452 



THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



TEA. 



MANY and repeated experiments in this country have fully demonstrated the fact 

 that tea can be successfully produced in the southern portion of the United States. 

 These experiments have extended over a period of more than twenty years those 

 of the past few years resulting so satisfactorily as to warrant the belief that the time is not 

 far distant when American soil, and American industry, will supply the demand of our peo 

 ple for this product. 



It may be some time before tea will be cultivated here on a very large scale, but we are 



confident that it can be pro 

 duced by the farmer and 

 gardener, on a small scale, 

 at a much less cost than the 

 imported article involves, 

 while there will be the addi 

 tional advantage of having a 

 pure, unadulterated article for 

 use. Many of the imported 

 teas are, when placed upon 

 the family table, a decoction 

 of various poisonous materi 

 als used in their manufacture, 

 special dyes and chemical 

 substances being applied to 

 change their appearance, and 

 give them the desired color. 

 In Liberty Co., Georgia, 

 there is, according to the 

 best authority, a tea-planta 

 tion owned by Mr. John 

 Jackson, which embraces 

 nearly forty acres, and is 

 occupied by a hundred and 

 sixty thousand tea-plants. 

 Tea has been cultivated in 

 various portions of the South 

 in a small way, for many 

 years. The tea-plant has 

 been found growing wild in 

 the mountainous regions of 

 Assam and Yunnan, and this 

 has led to the opinion that it 

 is a native of this section. 



In its wild state, it grows 

 in the form of a tree, some 

 times attaining the height of 

 thirty feet or more, and its 

 SCKNES IN A BLACK-TEA DISTRICT IN BOHEA. trunk measuring ten inches 



in diameter. In this country, however, it grows as a shrub. It bears at the age of two or 

 three years, and continues to be productive about twelve years. 



