerce are produced from this plant. 
The opinion was at one time quite prevalent that there existed several 
species of Thea, but it is now known that the different sorts in market 
re indebted to artificial manipulations for much of their apparent 
variety and distinctive qualities. Many of the names attached to teas 
are merely descriptive of the locality or country where they are pro- 
duced, the condition of the leaves when gathered, and the mode of pre- 
paring them for market. Thus there is Java tea, Japan tea, and Assam 
tea; bohea tea, from coarse leaves; gunpowder tea, made from the small, 
close-curled young leaves; and green tea, colored to suit its name. In 
the preparation of black tea, the freshly gathered leaves, being partially 
dried by brief exposure in the open air, are thrown into round, flat iron 
pans, and exposed to a gentle fire heat for five minutes, which renders 
them soft and pliant, and causes them to give oif a large quantity of 
moisture. They are then emptied into sieves, and while hot they are 
repeatedly squeezed and rolled in the hands to give them their twist or 
curl. They are next placed in the open air, in the shade, for a few days, 
and finally they are completely dried in iron pans over a slow fire. 
Green tea, when genuine, is prepared in a similar manner, except that 
it is dried with more care, and by a slower process, but the greater part 
of the green tea consumed in Europe and America is colored by the Chi- 
nese to suit the demands of foreign trade. 
There are about a dozen varieties of tea in commerce, but, besides 
the preceding distinction of color, they consist merely of different sizes 
obtained by sifting. The active principles in tea are theine and 4 vola- 
tile oil, to the latter of which its flavor and odor are due, and which 
possesses narcotic and intoxicating properties. it also contains 15 per 
cent. of gluten or nutritious matter, and more than 25 per cent. of tan- 
